Vermont Skateboards are on sale at Boardshire, a new store that opened at 29 Park Street in Adams. (Sarah Howard/North Adams Transcript)
Wednesday December 5, 2012

ADAMS -- A new business on Park Street recently held a soft opening right in time for the holiday season.

BoardShire is a small board "boutique" that specializes in regional brands for anything to do with boards: snowboards, skateboards, longboards, balance boards, freeboards and wakeboards. The store also carries basic apparel, such as shirts, sweatshirts and neck warmers, as well as snowboarding videos.

Owner Chris Vincent said that everything in his store is made in America and that all the brands are from regional shops. Some brands he carries include West Dover, Vt.-based Snug Life Apparel, film and clothing company Backwoods, of New Paltz, N.Y., and New Haven, Conn.-based Crispy Whips skateboards and snowboards.

"I wanted to go about it a different way," Vincent said about opening the store, adding that he wanted to pass his friends' companies on as well.

"I had a dream we had a shop and this is something I want to do," said Vincent, who spent time as a professional snowboarder and a professional wakeboarder. "This is what I live, this is what I love."

Vincent said the shop became a reality so quickly that he has no problem filling the shelves, and that everyone in town has been positive. He doesn't know how much of a destination BoardShire is going to be, but he thinks people will be interested.

"Stimulating local growth and maintaining a steady economic revival is the overall idea," Vincent wrote

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in a handout. "Bringing local money and a local focus to the town of Adams is the main goal of the shop after opening."

As for competition with similar businesses, Vincent says that prices are low enough because the merchandise comes right from regional enterprises.

"I'm not stepping on anyone's toes," he said. "I don't have what everyone else has and no one else has what I have."

Although Vincent has had entrepreneurial ventures in the past and has run a couple of small businesses,

Chris Vincent has opened Boardshire, a small board boutique, at 29 Park St. in Adams (Sarah Howard/North Adams Transcript)
this is his first business excursion on his own. He went to school for computer technology, worked for IBM in Colorado, spent time in hotel management, has been a part owner of a DJ business and once even worked as a lobster salesman.

Vincent, now residing on Stratton Mountain in Ver mont, grew up in the area and remembers hiking the Thunderbolt Ski Trail before school. He was gone eight to nine years making contacts before he realized the North east had everything he was looking for and that it was time to rediscover the area.

"Why not Adams?" Vincent said. "Adams is a really good center point for everyone."

A grand opening will be coming soon, tentatively planned around Dec. 15, Vincent said.

The essentials

What: BoardShire

Where: 29 Park St., Adams

Offering: Snowboards, skateboards, longboards, balance boards, freeboards, wakeboards, basic apparel, snowboard videos

Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week; closed Mondays

More information: 413-776-7022. Website and Facebook page coming soon.