Skis, because of size and shape, demand specialized racks for storage. The type of rack you choose should be dictated by your rental objective and physical plant. For a large mass market operation the most effective solution is to hang the skis.
One rack that is simple and inexpensive to build looks like a jail door suspended from the ceiling. To build the rack, suspend a frame six or eight inches below the ceiling. The rectangular frame should be about 3 ½ to 4 feet wide and as long as is needed for your inventory. Next, drill holes in the frame to support bars (old ½” water pipe is cheap). The bars should be placed parallel to each other and perpendicular to the long axis. Space them as far apart as your skis are wide leaving a little room for clearance. If you rent GLM skis, the rack can be constructed in a double decker fashion to save floor space.
To use the rack, tie the tails of the skis together bottom to bottom, stick the tips between the bars and give them a quarter turn. The tips will rest on the bars. The advantage to the rack is high capacity, ease of storage and skis drying without sitting in a puddle. The disadvantages are that the skis in back of the rack don’t get rented at the same rate as the skis in front causing an inventory rotation problem, and thus the tails must be secured before the skis are hung up.
Small shops and shops that rent high performance skis often prefer racks that allow skis to stand on their tails. The best rack is a two tiered platform. The first platform should be 6 inches off the floor and the second about 24 inches. (The height of the higher platform is determined by the distance from the tail of your shortest rental ski to the rear portion its binding.) Next determine what size rectangular hole (about 2″ x 4″) you will need to slide the tails of the skis through. The hole can be determined with a pair of skis held bottom to bottom, allowing about a ¼” clearance all around. Cut holes in the two platforms directly over each other, allowing sufficient space for the bindings.
To complete the rack, place wire screening or narrow stripping on the floor so the skis dry above floor moisture. The advantage this rack is speed in storing and retrieving skis and ease of finding of one particular pair. However, the rack is difficult to construct and does not have high storage capacity.
The storage of boots does not require racks as specialized as those for skis; simple shelves will do. Shelving size is dictated by the height and sole length of the boots and they can be made deep enough for two or three pair, saving wall space. The shelving also can be built as an island, allowing employees or renters access to the boots from either side. This arrangement also improves air circulation.
Shops with multiple rental days (night skiing) often find keeping boots dry is a problem. To speed up drying time, run PVC drainage pipes through the shelves and connect the pipes to a hot air system. Fans circulating the air also help.
The advantage of standing boots on shelves is accessiblity. If space is short, there are two alternatives. The first is using Allsop boot trees. They store more boots per square foot but take more time to use. A second method to save space is storing boots horizontally in a buckle-to-buckle fashion. This saves space above the instep which is lost in storing the boot in an upright position.
The most efficient and easiest way to store poles is as simple as a dowel in a 2×4. This method is the most frequently used, but there are alternatives especially useful for strapless poles. The best solution is to construct piggy back boxes allowing poles to lie horizontially. The floor of the boxes should be built on an angle so there is more room for the baskets than the handles.
One last method of storage is neither particually fast nor space-efficient. Suspend a sheet of plywood and cut long keyhole slots. The hole should be large enough to accept the handle and the slot only wide enough to allow the shaft to pass. This is good for demo shops to store poles in an attractive manner.
Up to this point we have assumed that the skier moves to the equipment: the closer you can bring the skier to the rental equipment the more efficient your operation will be. But your physical plant may dictate that you bring some or all of the equipment to the skier. If this is the case, you may need to construct moveable racks. The best type are, use industrial grade wheels which rotate 360 degrees. Design your rack with a large base and low center of gravity.
