P86
Interview
PRESIDENT OF WESTERN POWER SPORTS (WPS) CRAIG SHOEMAKER
First of all, what is Western
Powersports and where did it
come from?
Western Powersports is a dis-
tributor selling just to the dealers
in the U.S. We started as a small
distributor [based in Boise, Idaho],
just selling in the Northwest. Now,
we have six warehouses through-
out the U.S. My wife and I are the
third-generation owners. We bought
it in 2000. We've just kept plugging
along as we go. I honestly didn't
have any goals. We just went to
work every day, worked hard and
plugged away.
Our whole goal has been just be
really good at what we do, give re-
ally good service, be really honest,
take care of the customers and just
get our piece of the pie, whatever
that is. Then it just kind of kept go-
ing and going and getting larger and
larger. We've really been blessed.
Since 2000, when we bought the
company, we've never had a down
year, even when the economy had
bad years in '07 and '08. We still
squeaked out a little bit of an in-
crease, so that was good. We've
always been profitable. That's always
good. We just work really, really hard
at what we do.
I'll be honest with you—it's about
the people that have become family.
We have a lot of really good people
that we've been able to continue to
add. You let those people do their
job. I get to steer the ship a little bit,
but I learned at a young age from my
father, hire good people and let them
do their job. It sounds easy, but it's
actually hard to do sometimes to get
out of the way and let them do their
job. Lead them but let them do their
job. It's been really, really good.
I think a lot of motorcycle en-
thusiasts and racing fans proba-
bly are familiar with Fly. You have
a few other house brands, but
Fly is probably your best known.
What year did you guys start Fly?
WPS now has a
large presence
in the AMA
Supercross
paddock. It even is
a co-title sponsor
for one of the
major supercross
race teams that
just won the
Arizona round.
…WE DON'T GO
AROUND AND
BEAT ON OUR
CHEST TOO
MUCH AND
SAY A LOT OF
STUFF. WE
JUST ROLL UP
OUR SLEEVES
AND GO TO
WORK EVERY
DAY…"
