"It's a good life," says Underworld owner Alex Bastide, who resides in Vancouver but bounces back-and-forth to his eastern retail operation. "I fly to Montreal about 10 times-a-year. Other than that, I can stay on top of things for both stores thanks to the Internet, and thanks to the Blackberry [laughs]. I'm so thankful to have great staff both in Vancouver and Montreal."

Bastide's UW has embarked on an adventurous expansion pattern over the past year (see The Underworld Timeline below), and most recently moved into some impressive new digs on 1043 Granville Street, downtown Vancouver. In early February 2010, the store hosted a party to show off the DC/UW "Match Mid" collab shoe commemorating the 14th anniversary of Underworld.

"Our focus is always going to be on skateboarding – organizing contests, and staying involved in the community," the 34 year-old says about the driving force behind the shop's Vancouver operation.

The Underworld Timeline
-Underworld first opened in 1995 on Millen Ave. in Montreal as a small record store that sold some skate gear. By 1996 it grew into a full skateshop with a small punk and hardcore music venue (which was later replaced with a private indoor bowl).

-In 2000 he opened up a second Underworld location on Saint Catharine St., downtown MTL. Underworld-shop.com launched in 2002, becoming one of the largest online skate retailers.

-In 2004, UW expanded to Vancouver opening a high-profile store downtown, on 860 Granville St., next to the Commodore Ballroom.

-Both the Millen Ave. and Saint Catharine UW stores in MTL closed down in 2008, making way for a new location: an impressive 16,000 square foot, 3-floor retail operation and 300-person all-ages concert/event venue on 251 Saint Catharine East (hit this for the profile in Know?Mag, Issue 7/summer '09).

-By December 2009, a new 3,800 square foot UW store opened on 1043 Granville in Vancouver, eventually phasing out the original Granville location.

Why did you choose to relocate down the street on Granville in Vancouver?
Alex Bastide: The main reason for the Vancouver expansion was that the original store was getting too small for us. We also needed to update and redesign the store, and we wanted the hardgoods section to be bigger and better represent what Underworld is all about. Now we have a full 800 square foot skateshop downstairs where people can hang out, burp, watch skate videos, set up boards, and have the space to do their thing. The feedback has been really good about the new Vancouver store.

There's an impressive amount of boards down there...
We keep 238 boards on the wall, with a huge brand selection as well as Underworld wood as our lower price point boards. This year, we're actually going to have special signature Underworld models for Chad Dickson and Dustin Montie here in Vancouver, and Oliviero Fontana in Montreal.

Do you still run the brand segregation feature with the softgoods at Underworld?
We're still on that program, but the look of the merchandising is completely different than the old Vancouver store. The softgoods are on main floor of the new store, which is 3,000 square feet. Nothing is fixed to the walls, except for the brand logos at the top, so we can reconfigure the sections however we want. We're all about working closely with the brands and really representing their full program in the store. I'd say we work with about 14 shoe brands, 20 men's apparel brands, and about 10 women's apparel brands.

UW has a big national team. Who's on the Vancouver roster?
Our national team is at about 25 people. I think it's important to have a solid team and it's cool to have them representing Underworld. We're obviously focusing on the team riders who are working on video parts and magazine coverage, so the main feature of an Underworld contract is the photo incentive program. In Vancouver, the team is Chad Dickson, Lee Saunders, Dan Redmond, Hayden Kelly, Jamin Shepit, Micky Papa, Dustin Montie and Arte Lew.

You tend to employ team members a lot. Who do you have filling roles on the west coast?
We've hired Dustin Montie, Chad Dickson and Jorden Murray at the new Vancouver store. It's good for kids because they can come in and meet the guys they recognize from magazines and videos, and see that they're just down-to-earth people who have fun on their skateboards too. Chad and Jorden are part of the sales staff, and Dustin is our hardgoods buyer and team manager. He'll be doing some marketing with me as well.

You're known as a tireless marketer. What are some of the more recent UW initiatives that have taken place in Vancouver?
We love to throw parties, and guerrilla marketing is something we've always done – posters all over the city; stickers in the streets; UW flyers at all the events; going to a park on a Sunday with the team to skate and give some product to the kids. Obviously, a big part of our marketing is through all the skate events we do. The biggest news about that right now would be the qualification series we're doing for Am Getting Paid this year. We're holding qualifiers in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. The winners will get golden tickets to the semi-finals of AGP, and they'll get flown to Montreal and put up in a hotel for the big contest.

Click here to visit the Am Getting Paid 2010 blog, and here for the Underworld blog.

-----------------------------
Related:
Underworld Goes Up-Country
emerica Signing At Underworld (video)
Why Bother?: Alex Bastide