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Show Cole Sport Opens At Resort l.iiiwinir Y - 1 ' I , ' f -- ,, , I ' Grand piano, a selling point at Cole Sport, LTD by Teri Gomes Seated at the black lacquered lacquer-ed concert grant piano is a young man who just wandered wander-ed in off the street. He is playing his own cool jazz and a bit of Billy Joel's. In the back of the room, on the floor, sits store designer Byrce Butler. The piano as a magnet has jworked and the stage is set for the most unique sports shop in the Rockies. When Cole Sport, LTD. opened this week it was a dream come true for well-known well-known part time realtor, 'part time actor and long time skier, Gary Cole. With the help of innovative young designer from Seattle and the buying talents of Park City's own . Jacquie Jackson (her store, Park Ave.) Cole has put together a shop that shows off top quality merchandise mer-chandise like a good set highlights the actors in a play. And that was the ; point. Designer Bruce Butler ex- . plains: "Gary and I met - through his sister-in-law in -. Seattle. I was doing some work for their clothing shop there and he talked to me about opening a unique kind of ski shop. The piano was I , actually the first idea we came up with and the rest of the staging just naturally came around that. I'm madly attracted to black and white for store design - the colors are dramatic and that makes a good design to accent the merchandise." On a research trip for the Park City Village project over a year ago with partner Jack Davis, Cole looked at a number of well known ski shops in Colorado. There was an element of the sport missing in those shops and when Gary conferred again with Butler the designer agreed. . . For both men, skiing represented the best in high tech. People who " ski t are generally in great condition, wanting good equipment to help insure an exhilarating experience. The challenge came in creating a space to represent all that; Both men-knew men-knew the competition in the industry is fierce, but they fought the urges to do safe designs-flannel walls and old English antiques - and opted ' instead for a store that felt like skiing - fast, sleek, and high tech. The result is spectacular. Heavy metal springs hang suspended form the ceiling with a ski balanced inside as a display piece. The very look says "zoom." Pieces of radio tower line the walls and the ceilings and display the largest turtleneck selection in town. More than forty well lit boxes display the latest in ski goggles, back lit in a way that says, "pick me." And in the center of the room is the spectacular concert grand piano - the perfect accent. Gary has taught and supervised super-vised skiing for a number of years. Besides his music (he has a Masters degree in music with a concentration on vocal performance), ski-' ski-' ihg is his love. While he has enjoyed the past few years being a partner in the development of the Park City Village, it has only fueled his desire to do his own thing and return to the ski world. "That's why I moved to Park .City. That's why a lot of people moved here. Sitting in an office all day waiting for the phone to ring was far away from that." Cole has carefully selected the most professional ski ? staff, whose ability to service the customer is balanced by ' their own love of skiing. Personable Debby Tapp , serves as manager for Cole 4 Sport and the lovely blonde seems the perfect choice. Should there ever be a slow moment at the shop she and cole could sit down at the piano for a duet. Debby will portray Mirian the librarian in the Egyptian Theatre's upcoming performance of "Music Man". And Gary was most recently seen on stage in "Side by Side by Sondheim". Well-known Parkite Jacquie Jackson has served as consultant ana buyer since the inception of Cole Sport. She has thoughtfully put together the finest European brands, Peter Skeinebronn, Fila and HCC, in perfect balance with trusted American Ameri-can lines - Obermyer, Powder Pow-der Horn and Gerry. Gary has used his own knowledge of Utah's legendary legen-dary powder to select the right equipment for this mountain; Look for Atomic, Dynastar and Kneissel ski s to be well suited with Lange, Salomon and Nordica boots. Bill Witt is longtime friend of Cole's who Gary boasts has the perfect temperament for handling the rental shop. "Bill is unflapable." And located within the walls of Cole Sport is a full service ski 'center run . by locals Jake Poot and Tim Gaebe. Expert care will be given here when you need your .skis mounted or tuned. And if all that weren't enough, Cole Sport has an , overnight ski check room for up to 300 pairs of skis, and you don't even need to have gotten your equipment there to check your things overnight. over-night. Coin operated boot lockers are all a part of the package making it convenient con-venient to check your equip ment at the hill overnight. Cole Sport is a dramatic new store-high tech, professionally profes-sionally staffed, with a great selection of the best the industry has to offer. It's the stuff stars are made of... |