Glenwood Springs has been missing a certain type of community connection since the legendary Gear Exchange on sixth street closed. 

Robert Fishman, manager and ReplayGWS co-owner is stepping up to fill the role and help the Glenwood Springs community access valuable and affordable sporting gear. 

The store on Grand Ave. is committed to supplying every member of the community with sporting gear, trying to fill the glaring void created by the absence of the Gear Exchange. 

“Honestly I started this place because I started to run out of room in my garage,” Fishman said with a smile. “I partnered with Brad, the owner of Aspen Replay Sports, because he has a lot of business knowledge and I have a lot of gear knowledge. There has been a void in the community ever since the Gear Exchange went out of business, everyone has had to drive to other places for gear. There was a real itch in the community for this type of business.”

ReplayGWS will host a grand opening on March 8 and 9 with food, drinks, games, prizes, and a store wide 25% discount cherry on top from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. over the weekend. 

“The store is just going to eat the deficits, because we want to get as many people in here as possible. We want this to be a community spot, we’ll have food and drink and fun,” Fishman said.

The store ran a soft opening in February and the community has already shown the need of a sporting consignment store in Glenwood Springs. 

“We want to get people outdoors without having them pay an arm and a leg to get out there,” Fishman said. “We want to make this a community spot, and we want to keep stuff out of the landfill. By recycling gear, we can accomplish all three of those goals.”

According to Fishman, the biggest constraint for youth in many sports is price and access to equipment. As kids sprout like weeds, their gear only gets a year or two of use before becoming too small.

“You know how fast they grow,” Fishman said. “It’s great because they can get skis here and then they can bring them back and get a taller pair when they outgrow the initial pair. They can go through their whole growth without actually having to buy a pair of new skis.”

Fishman said he can already feel the community’s need and is already growing his clientele. 

“I’ve already gotten a ton of support,” he said. “My client list is already huge from people who have already cosigned stuff. Everyone is just so excited that they don’t have to drive anywhere and they do consignment right here in town. Everything is priced very fairly and we’re always taking donations.”

ReplayGWS opened in the heyday of winter sports, but will take on a different face when spring and summer begins to show their face. Right now, ReplayGWS is selling any and all types of winter sporting gear, from hockey sticks to snowshoes.