Porters

Our roots go all the way back to 1951 when Warren Porter opened a small clothing store in Tahoe City, CA less than 100 yards from Lake Tahoe. The more official beginning, though, is 1960. That’s when the Olympics came to Squaw Valley. It’s also when the Kahn family bought the business and introduced winter snow ski products to the mix. 1982 saw the addition of snowboards – making us one of the older snowboard shops in the country. It was also the year we opened our Truckee store. The “Dam Outlet” and the Incline Village stores came about in the next decade.

In 2002 – after 42 years of ownership – Porters changed hands to the Chapman family. Under the direction of our fearless leader “Chappy,” Porters set off to do something basically unheard of back then – and even still today. In short, as a shopper, depending on whether you ski or you snowboard generally means that you have to go to two separate shops or websites. Sure there are places that sell skis that also sell snowboards. But can you find limited edition Burton snowboards there? Limited edition Burton boots, Burton bindings, or Burton jackets or Burton pants? Can you buy Volcom there? Holden? Airblaster? Neff? Kr3w? And can you get those sweet Armada or Line or Lib Tech NAS skis at the same place with your Spacecraft Jet Pack?

In Tahoe, at least, the opening bell at KT-22 on a bluebird powder day is littered with skiers and snowboarders alike – all drooling in unison for that natural high a powder turn gives you. They also drool together in the pipe. In the park. In the backcountry. At Le Chamois with July for a beer. At Zenbu late night getting’ their groove on. Andy Finch and Michelle Parker? Jeremy Jones and Sean Field? Nate Holland and CR Johnson? Sure we’ll poke fun at one of our friends from the “other side” occasionally, but ultimately we’re all part of this bigger community where snowboarders and skiers alike all down for riding, for progressing, and for sharing killer times together.

That’s Lake Tahoe. That’s Porters. And that’s us and all of our friends in a nutshell. We’re the world’s largest, rider-owned ski and snowboard shop actually located in the heart of the Sierra Nevada mountains around the breathtaking and world-renowned Lake Tahoe. We know you that you have many choices of where to buy your skis, snowboards, boots, bindings, jackets, pants, and everything else – and much appreciate choosing Porters and porterstahoe.com to help you out!