ChutingStar has the largest walk-in skydiving shop in the world in DeLand, Florida, in the heart of the Mecca of skydiving manufacturers. The shop has become an international destination for skydivers from around the world who stop in to get the latest gear, try on the new helmets and touch and feel everything before deciding what to buy. The online site, ChutingStar.com sports the largest stock of skydiving gear worldwide. Mike Gruwell started the company 15 years ago, and it has grown from a one-man part time operation to an international superstore employing 12 people across three outlets. What are his secrets of success?…
##Did you always plan to run a skydiving store?
Not at all. I truly thought I would be living life as a musician with side jobs as needed to pay the bills until I could earn enough money playing drums every day. I played in a variety of bands in Seattle in the late 80s and early 90s. I have no business background, no college degree and barely graduated high school after getting expelled for part of my senior year due to skipping classes to play drums. There was no plan whatsoever for ChutingStar as a business endeavor… 15 years later, we are just now learning how to make a business plan for the next 15.
##When did you make your first jump?
Summer of 1995; I visited my family who had recently moved to Georgia, and I made my first jump with my sister. I was just glad to be back on the ground but my sister wanted to go through AFF. Later back in Seattle, I signed up for static line, as I liked the idea of learning to do something at the same time as my sister.
##Did you fall in love with skydiving straight away?
No, I was still as scared as you can get on every single jump! I have no idea how I made it through those first 50+ jumps. I really fell in love with skydiving at around 100 jumps.
##How did your interest in rigging begin?
On the weekends, to pay for my jumps, I started packing at a drop zone in Ellijay, Georgia. That led to staying up late to watch, learn and assist in packing reserves. In the beginning of 1999, with 3 years of skydives, 3 years of main packing experience and 1 year of packing reserves under other riggers, I attended Tom Dolphin’s Senior Rigger Course at Missouri River Valley Skydivers and earned my Back, Seat and Chest ratings. ‘11 Shooting Stars Rigging Services’ was born as soon as I returned home. It all started with 3 shelves in a small cupboard with rigging supplies in a tiny apartment with my future wife, Stephanie Childs. I would stretch out rigs to pack from the bathroom across the living room and kitchen and to the front door.
##Why the name ’11 Shooting Stars Rigging Services’?
I met Stephanie in 1998, while packing on weekends at Atlanta. One night laying on the tarmac, we talked about our dreams, made plans for the future, and counted shooting stars… 11. It became the theme for our marriage and later the business: “11 shooting stars ago… they met, became friends and fell in love.” We were married on 11/11/99 and our wedding rings are custom-made with shooting stars.
##How did it become ‘ChutingStar Rigging Loft’?
In 2000 I was asked to take over all the rigging for the drop zone. A friend suggested the play on words from Shooting Star to ChutingStar. I leased my first space for an actual loft on the second floor of the drop zone, still part-time, as my full-time job was as an editor of a local newspaper.
##When did ChutingStar become a full time job?
In 2001 Steph and I realized I was running myself ragged working 7 days a week at all hours of the day. I quit working in journalism and focused solely on skydiving, packing and rigging. It grew over the next few years with me hiring other people, as we became known for our quality rigging work and good relationships. We developed lofts in Georgia, Alabama and Pennsylvania to go along with each drop zone we worked for.
##When did you add gear sales?
In 2005, ChutingStar Rigging Loft moved basically across the street to Skydive The Farm, closing all 3 of our lofts, in a midnight move due to a disagreement with the Atlanta Skydiving Center ownership about Skyride. Hans Paulsen, the Farm DZO, and I were old skydiving friends. Hans asked me to take over selling gear. I had never sold it but I sure knew a lot about it so it didn’t take long to add a gear store section, stocking some helmets and altimeters, and at the same time throwing those items up on our web site. Little did Hans or I realize the monster we unleashed!
##How was it a monster?
We almost couldn’t work hard enough to fill all the orders! Because ChutingStar had become so well known as a trusted source of info, the online gear sales were flooded. Everything we put online sold – and skydivers were calling and emailing wanting more. We needed more staff to deal with the orders and had to grow quickly.
I hired a skydiver from Georgia Tech to build our first e-commerce site in 2006 – up till then it was just a one-page list online of our products. Suddenly we had our first real online store and shopping cart, while maintaining and growing our expert advice, blog and how-to video section.
