REI's X-TREME SPORTS RETAILING.

• Author: STEVENS, M. EASTLAKE
• Position: Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

REI store manager Bob Voltz sports a shaved head these days, courtesy of a wager. Voltz bet his hair that sales at Recreational Equipment Inc.'s fourth flagship store at Platte River and Cherry Creek would exceed projections. Voltz, a 21-year REI veteran, estimates that first-year sales for the new store will exceed $25 million.

The new store has to do well. Rehabilitation of the Tramway Cable Building, former site of the 99-year-old Forney Transportation Museum, was REI's most expensive. The Seattle-based outdoor goods cooperative spent more than $28 million to convert the building, so dilapidated it had a reputation for dropping the occasional brick to the street below.

The building's infrastructure indeed was crumbling, and rehabilitation required that the brick, stonework, windows and mechanical systems be rebuilt or replaced. Today, it's as solid as Sierra Nevada granite.

REI -- a co-op where customers buy ownership with purchases and receive annual dividends and other shareholder privileges -- may quickly capture the return on its investment, given sales activity. "Bike sales alone are 240% above projections," said Voltz.

"We have the potential to he the largest grossing store in terms of sales," said Voltz. He'd like his store sales to surpass the Seattle flagship store -- a mere 3,000 square feet larger than his 94,000. The two additional flagship stores in Bloomington, Minn., and Tokyo are smaller. With its 50-foot ceiling height and 45-foot climbing pinnacle, the Denver store attracts 4,000 shoppers on an average weekday and 8,000 on an average weekend day.

The location also has a number of specialty shops inside -- camping and climbing, outdoor wear, action sports, bicycles and paddle sports -- as well as departments on books and travel, maps and trip planning, gifts, and an Art Wolfe Gallery. A fly-fishing shop was added in July. REI also repairs bikes and camping equipment, and rents gear for the occasional outdoorsman. A Starbucks rounds out the specialties.

"A flagship store has more products and a larger variety of SKUs (stock keeping units) than a typical REI store," said Voltz, whose store carries more than 10,000 different products, and employs 80 full-time and 270 part-time workers. Each week, it's replenished through two truckloads of goods from the central REI...