ThinkstockAn Eugene-based business that sells skateboards, snowboards, surfboards and associated merchandise is moving to Bend. It's online component has some local board shops concerned about their own businesses.

A new snowboard and skateboard shop will be opening its doors in downtown Bend this week, but at least one local skateboard company has concerns about the new arrivals.

Matt Patton, co-founder of Tactics, which sells skateboards, snowboards, surfboards and associated merchandise online and from its store in Eugene, said the store plans to open its first location outside Eugene on Friday. The approximately 2,500-square-foot store will be located in the O’Donnell Building, at 933 NW Wall St.

“There’s no one in our particular niche downtown, that we’re aware of,” Patton said.

Founded in 1999, Tactics began out of a garage before moving to a storefront in Eugene in 2001. Since then, the company has added a large online component, and Patton said the company currently employs nearly 50 full and part-time employees.

He added that the location in Bend represented a good fit for the company, given that several of the snowboarders the store employs live in Bend already.

Additionally, he said a store downtown will be ideal because of the foot traffic the area receives. Rod Porsche, executive director of the Downtown Bend Business Association, said lease rates for downtown storefronts vary wildly, but that retail spaces on Wall Street tend to rent for more than other parts of downtown due to the amount of foot traffic.

A search of property listings Wednesday showed only a couple retail sites available for lease in the downtown core, for $1.30 and $2 per square foot. The rate dropped to 75 cents per square foot for a building just west of the Bend Parkway.

However, skateboard shop owners in other parts of town are less than pleased with the new competition. Andre Antoniou, manager of SolSk8s, a skateboard store in southeast Bend, said he was concerned that the size of Tactics’ online presence gives it the ability to sell boards at lower rates, and could put smaller local stores out of business.

“They’re just a really large entity with a lot of money to throw around,” Antoniou said.

He added that SolSk8s, which stands for Seeds of Life Skateboard Co., caters primarily to hardcore skaters, and that he was put off by the location and size of Tactics’ store, which he described as “tourist-oriented.” SolSk8s is located at 484 SE Ninth St.

“I’d really like to see the free market within the local community fill the void,” Antoniou said.

However, some local board shops are less concerned. Scott Seelye, co-owner of The Longboard Store in southwest Bend, said around 90 percent of the store’s sales occur online, and added that the Eugene-based store serves a different clientele than his own.

For his part, Patton, Tactics co-founder, rejected the notion that his company is anything other than an Oregon-grown business.

“We take pride in being a specialty store that can compete with the likes of Amazon,” Patton said.

To that end, Tactics hired Adam Gerken, who has worked in outdoor retail in Seattle in the past, to oversee the Bend store. Gerken said that the store would likely focus on snow apparel more than the store in Eugene, but would still sell more skate apparel on the whole.

Gerken added that he had reached out to several local board shops to address their concerns, and see if they could find common ground.

“We’re not trying to put anyone out of business,” Gerken said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com