From 2006 to now it just seems like a big blur, as we’ve continued growing so fast to meet the demands of our customers. I created myself a desk job but it’s one I love as I’m dealing with a sport I love all day long.
Stephanie left her management job to work for ChutingStar in 2012, a godsend as I was in way over my head when it came to payroll, taxes, budget and record-keeping. Three years later we’ve retrofitted a solid business foundation that she masterminded.
##Talk me through the rest of the development and locations
Our online shop operated out of the Rigging Loft alongside Skydive The Farm till 2009. It was all very small and cramped, making it absolutely amazing what we achieved during those four years. Finally, in 2009 the camel’s back broke and we moved the online shop and offices to a warehouse in Dallas, halfway between our rigging loft at The Farm and downtown Atlanta. We finally were able to spread out, organize our warehouse and have actual offices for talking with customers, tracking orders and staying focused. We hired Laura Bales in 2010 to take over custom gear sales, phone support and customer service, she is still with us now.
In 2011, we opened our third location with the 1500-square-foot Rigging Loft & Gear Shop in DeLand, Florida. The original aim was to be close to most of the manufacturers so we could have a face-to-face relationship with all our vendors and get products to skydivers faster. But as we finalized the opening, we decided to make it a full-blown store, with a rigging loft and walk-in shop due to the need we saw in the area. ChutingStar-DeLand has been critical to our success as it turned into a skydiver candy store!
By 2012, we had outgrown our 3,000-square-foot Dallas premises and moved to our current HQ in Marietta, Georgia. Our 11,000 square foot facility includes a skydiving gear shop, offices, rigging loft and warehouse plus a skate shop and skate park.
##How did you move into skateboarding?
I was spending my weekends skating with my twin sons at a local indoor park for about a year. That park closed down in 2012, and we had some free warehouse space. I ended up buying the ramps and rails from another outdoor skate park in Atlanta that was shutting down. We built all those into the open warehouse space. Originally the small park we created was just going to be for me and the boys – but soon we had local skaters wanting to play. After sorting out logistics, we opened it to the public, added a shop and then threw our skate products in a new section of ChutingStar.com
##Are skydiving and skateboarding complementary?
Our skate business has allowed ChutingStar an even larger range, as we’ve started carrying shoes, socks, pants, shirts, hoodies, hats and accessories. On the flipside, our knowledge in photos, video and our relationship with companies like GoPro has benefitted the skaters.
##You run a ‘Best Skate Trick’ contest, what are the aims?
After the passing of legendary skater Jay Adams of the Z-Boys in 2014, we wanted to honor him with a contest that would push our locals to learn new tricks by competing against each other. The winner each Sunday as determined by our skate crew gets a free skateboard deck or other gift such as signed items. It’s a way for youngsters without much money to earn free equipment.
##Will you start a Best Skydive/Tunnel Trick?
If we had a dropzone I was at every day, I certainly would. It’s so easy to run the skate contest with the park right there. But that gets me thinking that we could do something where videos are submitted to our Instagram or the like… hmmm… something to work on!
##What is the philosophy of ChutingStar?
To make everyone happy; I think that is it in the most simple terms. We strive to bring the best products to our skydivers and skaters backed by our knowledgeable staff and delivered with speed and care worldwide. This allows our skydivers and skaters to jump and shred with all the gear they desire. We truly earn the business of our customers for life.
##How did the advice section on your website come about?
Back when ChutingStar first started in 1999, I ran a Rant & Rave blog where I would have one ‘Rave’ and one ‘Rant’ every week for anything and everything in skydiving. Those were absolutely fun writing and stirred the pot at times too. I miss that! I take pride in our Buying Gear articles. We have several aimed at newbies trying to understand all the different components of getting geared up in skydiving. It’s knowledge I wish I had when I started.
##How about the reviews?
My vision is for all of our products to have several reviews so that skydivers and skaters get a good selection of unbiased opinion when deciding what to buy. Over the years, as the website has been upgraded, we keep losing prior reviews. We welcome all reviews (good or bad) and plan to start rewarding customers who send in reviews with points to use toward purchases.
