SUPERIOR, Colo.—If you see Sam Gambee walking the halls at Monarch High School, ask him for a business card.
Sure, he’s 14 and only a freshman, but he already owns his own business, Slam-Gear, which offers wooden sunglasses and an assortment of belts, watches, dog collars and wallets made from brightly colored silicone rubber.
He just opened a storefront for Slam-Gear next to the Safeway in Superior.
“I’ve been a pretty hard worker and always worked hard at school,” Gambee said, sitting at his shop’s simple counter and snapping on to his wrist one of the watches he sells. “I’ve always wanted a job.”
Gambee at first followed the traditional labor-seeking route for a teen, trying to land a gig at a restaurant or retail store, but no one wanted to let a 14-year-old work because of the labor laws that come with it.
With the help of his parents, Gambee formed his own company. Through connections at his church back in Michigan, where his family lived before moving to Superior in August, he landed Woody’s sunglasses as a product line to sell. And after meeting an Aspen entrepreneur at the Taste of Colorado who was looking to unload her line of silicone-based clothing accessories, Gambee amassed enough inventory to go off on his own.
He built a website at slam-gear.com and took a bunch of belts ($25), sunglasses ($50 to $100), wallets ($15), and watches ($15) to last month’s Colorado Ski & Snowboard Expo to see how they’d do. In less than three days, Gambee sold $3,000 worth of products.
The silicone rubber material makes for head-turning snap-on wristwatches, easily adjustable belts, which come with a choice of interchangeable buckles, and water-repellent dog collars that don’t smell like wet canine as soon as Rufus hits the creek. Gambee said the rubber wallets are particularly popular with cyclists, who often find themselves bagging their leather money carriers so as not to drench them in sweat, the Boulder Daily Camera reported ().
The sunglasses are made of bamboo and layered maple and are surprisingly strong for being so light.
While he has been selling some Slam-Gear items online, Gambee and his father felt the best way to get the word out about the company, especially during the holiday season, was to open a local bricks-and-mortar outlet.
They tried for a kiosk at FlatIron Crossing, but they needed an arrangement where they could better manage their hours. After all, the contact page on slam-gear.com states: “If you want to talk to Slam… Just let us know what’s up and he will call you after school.”
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Information from: Daily Camera,
