The San Francisco retail outlet on Hayes Street for Cotopaxi has reopened, after the company hired private security to protect it from theft rings, which led to its closure three weeks ago, GearJunkie reported.
Cotopaxi founder and CEO Davis Smith wrote on social media, “Cotopaxi is pleased to announce that after productive and positive meetings with Hayes Valley Merchants Association, the Board of Supervisors, and SFPD, measures have been put in place to allow us to reopen our storefront once again. We have also hired full-time private security.”
Smith’s account of what led to the store’s October closure detailed a hectic situation. In the year it was open, the location replaced its windows after thieves broke them on five separate occasions. Eventually, the store resorted to plywood while it waited for a security gate. Still, thieves targeted the store multiple times per week during business hours.
Smith’s reopening announcement stated a “renewal” of Cotopaxi’s partnership with the Tipping Point Community. The local nonprofit seeks to advance “poverty-fighting solutions” in the Bay Area by investing in housing, education, and employment.
“My intent was not to tear down San Francisco, a city I have loved since childhood and where I have family, but it was to transparently share something that was going badly for us, something disappointing that we were going through,” Smith wrote. “We recognize that if we want change, we have to be part of the change we want to see, so we’re here to help.”
