Chris Roden wears his Star Wars fandom on his sleeve, or, more accurately his forearm. Tattoos of Darth Maul and a Jawa show his lifelong love for the characters from a galaxy far, far away.
So too does the store he opened in downtown Chilliwack, CR Sabers. Who would open a business dedicated to selling lightsabers? Sounds zany right? Not only did Roden do it, but in a very short time he’s turned his passion for Star Wars (and all things science fiction) into a financial success.
He said everyone he talked to before he opened thought it was ridiculous, and he agreed. Yet here he is.
“I remember talking to my wife (Carlie) about it, and she said, ‘Chris, it’s lightsabers,’” he recalled. “And I replied, ‘I know. It’s so stupid. No one’s done it.’ But it’s become a reality. The first three months we did about $37,000 and thought there might be something to this.
“If anything the whole thing is still surreal. I walk into the store some days and think, ‘This is ours.’ How is this not a dream?”
Roden describes himself as a ‘sci-fi nerd,’ and the inspiration for selling lightsabers came from a bad experience buying lightsabers. Roden started out thinking he’d pay $100 USD, only to find out the battery, blade and other ‘add ons’ ran the final expense into the $400 range. That for a product he said came with loose electronics that fell right out of the hilt (handle).
“It was terrible,” he said. “And I thought, ‘I can do this better.’”
CR Sabers offers 70-plus types of sabers, and Roden said there’s few things better than seeing a kid (or an adult) pick up a saber for the first time.
“They expect it to be something you’d get from a dollar store, and then they see the light reflect off their eyes and see the light in their eyes, it’s almost a perfect storm of imagination and reality coming together,” he said. “We used to use gift-wrap rolls or broomsticks taped together, and that’s the best we had to make our own Star Wars world come alive.”
Roden said the first two years of CR Sabers have been very successful and it keeps snowballing into bigger things. They have two employees who are both on the spectrum, and he likes the thought of breaking down employment barriers and offering opportunities to people “in all walks of life.”
Down the road, Roden would like to go national with more locations in Canada. For the Chilliwack location that started it all, he’ll try to turn it into more than just a store. A destination. An experience.
For more info visit crsabers.ca.