Photos from Zumiez 100K party

I attended the Zumiez 100K party in Keystone, Colorado last night for the third time, and each time I go, I spend the whole night smiling.

It is a creative, infectious, colorful and energizing spectacle of a party. It’s a ballroom full of Zumiez’s 1,200 or so top sales people having the time of their lives and cheering crazily for the success of their fellow employees, brand founders and athletes.

Zumiez and industry brands go all out to reward the employees’ sales prowess. The No. 2 salesman in the whole company is being rewarded with a trip to Prague with the Osiris skate team, and a new Harley Davidson from Skullcandy, among other gifts.

No. 1 salesman Matthew Edwards of Gilroy, California, who sold $758,213 worth of goods last year, a company record, won original art from Shepard Fairey, a trip to China with Supra to design his own shoes, the tricked out 1969 El Camino owned by a Diamond Supply founder, and Neff brought the DJ Deadmau5 to perform a set dedicated to Edwards after the ceremony, among many other over the top gifts.

Burton suprised the Top 5 Zumiez employees with a surprise trip to Vail today to snowboard with some team riders and Jake Burton.

The party demonstrates on many levels why Zumiez has continued to be successful over the years even as it has grown.

They put on the party themselves, so the design of the rooms, the crazy, creative programing of the ceremony, etc., all have the Zumiez look and feel, which is definitely not like any store in the mall and has an organic, non corporate vibe to say the least.

The wide range of brand executives and top athletes who attend to thank employees shows how connected Zumiez is to brands big and small, young and old, and how the store employees and the headquarters staff are truly living the action sports lifestyle. It is not a marketing gimmick, or a fad they are following that they will abandon when trends change.

And most impressively, they harness all this creativity and passion into sales. Zumiez does extensive sales training and promotes from within, so the culture and sales expertise has spread throughout the company as Zumiez has expanded.

I look forward to getting inspired by it all again next year.

We took lots of photos of all the executives and athletes that went to the party last night above in our slide show.