Backcountry.com has come a long way since launching in 1997 on 2,000 dollars of capital, with desks begged from the old U.S. ski team offices, and scrounged-up cardboard serving as shipping boxes. In December 2004, the site spun off its sixth online storefront, Dogfunk.com, to cater exclusively to the snowboard market.

“Backcountry.com was carrying an increasing range of snowboard product on top of the original AT {all-terrain}, tele{mark}, and backcountry gear,” says Dogfunk.com Merchandiser and Brand Manager Jason Dyer. “As we added brands like Red, Palmer, and Arbor, it was obvious that our success was driven by a community element, consumer reviews, and feedback. Snowboarding needed a cleaner and more focused environment for its unique community. Dogfunk.com provided an online environment for snowboard culture from where we could sell snowboard product.”

Currently, the lineup of brands on Dogfunk.com has no major omissions in snowboard hard- or softgoods brands. But initial resistance from the snowboard world—due to the Internet’s reputation as a viper pit of discounted product—was present at launch time. The Web’s reach and Backcountry.com’s long history of holding prices until sales agreements permitted otherwise, however, quickly quelled doubts for Dogfunk.com vendors.

“Initially, Backcountry.com was focused on Utah where we were underrepresented at retail,” says Bob Carlson of Arbor, one of the first major snowboard brands to sell to the site. “It helped us open up the region, and now Dogfunk.com makes it an even more comfortable fit for us. They are one of our biggest retail accounts. We treat them like any other buyer, with stipulations that they hold price until February and can’t sell offshore.”

As a private company, Backcountry isn’t saying how much Dogfunk.com brings in but acknowledges sales are far ahead of original targets. Sales during November 2005 were over one-million dollars alone. A reasonable guess would be that Dogfunk.com generates around fifteen percent of the overall group’s recently released figure of 52-million dollars in sales during 2005, while the Backcountry.com storefront generates perhaps 60 percent of sales. Tramdock.com, a ski-only site, generates roughly the same as Dogfunk.com. The remaining 25 percent is divided between Steepandcheap.com (a highly successful closeout store), Backcountryoutlet.com, and Explore64.com—a soon-to-be-closed camping-gear site.

According to Backcountry.com President John Bresee, the sales volume isn’t taken lightly: “I’d put our customer service up against any store in the country. We pride ourselves on getting product to people far faster than they expect. Some of our telephone support guys have been with us four years, and our size and volume ensure constant clinics from {manufacturers’} reps.”

While Dogfunk.com has its own staff for purchasing, marketing, site management, and customer service, many back-end technical and financial functions are duplicated across all the group’s online properties. Located in a mall in Park City, the Backcountry.com head office has a recently moved-in feel and is home to about 75 employees. A further 175 employees work in Salt Lake City offices and at the new 207,000-square-foot warehouse. “There is nothing low cost about successful online retail,” says Bresee. “Fulfillment, Web maintenance, building proprietary software, automated return processes, search marketing—these are all highly expensive and sophisticated undertakings.”

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