Multiple generations of people have come to the distinctive brown and red building at 367 West 13th Avenue in Eugene year after year.  But what keeps people coming back isn’t the selection of winter weather clothing and gear, it’s the experience they get at the store.  This is the kind of place where kids run in the door knowing there’s a bowl of candy on the counter and families greet staff who have also been there for multiple generations. 

This marks the 60th anniversary of Berg’s Snow Sport Specialists. The local family owned business currently has its third generation working at it.  During its tenure, the store has remained on the original site and expanded into the buildings around it.  The original owner, Al Berg, ran a Shell gasoline station on the West end of the block and a few years later opened Berg’s Nordic Ski Shop next door.  Al Berg, a Norwegian immigrant, ran the ski shop with his wife and two sons. Together, they earned a reputation for excellent customer service and local expertise.  Dale Berg, the current owner, grew up working in the shop and inherited it from his father with his brother Paul.  They ran it together until Paul passed away in 2010.

Berg has seen many changes to the industry over the past 60 years.  “There were wooden skis when I started” he said.  Berg has witnessed the rise of snowboarding, ebbs and gains in popularity in the sport, and how “skiing has become a lot easier because of the technology.”  It’s just as easy for him to discuss the impact of the shift to overseas manufacturing on their ability to serve customers as it is for him to tell stories about spending his summers traveling to Europe and Hawaii.

As Berg gives a tour around the shop, he points out the phases both the building and business have gone through.  He makes sure to point out the candy dish on the front counter.  The rental shop is located where the gas station used to be.  The cinder block walls still bear the blue and yellow paint of the service station.  The car lifts of the original garage have been long since covered over and the workbench now serves for tuning skis instead.  In the ski shop at the other end of the store which holds the new equipment, Berg talks about the grocery store that used to be there.  In between the ski shop and apparel part of the store, was once an alley between the grocery store and Berg’s.  Now it hosts the snowboard shop.  The current entry to the shop once the site of the carport for the occupants of the apartment above the shop.  The front counter that doubles as the register has pegs on its side to hold skis upright as customers take care of their business.  Red shag carpet from a bygone era still covers the floor.