##Tell me about ChutingStar University 2014
In 2013 Laura wanted to use her vacations to go to boogies and said she’d be willing to attend on ChutingStar’s behalf, promoting the shop and selling gear. Steph and I said why not? And Laura took it from there. After 2 years of attending boogies all over the United States, she proposed hosting our own! I gave the direction as being all about the young skydiver and to focus on education with free coaching, seminars and plenty of manufacturers. Laura made it happen; she really was the brainchild behind it all. I just gave my 2 cents on where to focus, as well as another 2 cents for the budget. (Okay, maybe a bunch more than that.)
The ‘CSU Class of 2014 Boogie‘ was a major success for a first-time boogie. 90 registered skydivers flew 47 loads out of the Twin Otter at Skydive The Farm making 700+ jumps. There were tons of milestone jumps and giveaways and a great Saturday night party. The only plan that didn’t fully come to fruition was the seminar program as the weather was so good, everyone just jumped the whole time. Dang!
##What gear do you jump?
I currently own 2 sport rigs. The first is a Mirage G4 with a Comp Velo 84, PDR 99 and Cypres2. The other is a big ol’ Dolphin with a Startrac 290 with the American Flag on the bottom skin for demos. I have a Rawa camera helmet, a Cookie Gas, Cookie G3, and several Bev RW suits plus a Firefly Freefly suit. My camera gear includes a PC-120 and Canon stills camera, plus several GoPros.
##How do you advise skydivers on buying the best gear?
‘Best’ is definitely relative. All skydiving gear manufactured currently is first class. It really comes down to personal preference on available options, price, turnaround times, customer service and how it looks. Most skydivers come to us with a brand they are set on because of what most people are jumping, or a ‘must-have’ feature, or a design they’ve completed. We don’t sway their opinion, just make sure the type and sizing is appropriate, and help them through their order so they get just what they want.
Some skydivers have no idea what brand they want; then we narrow down the choices based on what they are looking for in turnaround time, features and price.
##What if a customer wants a tiny canopy beyond his skill level?
We won’t sell gear that’s not appropriate. All of our container and canopy purchases are followed up personally by one of our crew to make sure the parachute and sizing is correct. They are all experienced skydivers who can tell when someone is legitimate.
##What do you look for when selecting your staff?
Number 1 is that they are passionate about life. They’ve got to love coming to work every day and also love skydiving, skating or whatever moves them. Our skydiving crew has to be expert skydivers. Our skateboard staff have to be talented skaters. Our warehouse crew has to be detail-oriented. But first and foremost, they have to love life. It makes everything else they do on a daily basis and how they interact with customers so much easier if they are a joy to be around.
##What’s the biggest mistake that people make when buying gear?
Getting their container sized to fit their next canopy instead of their current canopy. For the love of God! You will kill yourself and your packer having to stuff that oversized main into your container for the next 100-500 jumps, because you ‘think you will be ready to downsize soon’. Just get the container sized for the canopy you are jumping now. If and when you want to change canopies, deal with that then.
##What’s the biggest single thing we could do to improve safety?
Buddy programs where every new jumper has an experienced mentor. So many people get lost in the shuffle or fly under the radar until they develop bad habits, injure themselves or hurt someone else. A true buddy or mentor program would help.
##Where do you see ChutingStar going in future?
Specifically right now we are developing a new website, to integrate our shipping, accounting, point of sale, web systems and add a ton of features our customers have been asking for. We’ll have ‘live’ inventory online (so you know it’s in stock) and a rewards program for frequent buyers. Exciting stuff in the geeky e-commerce world!
We’ve also been looking to add a shop location at a wind tunnel. This is an untapped market and a place that tunnel rats, skydivers and whuffos are underserved on gear. We’re also open to the possibility of opening a DZ shop at a new location, since when Skydive The Farm closed, so did our shop ther. Our lease is up on the Marietta warehouse in 4 years, so we are starting the process of thinking about moving, purchasing or building our next location if needed.
What the exact future holds is still unknown but I’m enjoying it just as much as I did when I first got my rigger’s ticket. There’s nothing quite like working hard and seeing where it takes you. I’m thrilled to have created something that has given 12 other people a place to earn a living doing something they love. We will just keep working to bring skydivers and skaters the very best gear, and offer sound advice, with a group of people they can count on for a lifetime to watch their back.
