SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – James Pike and his wife, Cheryl Pike, started a snowboard apparel company in South Lake Tahoe when snowboarding was still in its infancy and outlawed at many resorts.

The company just celebrated its anniversary after the Pike’s started it in 1988, one year after they got married. Now a 36 year company, Cheryl originally thought of the decades long dream in just five minutes after James picked her up from work one day. She had worked in the sports apparel industry in the late eighties and saw an opportunity for snowboard apparel.

“So it was her idea to start Pipe Dreams,” James says “She came up with the name, and it kind of fit everything—snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding.”

The two, who met at Caesars—James as a bartender and Cheryl in retail—did everything they could to keep Pipe Dreams going.

From high school sewing classes, utilizing President Bill Clinton’s North American Free Trade Agreement, to investing in a screen printer, James remembers, “we kept going.”

“You gotta have a lot of money to do [it],” he says and explains, “And we, we didn’t have a lot of money.”

But they didn’t let that stop them. “We’re actually the original dream team,” James says, remembering a 1989 Tahoe Daily Tribune article on the action apparel company who sponsored a snowboard team, called the Dream Team.

“I used to send the guys to the snowboard contest with the money I made in tips.”

He’s hoping to again sponsor a snowboard team this winter and outfit them in Pipe Dreams apparel.

From supporting a sport in its infancy, to helping teams accomplish their dreams, Pipe Dreams has recently added a new dream to its list.

Now, 20% of all sales goes towards Cheryl’s breast cancer foundation. Just over a year ago, on May 5, 2023, the founding member of Pipe Dreams passed away after a 3-year and 1-month courageous battle with breast cancer.

It’s James’ way of giving back. “Cause when we were going through it, a lot of people helped us.”

The South Lake Tahoe Cancer League, and Caesars Cares as well as other, helped the Pikes make mortgage payments when Cheryl was sick, which helped them get the reverse mortgage they needed during that time.

“I’d thought about giving it up,” James says about Pipe Dreams, “because it’s always been an uphill battle—never enough money to do it right—but one of the last things she said to me was, ‘I don’t know what your gonna do about Pipe Dreams.'”

James wasn’t ready to give it up. “So I’m giving it one more try.”

James says his partners Oscar Vasquez, and Thea Piscionere, as well as printer and website manager Mark Ortiz are helping continue Cheryl’s vision with Pipe Dreams.

“It’s been a long 36 years and I never could have kept it going without the following guys: Sean McDaniel, Pat Chandler, Robey O’Day, Danny Esquival, Hap Poulton in Kauai, CT Rowe and last but not least, Jack Armstrong and his brother Rob. Everyone of them believed in the dream as much as I did and without them, we never would have kept it going.”

Pipe Dreams’ hoodies, board shorts and t-shirts will be available at the Lake Tahoe Comic Con Sept. 14-15 at the Tahoe Blue Event Center.

You can also order apparel through the online store, pipedreamstahoe.com.