Syracuse Bicycle

Dan Button: Living a Balanced Lifestyle

Walking into Syracuse Bicycle today is a much different experience than six months ago, largely due to the efforts of our new store manager Dan Button. A merchandising whirlwind and consummate customer service professional, Dan brings several years of retail experience from his previous job as store manager of Eastern Mountain Sports at Carousel Mall. Dan joined the Syracuse Bicycle staff last August in an effort to use his design and merchandising skills more creatively while continuing to employ his already highly developed customer service skills as well as to bring more balance to his life. An outdoor aficionado who loves to run, bike, swim, telemark ski, snowshoe, hike, and fly fish, Dan was looking for a more flexible work schedule that would allow him more time to pursue these activities.

“I had a great experience at EMS. I learned a lot about retail and customer service. Best of all, it’s where I met my beautiful wife, Stephanie, who walked in one day looking for a new backpack,” Dan says. “I also worked with some phenomenal people who remain some of my best friends today.” It was one such friend who introduced Dan to Syracuse Bicycle co-owners, Paul Komanecky and Dan Venditti, who were looking for some part-time help. Dan had recently started cycling again after blowing out his knee on the ski slopes and had his eye on a new bike. It was a win-win situation for both parties.

“Initially working part-time at Syracuse Bicycle allowed me to see what I might be able to accomplish here,” says Dan. Owners Paul and Dan V. quickly recognized that Dan possessed all the skills they were looking for in a store manager. “Dan’s got it all – a design background, retail experience, and superior customer service skills. He was exactly what we were looking for to help us bring Syracuse Bicycle to the next level,” says Paul. For Dan, it’s the best of both worlds. He’s still in a business that is connected with the outdoors and with helping people, but on a much smaller scale, so that he has a bigger impact. “I love working at Syracuse Bicycle because it’s small. It’s a family owned business and I have much more control over my work-life balance than I did working for a large retail corporation. I am also able to be much more creative. When I have a great idea for merchandising a new product or developing a new training plan for our employees, Paul and Dan V. can give me the go ahead right away,” says Dan.

A nationally ranked duathlete while in college, Dan has completed over 100 duathlons and triathlons. He most recently competed in his first Ironman Triathlon in Lake Placid last June and has plans to return to that race this summer. Dan credits his entry into the sport of triathlon to his mom, a broken thumb, and his high school cross country coach in Phoenix, a small town outside of Syracuse. “I was a pretty serious baseball player in high school and when I broke my thumb in a fight, I was out for the season. My mom refused to let me sit around the house, so I ended up on the track team.” It took Dan one season to figure out that track wasn’t the sport for him. “I sucked at it. I tried everything – 200m, 400m, high jump. I wasn’t having much fun at all,” says Dan.

Later that fall, his friends encouraged him to join the cross country team, and that’s where it all changed for him. “I realized not only that I was a pretty good distance runner, but I just truly enjoyed it.” Dan soon turned to cycling at the encouragement of his coach as a way to maintain his fitness while dealing with a running injury. Dan raced his first triathlon at the age of 15 and qualified for the Ironman World Championship Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii two years later at a US Triathlon Series race in Wilkes Barre. “I didn’t go to Kona that year because I couldn’t afford the trip. The following year, I planned ahead and made sure I had enough money saved to go but then I didn’t end up qualifying that year,” says Dan. With his characteristic optimism, Dan says that the money he saved came in handy for college.

A love for drawing, design, and architecture led Dan to pursue a degree in interior design at Buffalo State College. After graduating in 1996, Dan began working at one of the largest commercial design firms in Buffalo. “I had everything I needed – a great apartment, a girlfriend, a nice car. I was working at the best design firm in Buffalo. But I wasn’t happy. I gradually realized that I hated everything about my life there and decided to make a big change,” says Dan. He heard about some friends who were moving to New Mexico and decided to tag along for want of a better plan. “I made it as far as Estes Park, Colorado, and that was where I decided to stay for awhile.”

It was in Estes Park- the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park – that Dan realized he could truly indulge his love for the outdoors. He took a job as a lift manager at Arapahoe Basin ski area that winter, and then worked in guest relations at The Stanley during the summer (that spooky resort prominently featured in The Shining). “I really enjoyed both jobs because of the customer relations focus. It was my job, particularly at The Stanley, to make sure that everything was right for our guests. That’s also where I skied my record 137 days,” says Dan, who mainly telemark skis. He also found time for snowshoeing, hiking, trail running, mountain biking, and fly fishing. “What my time in Colorado made me realize was that I’m better off taking care of people. I’m not a person who enjoys being stuck behind a desk,” says Dan. Perhaps it’s his competitive nature, but Dan relishes the challenge of providing an extremely high level of personal service. “At the Stanley, we were continually striving to be a 5 star resort and I was always trying to think of ways to take it to the next level in terms of the type of services we’d offer our guests.” As idyllic as it was in Colorado, Dan missed his family and friends back in Syracuse and returned to area ten years ago. Estes Park’s loss is our gain and we are very excited that Dan is a now a full-time member of the Syracuse Bicycle family.

Dan resides in Syracuse with his wife, Stephanie and his two cats, Bubba and Little Guy. When he’s not at Syracuse Bicycle, you can usually catch him doing some sort of outdoor activity, or bottling his own home-brewed beer and wine. He loves live music and spent a few years in his youth following the Grateful Dead on tour. In addition to his role as Store Manager, Dan is a Certified Bicycle Fit Technician.