[Short Interview] Yuki Furuhat, the creator of VOLCOM STORE SENDAI

On November 2024, 11, VOLCOM STORE SENDAI celebrated its 23th anniversary. The person in charge of the store is professional snowboarder Yuki Furuhata. Many people admire her for being able to juggle two jobs, riding and running a shop, and enjoying not only snowboarding but also skateboarding and surfing as a lifestyle. We had the opportunity to conduct a short interview with her.

First of all, congratulations on the 10th anniversary of VOLCOM STORE SENDAI!

Thank you very much.

First of all, Yuki-chan, please tell us what made you decide to start a shop.

I had always aimed to compete in the Olympics in half-pipe, but I had originally decided to devote myself to my competitive life until I was 27 or 28 years old. In the end, I couldn't make it to the stage of my dreams, but life beyond that is much longer. However, I never thought about getting a job from the beginning. So I thought a lot about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to live from now on. I had worked at a pro shop called "Coco Palm" in my hometown (Suwa, Nagano) for about 10 years, so I had the know-how to run a shop, and I thought that if I had a place like a shop, I could use the snowboarding skills I had cultivated up until then. So when Volcom Store Nagoya opened, I talked to Volcom about my desire to run a Volcom store, and that's how I got started. I chose Sendai (Miyagi) as the location for the store because I had been there many times before and had many friends there, and most of all, I thought it was a great place because it was close to the mountains and the sea, so snowboarding and surfing felt close to me.

What kind of shop were you looking for?

To make it a place where customers can feel close to the shop and me. Until then, I had been traveling abroad a lot, so I didn't have many opportunities to ski or talk with regular snowboarders... So I was looking forward to planning various events, such as the Let's Ski Club, skiing with customers, giving advice to participants, and interacting directly with various snowboarders. Of course, I aimed to create a place where customers could feel various connections, not only with snowboarding, but also with surfing and skateboarding, and have an exciting experience that can only be obtained by visiting this shop. Nowadays, you can buy anything on the Internet, but I thought that it was important to see how much added value there is in visiting the shop, and I still think that.

Are we getting closer to that ideal?

I think we are getting closer. Many regulars come to visit us on events, anniversaries, and other special occasions, and the atmosphere there is really good. However, although we are getting closer to our ideal, new challenges are constantly being discovered, and I think we can't be satisfied with the way things are now. Also, I feel that in order to continue enjoying snowboarding as a lifestyle, I need to level up or upgrade myself. This is because there has been a big change in my life over the past 10 years. That is the birth of my child. My child is now 2 years old, and raising a child has made me a lot more adult... Until then, I was fine with being self-directed, but now it's not the case. I've come to think that I need to use my head more and act more, not just based on my image or mood.

So what has changed for you as a rider?

Hmmm... I've become a mother and my time has become less and my way of thinking has become more solid, but I've started to wonder what it means to be a rider. Of course, I still get support from manufacturers, and I'm invited to shoot and do work, but if I think about the whole year, I'm doing a lot more work related to the shop now. Also, the shop owners I've seen have a lot of influence on their customers. So I don't think there's a need for titles like rider or shop owner, or any other line of demarcation. On the contrary, I feel like if we draw a line saying "because I'm a rider...", it will make us more and more closed off. What I can do now is to give my customers various experiences. For example, I think it's important to show a new world to people who are stuck in a snowboarding rut, or to make new suggestions to people who are stuck in a rut.

In that sense, the brand VOLCOM, which covers all 3S of snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing, was important to Yuki.

That's right. Considering that we are promoting and proposing a lifestyle that enjoys the 3S, the brand VOLCOM definitely connects various possibilities and opportunities. For example, it's not uncommon for people around me to want to try surfing after snowboarding, or to meet someone at the beach and want to start skateboarding, or for surfers to try snowboarding. Moreover, I think the reason this happens so naturally is because we chose this location in Sendai, where the mountain is an hour away and the sea is 1 minutes away from the shop.

By the way, which of the 3S are you particularly passionate about right now?

It's always been like that, but it changes with the seasons. Right now, it's definitely snowboarding. It's winter, after all. I don't surf at all in the winter... Ah, maybe I've been skating less recently? Because it hurts when I fail (bitter laugh).

Finally, what do you want to do as Yuki Furuhat in the future?

Even a woman with children can do business properly. Always challenging various new things. Realizing what I imagine. I want to continue being such a cool woman. Instead of doing the same thing as someone else, I do what only a person named Yuki Furuhata can do. I think that's important. However, I'll be 40 next year, so I'd like to live with a little more leeway in various things (laughs).

Yuki Furihata
Born June 1985, 6 in Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, currently living in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. Professional snowboarder. Owner of VOLCOM STORE SENDAI. Sponsored by VOLCOM, BURTON, ANON