It’s fair to say that Travis Fitchie’s dream of owning his own shop didn’t go exactly according to plan, but where he’s ended up is even better than anything he originally imagined.
“You know what they say…when one door closes, another opens. You can choose what you feed into,” says the owner of the recently opened Sky Auto Body in Medford, Oregon. “Am I going to get hung up on disappointment when something doesn’t go my way? Or pivot and find a different path forward to keep the dream alive?”
Fitchie decided to pivot, and with the support of an incredible team, he’s building a place where people love to work and clients love to patronize. And that, he says, was the goal all along.
The Pivot
It was 2013, and Fitchie had just returned home to Medford, Oregon, after traveling with an NHRA Funny Car on its West Coast circuit, where he was a top-end-engine mechanic.
“I moved back and got a detailing job at what was then Apland’s Auto Body,” he reminisced. Going to work for a body shop was, he says, a natural transition, given that he’d grown up helping his dad build custom street rods.
With a can-do attitude and “bulldozer” mentality — a term coined by the owner of Apland’s at that time, Mike Apland — a 20-year-old Fitchie was managing the shop within six months.
“Mike used to say I basically told him I was coming in to run the shop and I did it; I called my shot,” Fitchie chuckled.
“Over the years, we did a bunch of different business training courses and vendor conferences, met with different shop owners; really dug into growing the business. When I first started, they were doing $1 million a year in revenue out of both their locations; when he and his wife exited the business in 2024, we were doing $6.6 million and I was part-owner and COO of the company.”
Fitchie was all in, he says, with his sights set on purchasing the business. But things didn’t end up going according to plan, and Apland’s was instead sold to a large MSO.
“Very quickly, I had a decision to make; I could either stay and change my career trajectory or do what I love and employ people out on my own.”
It was a scary proposition, of course, but an exciting one. And he knew what he had to do.
There were probably a million reasons why I shouldn’t open my own shop, but I chose to focus on the two million reasons that I should. Travis Fitchie, owner of Sky Auto Body
“There were probably a million reasons why I shouldn’t open my own shop, but I chose to focus on the two million reasons that I should.”
Fitchie stayed on with the new company for around a year as he searched for and purchased his new facility, managing four additional shops — for a total of six — in the interim.
“I wanted to make sure my staff that I had spent years hiring and training felt secure in the transition,” he explained, “and my boss, Brie Hoyer, was a wonderful person to work for. Those were the two big reasons I stayed. I learned a lot and met a lot of great people through it all. Everyone there was sad to see me go, but they understood being an owner was my dream.”
When the time came to leave in October 2025, Hoyer — who is still a valued mentor to this day — was one of the loudest voices cheering him on, alongside Fitchie’s long-time friend and colleague (and now Sky’s general manager) Aaron Hernandez, and Fitchie’s wife, Kelsie.
“When I was deciding whether to open a business at the very start of all this, Aaron was the guy in my corner like, ‘Yeah, let's do it. Let's go.’ He left a month after I did and helped me do anything and everything to get the shop operational. Same with my wife. Kelsie knew the sacrifices this would require, and how much I’d be gone — we’re talking seven days a week, 15-hour days for six months to get us up and running — and she stood by me every step of the way. I can’t ever thank them enough for their support.”
Fitchie is quick to acknowledge the rest of his team, too — all of whom were previous colleagues — for making Sky possible.
“They believed in this dream, and they’ve shared my excitement from day one. I couldn’t be doing any of this without them.”
The shop officially opened for business in February 2026, and, thanks to Fitchie and his team’s long-standing reputation for excellence in the community, customers have been “lined up” ever since.
“We're well ahead of our projections and what we thought we would be able to do in the first 6 months by about 40%.”
Stars in the Sky
Every member of Sky’s I-CAR-recognized six-person team plays an integral role in the success of the business, says Fitchie, and, together, they’re building the kind of work environment people dream of being a part of.
“Everyone truly cares for everyone else here,” he says. “Our team likes to be here, they actually enjoy coming to work.”
That in and of itself, he says, was one of the biggest reasons he wanted to open his own shop in the first place.
“There’s a lot of places lacking that, you know? They don’t have the feel of a community, of being a place where people are happy to go to day in and day out. I wanted to change that.”
The team — who all worked together at Apland’s — brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table and includes a unique husband-wife body tech duo, Beau and Trish, who have been repairing together for nearly 15 years.
“They’re phenomenal,” Fitchie says, “and they work so well together. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Sky also has an RV, bus, fleet, and boat tech, Justin, who does all his own jobs from start to finish in tandem with a fleet estimator, Sean.
“Those two have a great, symbiotic relationship. They work on a 50/50 commission split. Sean will go out and do all of the estimatics, parts ordering, customer relations, and pull the jobs in for Justin, then he'll do the jobs in the back. From disassembly to bodywork, paint, reassembly, detail…he does it all on those jobs.”
