About Us

Twenty-five and feelin’ fine. In 2020, UNLTD Boardshop celebrated its silver jubilee as a snowboard, skate, and lifestyle shop in the Bow Valley. To kick off the big anniversary, they rolled into the new decade with a recent renovation on their Banff Avenue store.

Of course, this modernisation is a crowning achievement in UNLTD’s history, but the team says their biggest success is the culture of kindness and inclusion cultivated at their shops. In an industry that can sometimes have a reputation for serving sass and crass, UNLTD is dedicated to sprinkling positivity everywhere, from the ski hills to the skateboard parks. Basically, the UNLTD team prides itself on its unofficial, universal slogan: “Don’t be an a**hole to anybody.” It’s this different attitude that has helped to outfit skateboarders and snowboarders in carefully-selected, top brands for the past 25 years.

Started in Harmony Lane, Now We’re Here

A ’90s baby, UNLTD was opened by Monod Sports Ltd. in the downtown Banff landmark Harmony Lane in 1995. Five years later, Dave Carlson became the general manager of the snowboard shop, while going to school to become an accountant. In 2001, he transitioned the shop to its current location at 319 Banff Avenue. A year later, Dave and his wife Jennifer became the owners and, shortly after, they had their first son. During that time of next-level multi-tasking, Dave recounts how he was doing the advertising, accounting, buying, as well as cleaning washrooms. The ABCs, if you will. However, Dave began to let the day-to-day operation reins go when he hired senior-level staff more than a decade ago. Back then, the Banff shop had five staff. Today, there are 23 in total between the Banff and Canmore shops.

“We have a strong team, it’s incredible. My role now is to be a cheerleader and to help everybody enjoy their jobs,” says Dave. “I want work to be fun.”

Dave also quips that accounting is currently all he does after once believing he’d given it up to pursue a career in retail management.