Teton Gravity Research wants Park City’s pop-up shop to become a community hub

The action sports film company expects the premises to develop into a brick-and-mortar business with a theater and community meeting place.

Teton Gravity Research, the company known for producing terrifying action sports films, embarks on a new adventure in Park City. Instead of focusing on athletes hanging from a cliff by a thread, it will cater to customers who want to wear threads with the mountaintop logo.

On Saturday, TGR plans to open a pop-up retail store at 613 Main Street in Park City, in the former Mary Janes boutique area across from the Patagonia store. The pop-up will remain in place through the fall, when it is expected to be replaced by a brick-and-mortar store in the same location. This will be TGR’s sixth retail location, alongside others in mountain towns such as Bozeman, Montana and Breckenridge, Colorado. The first store opened six years ago in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said co-founder Steve Jones, although he noted that TGR had its own apparel business before producing its first film 28 years ago.

“Right after the cameras arrive, before we even get our first picture,” Jones said. “We sold them this winter.”

The TGR pop-up will sell company-branded hats, sweatshirts and other apparel, as well as its own line of ski goggles and sunglasses. Once the entire store opens, there will be a 1,000-square-foot theater. The theater’s primary purpose will be to be a community space that can be rented for meetings, film screenings and birthday parties, according to TGR retail director Devin Gillette. When none of this happens, it will be used to screen TGR films, known for showing athletes pushing physical and social boundaries in skiing, snowboarding, surfing, climbing, cycling and beyond.

Gillette said she expects athletes from these films to enter and exit the store.

“We want our store to be a place where kids can come and meet athletes,” said Gillette. “Or come by and meet to get to know each other, or come by and learn about skiing and come by and use it as a resource not just for skiing, but for skiing [all] the action sport.”

TGR co-founder Steve Jones said the brick-and-mortar store will anchor the company’s philanthropic efforts in Park City, which are primarily focused on youth athletics and snow sports. Gillette said the company has worked with local nonprofit Live Like Sam, which focuses on young people’s mental health, among others, and also sponsored the recent Running With Ed race, which benefits the Park City Education Foundation.

“We feel like we have a store there that gives us a physical presence in the community,” Jones said. “It allows us to have a much more meaningful integration.”