You have to meet people where they’re at every day, because every day is different. We’re never all going to have a perfect day at the same time; that’s just not how it goes.
Fitchie and the shop’s painter, Michael, have worked together for six years; Sky is his first head painting position. “I’ve watched Michael grow so much in his skills and confidence over the years; I’m really grateful to have him on the team.”
And Aaron Hernandez — Fitchie’s aforementioned long-time friend — rounds out the team as the general manager, main office administrator, and estimator.
“Everyone is in their position for a reason, and I have the utmost trust in them,” Fitchie says. “I try not to overstep or micromanage in any way, shape, or form. They’re all extremely good at what they do,” which frees Fitchie to focus on upper-level operations.
“You have to meet people where they’re at every day, because every day is different. We’re never all going to have a perfect day at the same time; that’s just not how it goes. And there’s reasons for everything,” he says, if you’re willing to listen and help people through issues that arise. “Show empathy and have grace.”
His shop will never be one that has people walking on eggshells, either.
“Everyone knows they have leeway here. When people are comfortable enough to talk and open up and make mistakes, it leads to more authentic, organic relationships.”
Authentic Through and Through
The authenticity that Fitchie and the Sky team share extends to customers, too.
“People come to us because they see the pride and craftsmanship that we have, not only in our work, but in our facility and our employees. And we’re not here to fix every car,” he adds. “It has to be the right fit.”
Honest, upfront pricing — and comprehensive estimates — are paramount.
“We write a full sheet from the get-go, catching everything that the car needs to get back on the road safely. We’re not just pumping out estimates to get the car in and then doing a 60% supplement; our supplements are generally under 5%.”
Sky works on all makes and models and is in the process of obtaining Tesla certification. Whether more OEM certifications will come in the future is up in the air, but there are not immediate plans to pursue them, says Fitchie.
“Our market really isn’t big enough to support it [obtaining certs],” he explained, “and there’s such a wide variety of vehicles. But we do lean heavily on OEM parts and repair procedures for all of our jobs. We have fantastic relationships with all of our vendors, so we can get pretty much any part price matched by the dealer down here.”
And any profit lost is a drop in the bucket compared to the high-quality repair that results, adds Fitchie, who’s found that customers are often willing to pay the difference, if necessary, to ensure the best repair.
This commitment to high-quality craftsmanship, transparency, and top-notch customer service is gaining traction fast for Sky. And it’s not just traditional vehicle repair that’s helping them stand out from the rest; they’re quickly amassing a large amount of RV, fleet, and boat repair work, too.
The RV market, especially, says Fitchie, is an “untapped” opportunity and is something he was eager to incorporate into Sky’s business model.
“There’s a demand for it here, and I like the segment a lot. These are people driving around in their second homes…it's just as important as a vehicle to them, if not more important, because it's six times the cost.”
Repairing RVs and large fleet vehicles, such as the city buses the team works on, for example — don’t require specialized equipment, per se, says Fitchie. But they are labor-intensive and require a large space, which is one of the reasons he knew this particular property was “the perfect one” from the moment he first laid eyes on it.
“I walked onto the property, and I visualized this place and immediately knew how I wanted it set up. It felt like destiny, like it was meant to be. As soon as we walked in, I'm like, ‘this is the one.’”
The 6,000 sq. ft. facility includes 4,500 sq. ft. of open collaborative space dedicated to production, plus approximately 800 sq. ft. of office space and a 600 sq. ft. parts room. The property also features a 24 x 60 ft. metal outbuilding perfect for large RV and fleet repairs.
The shop is highly functional, no doubt, but it’s so much more than that. Fitchie meticulously planned the entire building’s beautiful aesthetic, down to the perfectly manicured landscaping outside, with one goal in mind…making a great first impression.
The idea, the mountain of opening a facility, is much larger in your mind than it actually is in real life. If you're willing to take the leap of faith and you're willing to put in the time, it will pay off.
“You have one shot to capture a client’s attention and show them your quality and your pride in craftsmanship and what you can do,” says Fitchie, who did much of the renovation work himself. From painting and wiring to securing the shop’s windows and glass for the bay doors and wood for the front office, creating Sky truly was a labor of love…and he’s nowhere near done.
“You sit down and draw everything out in your head, right? But when you actually build it, you realize how long it takes to get to the picture in your head. It takes so much longer than you could ever anticipate. We’re still buying a new piece of equipment every month.”
But, if you’re an aspiring owner, don’t let that scare you.
“The idea, the mountain of opening a facility, is much larger in your mind than it actually is in real life. You can sit there and you can play through every single situation over and over again, all the what ifs. But, in reality, if you're willing to take the leap of faith and you're willing to put in the time, it will pay off.”
The sky really is the limit…just like Fitchie’s tagline says.
