Why we started Summit Shred Swap
Summit County is full of gear that sits. Walk into any garage in Frisco, Silverthorne, Dillon or Breck and you’ll find a second pair of skis, a sled that goes out six weekends a year, a splitboard, a bike that’s too nice to sell. Most of it is used a handful of days a season and parked the rest.
I started Summit Shred Swap because I wanted to help my friends here earn a little extra, passively, from the gear they already own. This is an expensive place to live. Rent, groceries, gas, a lift pass — it adds up, and most of the people who make this county run are piecing together a living. If a snowboard can pay for a month of utilities while you’re at work, it should.
It started with me not being able to afford the gear
I wanted to get into splitboarding and mountain biking. I did not have the money to walk into a shop and buy a splitboard, skins, bindings, a bike and everything that goes with it outright. I could rent from a shop, but at shop prices that gets expensive fast if you’re going out every weekend. What I actually wanted was to rent from the friends and neighbors who already had the gear, pay them something fair, and get good equipment while they made a little money on a thing that was otherwise sitting in the garage. That’s the whole site in one sentence.
Try it before you buy it
I’m a snowboarder first, and if I’m honest, a snowboard addict. I’ve bought boards I was sure I’d love and ended up riding twice. Those are usually the popular boards everyone wants to try, and someone on the hill would happily pay to ride it for a weekend before deciding whether to buy their own. So the board earns instead of sitting, the renter gets a real test ride instead of a guess, and I get a little closer to the next board. I have two snowmobiles and I don’t have a turbo sled; what I make renting out the gear I own is going toward a day on one. That’s the kind of thing this is for — the gear you own paying for the gear you want to ride.
For the people renting
The other half is for everyone coming up to ride. A shop hands you whatever’s on the wall for the price on the board. Here you rent the exact gear a local picked for these mountains — the sled that’s been tuned for Vail Pass, the powder board that lives for Imperial Bowl, the bike that knows the Peaks Trail — usually for less than a shop charges, often for a lot less, and from someone who can tell you where to take it.
I’ve watched a big-chain rental counter put a kid’s snowboard bindings on backwards. Nobody who owns and rides their own gear would do that. Renting from a person who cares about the thing you’re borrowing is just a better deal, on both ends.
How it works, in one breath
Members list what they have — a photo, a price, where they’ll meet — and renters book it through the site. Payment, deposits, ID checks and messages all stay in the app, so nobody is handing a stranger a credit card or a phone number. The owner approves the rental, meets the renter (or has a local gear manager do it for them), and gets paid the moment the gear changes hands. A full write-up is on How it works.
Where this is going
Right now it’s Summit County only, on purpose. Hand-offs happen in person, and a marketplace like this works when the people on it are neighbors. The first 100 members to list five things become founding lenders: $50 and no lender fee for a year. If you’re local and your gear is collecting dust, that’s the nudge.
Questions, ideas, a story about a rental that went great or didn’t — I read every one. info@summitshredswap.com.
Adam Nicks
Founder, Summit Shred Swap · Silverthorne, Colorado