The Swap Tent is up in Kirkwood and our Swap Center is ready in Columbia and we are accepting used items during normal business hours through Friday, April 13 at 5 pm.
Are you ready to swap? The Midwest's largest outdoor gear exchange begins Friday, April 13 in St. Louis and Columbia
Bring in your bike and your kayak, or your skis and snowboard along with camping gear and that jog stroller you haven’t used lately. Throw in a few pieces of clothing and your ready to roll. Your first ten items are absolutely free to enter into the Swap. After the 10th item, each additional item is $1. To help reduce your check-in time, please download and print this form, fill it out as much as you can and bring it with you.
To thank you for participating, everyone who checks in used gear receives a coupon good for 20% off one clothing or footwear item on that day!
Alpine Shop Kirkwood is decked out in paddling imagery and there’s a big tent in the front of the parking lot filled to the brim with canoes and kayaks.
Boats, boats & more boats. Must be the Great Canoe & Kayak Event!
Yes, we agree – it’s a beautiful sight.
Tonight, Friday, March 2nd, we host the Missouri Premiere of the Reel Paddling Film Festival for the first time here in St Louis. There are still some remaining tickets, but not a ton. If you’re interested in what should be a great night of paddling flicks, we definitely recommend you come by tonight. Films start at 8 pm. Seating is first come-first served.
The Book Area theater is already set up and ready to go for this weekend's programs and activities
Tomorrow, Saturday, March 3rd, our full plate of programs throughout the day will begin at 10:30 am and go all the way through till about 6 pm when our Paddlers’ Party takes us through to our store close at 9 pm. You can find more information on all of this here.
Also don’t forget about our Boat Auction which takes place at 2 pm on Saturday. If you’re interested in selling your boat, you can bring it in to our Kirkwood store between 9 am and 1:30 pm.
Finally, one of the best parts about this event is all the local groups and organizations that will be with us all weekend long looking forward to speaking with you about activities on the water this year. We’re pleased to welcome the following:
Aker’s Ferry Canoe Rental
Author Bob Myers
Camp Manitowa
Gingko Adventures
The Great River Rumble
Missouri Whitewater Association
River Hills Traveler
St. Louis Canoe & Kayak Club
St. Louis County Parks
Webster Groves Nature Study
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Last month, Alpine Shop was named national Retailer of the Year for Growth in Outdoor Sports by the industry experts at SNEWS and Backpacker Magazine. In honor of this, Alpine Shop invited our loyal customers from the past 38 years to come celebrate with us on Saturday, February 25, 2012 at all three of our locations.
Food and drink started to go fast as soon as 1 pm came around at Alpine Shop's Customer Appreciation Day to celebrate their recent Retailer of the Year Award.How fast could you pack your bags? The Eagle Creek Bag Pack Test brought out the competitive streak in some customers.Alpine Shop Programming Director Marty Koch discusses upcoming clinics and events. Because our Retailer of the Year Award was so closely tied our programs and events, we had tables set up around the store to find out more information on getting outside in 2012.
This November 26 is a big day for everyone at Alpine Shop. It’s the second annual Small Business Saturday, when people across the country come out and shop to support their favorite local businesses. We recently celebrated our 38th birthday here in the St Louis area and we look forward to serving your outdoor adventure needs for 38 more!
To celebrate this day, we will provide $50 in Alpine Shop Cash to the first 25 people to walk through the doors of any of our three stores. This Alpine Shop Cash will work pretty much like cash (with some exceptions) and will only be good on Small Business Saturday, 11/26, during normal store hours. You can also get a one-time $25 statement credit from American Express when you use your registered or linked American Express Card on Small Business Saturday to make a purchase of $25 or more at a small business.
UPDATE: As of Sunday, December 5, we are up to 800 coats collected. So, we are extending the deadline to this coming Sunday, Dec. 11. You have one more week to donate a gently used coat or sweater at any of our stores and receive a 15% Off coupon for one clothing item for each and every coat you donate. If we get the same sort of response this week that we did just this past weekend, we may get over our 2000 coat goal and pull names for four $100 Alpine Shop gift cards.
In November of 2010, Alpine Shop decided to put a call out to the St. Louis and Columbia communities with one goal in mind: collect 1000 coats in 30 days to donate to those in need during the winter months. We had gathered 373 jackets the year before and had been dismayed to discover just how many people were still left out in the cold.
