Buckeye Sports Center Trades Snow Sports for Water Sports in Summer

In winter, Buckeye Sports Center is the area’s largest supplier of ski and snowboard equipment and apparel. But if you visit the State Road headquarters store late in the ski season, you’ll get your first glimpse of summer.

Buckeye Sports Center kicks off the summer season with a January boat show and gradually switches the sales floor from snow sports to water sports. “It’s pretty well 99 percent boats by the first of March,” said owner Jim Armington. If you visit today, you’ll find clearance ski apparel next to personal watercraft and flotation jackets lined up where ski pants had earlier been displayed. “It turns over a little in August, but we stay 99 percent boats until October,” he added.

Water sports season also means paring down staff. Armington said he employs about 40 people during the snow sports season and whittles that to 10 for the summer. Two mechanics and the technical and boat sales staffs are employed year-round. A few of the winter retail employees work through the summer cleaning boats and selling accessories, Armington said.

As Northern Ohio’s largest volume boat dealer, Armington has about 50 boats in stock at the headquarters store on State Road, where he sells and services marine products. Although they are happy to custom order boats from the manufacturer, about 85 percent of the watercraft sold – including fishing, pontoon and ski boats and jet skis – is from Buckeye’s stock, Armington said.

Buckeye’s thriving watercraft service department gets busy beginning in March, getting boats ready for delivery and doing preseason maintenance and repairs, he said. Later in the season, the service department is kept busy preparing boats to be stored for the winter, he added.

Fifty years ago, Armington’s father opened the State Road location of Buckeye Sports Center as a general sporting goods store. In 1976, the Armingtons pared down the business to snow and water sports. Satellite locations at Boston Mills and Brandywine ski resorts were added around 1999 and Buckeye acquired Sun Valley Sports in Montrose around 2005. The most recent addition is the Women’s Ski Center in Vail, Colo.

“For 50 years we’ve specialized in those two high service, high maintenance areas. They require a lot of expertise and we do our best to do a good job of it,” Armington said.

Internet shopping has affected many businesses, but Armington said Buckeye offers a low price guarantee on identical merchandise. “These days, you can’t expect people to pay more because you’re the local shop,” he added.

Buckeye Sports Center’s headquarters store, open year-round, is located at 4610 State Rd., Peninsula. Through September, the store is open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday and Thursday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and is closed on Sundays. The store can be reached by calling 330-929-3366.