Shop Review – The Circle (Whistler)

The first board shop that I visited when I first came to live in Whistler was The Circle because it was right across the street from where I was living. The Circle in Whistler is located on Main Street in the Village North, Marketplace area. It’s pretty much in the plaza right across from the 7-11 and beside the Alpenglow condo entrance. The Circle is a locate shop that has its roots in Whistler and now also have a shop in downtown Vancouver, Gastown more specifically.

The Circle website



1) Shop setup / Visual merch

The Circle is a cool setup just from the outside because the physical building is actually shaped in a circle. Once inside you’ll see that the shop has a cool flow to it because of its design. The shop is mostly dominated by clothing and outerwear these days, with more of the street clothing the right and the snowboard gear (outerwear and hard good) to the left. It’s a clean modern look to its layout that’s simple yet effective for savvy shopper.

Most often the have some cool new snowboarding or skateboarding videos playing on their flat screen TV and also awesome tunes pumping from their sound system.

2) Variety

In terms of variety The Circle carries clothing brands like Nomis, DC, Matrix, WESC with snowboarding gear from Stepchild, Forum, DC, Union, Endeavor and more. In the summer this shop caters to the skateboards with brands like DVS, Emerica, C1RCA, Lakai and Chocolate.

If you are looking for brands off the beaten path and not your big name brands go by The Circle because here is where you will find them.

3) Product Pricing

The price of the merch in the shop is relatively the same as any other shop you might find and The Circle rarely has sales. Their sales only occur during the thanksgiving weekend (10% off) and at season end (20% to 25% off). But The Circle employees are cool and you might be able to get a deal from them if you chat them up a bit.

4) Customer Service

The Circle customer service is pretty good and as I mentioned above everyone who works there is cool and knowledgeable. As soon as you walk in the shop you are greeted with a hello or what’s up and the employees are always willing to help you out. But since there is usually one person working the shop, if the shop is busy you might not get the full Circle customer experience.

5) Overall

Overall I really like The Circle because it’s quite different from other shops in Whistler and Vancouver, much like Evolution. They have unique products that you might not find elsewhere and their employees are always willing to help. I usually head into The Circle once a week just to see if there is any new gear especially from Nomis.