The response last year was nothing short of amazing. Over 2000 coats, jackets and sweaters for all ages and genders were donated at our three stores. Here’s some footage from last year’s efforts:
The 2011 Drive Begins Monday, November 14
This year, once again, we’ve teamed up with the national organization One Warm Coat to help collect clean, gently used coats. And this year, we’ve raised the goal to 2000 coats. Except, we’re going to try to do it in less time than ever before. Last year, we were still trying to collect coats when one of the worst cold-snaps of the year hit us. We don’t want that to happen again. So this year, we’ll be collecting for 21 days—from Monday, Nov. 14 through Sunday, December 4 at all three Alpine Shop locations.
To help reach the goal, Alpine Shop is offering a free coupon for 15% off the purchase of a new jacket or clothing item in their stores for every jacket or sweater donated. If we hit our goal of 2000 donated coats, Alpine Shop will celebrate by giving away $100 gift certificates to four lucky coat donors.
Alpine Shop has made donating simple. Just bring your clean, gently used coats and jackets to any Alpine Shop location. Bring your coats inside the store and check them in with one of the store’s outfitters to make sure you receive your coupons and get entered into the drawing. Then, Alpine Shop and One Warm Coat take care of the rest. Donated coats will be split among organizations in St. Louis, including: Sunshine Ministries, St. Patrick Center, Coats for Kids and Edgewood Children’s Center.
“As much as we love being outside, we also know this time of year can be hard on families struggling to simply stay warm,” says Russell Hollenbeck, Alpine Shop owner. “We know our communities will do everything they can to help. We’re just trying to do our part.”
About One Warm Coat
One Warm Coat is a national non-profit organization that supports and encourages coat drives. It helps individuals, groups, companies and organizations across the country collect coats and deliver them to local agencies that distribute the coats free to people in need. More than one million coats have been provided to those in need at no cost since its inception in 1992.
The best laid plans and all of that… Due to Cardinal Circumstances beyond our control (and evidently beyond the Rangers’ control as well), we have decided to reschedule the entire slate of the Ski Like a Girl Weekend activities. If you already signed up for a custom fit with us this weekend, our Certified Pedorthist Angie Bono would love to take care of you at your scheduled time – as she does for hundreds of other customers – according to the same principles of Jeannie Thoren’s Thoren Theory.
NOTE: Friday Night’s Reception has been canceled due to the Cardinals’ miraculous comeback that has forced Game 7 of the World Series. Refund information will be updated Friday morning. Custom fits during the weekend are all still on schedule.
Ladies, does this sound like you?
Do your skis wander or cross? Do your heels lift up in your boots? Do your feet move in your boots? Do you lean back on your skis? Do you fatigue easily? Do your feet get cold or tired? Do you ski “Knock-kneed?”
Guess what? It’s not you. It’s your equipment!
Known throughout the skiing world, Jeannie Thoren is one of the world's foremost experts when it comes to women's ski equipment.
Women’s ski expert Jeannie Thoren will be on hand for Alpine Shop’s Ski Like a Girl Weekend beginning with our reception and program Friday night October 28 at 6:30 pm to help you find answers to your skiing questions.
Thoren is a living legend of the women’s ski movement. A competitive skier herself back in the late 1960s and 70s, Thoren was one of the first to notice that the physical differences between men and women required completely different ski equipment. Over 40 years of work in the field have finally seen Thoren’s expertise adopted by the ski world; but it still requires experts in the field that understand the principles of the Thoren Theory to make sure your equipment works perfectly for you. On Friday, Oct. 28, she’ll explain exactly what you need to make sure you’re ready for the ski season ahead of you.
Letter from a satisfied customer from one of Jeannie's previous visits.
Thoren is no stranger to Alpine Shop, either. She has made the trip to St. Louis to work with our customers numerous times. And she has helped hundreds of them go on to be more confident and more comfortable skiers.
Tonight, we open the tent for Alpine Shop’s 18th Annual Winter Swap at 7 pm. One of the best parts of this day is watching the line of excited people grow around the side of the building. Here’s some time-lapse footage from last year’s Winter Swap to give you an idea of what we’re talking about.
Enjoy! (And we’ll see you tonight. What time are you getting here?)
Most of the time during Swap week, we can’t give you any sort of real peek at the secret holdings of the Swap Tent until Thursday or so. That’s because we haven’t started accepting used gear from our customers until Wednesday morning. This year, however, two things have really changed all of that for us and for you: First of all, we opened up the check-in process on Monday, and secondly, we’re accepting both our traditional winter gear AND our traditional spring gear for the first time ever at the same Swap.
And that means, that this Tent Preview: Wednesday Edition actually can give you a pretty good idea of just how big the 2011 Winter Swap will be.
