evo Portland Grand Opening

With the unfortunate departure of Exit Real World from the snow retail game, Portland was probably ready for another shop. Then again, if Exit couldn't make it happen, who would? Long-time Seattle and interweb shop evo, that's who. They opened doors yesterday and here's what the place looks like.

evo Portland sits in the 120-year old Salvation Army building just south of Burnside on MLK and Ash in Portland's Central Eastside (AKA Grand Avenue Historic District, who knew?), mere blocks from Burnside Skatepark. Historic wasn't good enough for evo, though, they went ahead and painted the building blue. You'll have to take my word for it, I didn't get any shots of the exterior. Speaking of the outside, they have a few parking spots on-site, so you don't have to pay for street parking. Or not pay, like I did, and hope you don't get ticketed, like I didn't. Let's go in, shall we.

evo occupies that space between core shop and big box. I'd call them a big core shop. Not US Outdoor big, but close. If you didn't know that Exit Real World exited the snow space, you'd be really confused in evo because damn near everyone who used to work at Exit works at evo now. They sell snowboard, ski, surf, hell they even sell bikes. It is Portland, though. Mise, amiright? The even have a little dedicated art space currently housing skier Eric Pollard's goods. Here are some pics, so you can see for yourself.

The 'Best in Breed' section: a curated selection of the finest goods.

Everybody's got a rotating art exhibit, evo included.

Uncle Jack's Tech Shop. This is the entrance to the tuning center. Creepy?

Still on the main floor: outerwear.

Upstairs: Hardgoods (bar and balcony behind me)

Balcony entrance and bar. Seriously. OK, maybe just for the grand opening.

Stop by this weekend for some cool grand opening parties including brunch cooked by Eric Pollard on Saturday morning. Find out more details at evo's website.