Sport Chalet

Last updated
Sport Chalet
Company typePrivate – Vestis Retail Group
Industry Retail
Founded1959
Defunct2016
Fate Chapter 7 bankruptcy
Headquarters La Cañada, California
Number of locations
47 at closure [1]
Key people
Norbert Olberz, founder
Products Apparel, Sports Equipment, Shoes, Snowsports, Team Sports, Climbing
Website sportchalet.com (Redirects to Eastern Mountain Sports website)

Sport Chalet was a sporting goods chain with 47 stores in Southern & Northern California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. [1] Most stores were over 35,000 square feet (3,300 square meters) in size, with many including dive pools and offering SCUBA classes. Sport Chalet stores usually featured large apparel and footwear departments complemented by an array of specialized departments and sections. On April 16, 2016, the company announced that it would close all stores in the coming months and that all online sales had already stopped. The last stores closed in June 2016. [2]

Contents

History

Sport Chalet was founded on April 1, 1959 by newlyweds Norbert Olberz, a former baker, and his wife Irene, who bought a ski and tennis shop in La Cañada Flintridge, California, for $4000, equaling a $2500 check plus a negotiation, from Milo Svoboda, the original owner, whose store had only been open four months. [3] To initially stock the store with ski gear, the couple took out a $5,000 loan and borrowed money from a relative and some employees. [4]

Early on, Sport Chalet stocked products that few other stores sold, such as scuba and mountain-climbing gear. When surfing became popular in the early 1960s, the store began carrying longboards and wetsuits. [5] [4]

Sport Chalet grew piecemeal in La Cañada along Foothill Boulevard. Olberz converted a former grocery store into a full-line sporting goods store and an old furniture store became the ski shop. He also converted a gas station into a ski rental shop and opened a golf store down the street. [4] Sport Chalet's location was about one block southeast of the intersection with Angeles Crest Highway, a major route into the San Gabriel Mountains.

The company opened its second store in 1981 in Huntington Beach, California. By the mid-1980s, the company expanded to have stores throughout Southern California. [4]

Sport Chalet started being traded publicly on the NASDAQ exchange in 1992.

In 1997 Craig Levra came on board as president and in 1999 took over as CEO. [6]

Norbert Olberz died in La Cañada Flintridge on July 15, 2011, [7] survived by his wife Irene and his son Eric. [3] Two years later Eric resigned from the board, replaced by Miki Berardelli, chief marketing officer of New York women’s clothing designer and retailer Tory Burch. [8]

In 2014 Sport Chalet was sold to Vestis Retail Group for $17M, as well as absorbing its current $50M in debts. Vestis was owned by the private equity firm Versa Capital Management. [9]

On April 16, 2016, Sport Chalet announced that all stores would close, [10] with May 15 [11] being the last day for customers to use gift cards and store credits, and that online merchandise sales had already been stopped. [12] Subsequently, Vestis Retail Group, which owns the Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob's Stores sporting goods chains as well as Sport Chalet, announced it had filed for bankruptcy protection and reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. [13] [14]

By June 2016, all stores had closed. [15]

Corporate environment

Sport Chalet claimed to pride itself on employing well-trained and knowledgeable employees who had extensive knowledge and/or experience in their respective departments, leading to one of the company's slogans 'The Experts'. Sport Chalet was one of the few major sporting goods retailers to focus on a broad array of more specialized sports, including kayaking, SCUBA diving, mountain climbing, canyoneering, and other extreme sports. Sport Chalet additionally used the slogan "We'll Take You to The Limit".

In 1998, Olberz gave $1.5 million (~$2.62 million in 2023) in stock to 109 employees who had been with the company for at least ten years. [4]

The company was the title sponsor of the "U.S.B.A. California Regional Tour." The tour was a collection of three events that were sanctioned by the United States Bodyboarding Association, that took place at different Southern California beaches; events ran between June 7, 2008, and November 9, 2008.

Following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Sport Chalet, in conjunction with Soles 4 Souls, began accepting donations of gently worn shoes at all their locations until January 31, 2010. They collected almost one million pairs of shoes in two weeks.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshalls</span> American multinational discount department store chain owned by TJX Companies

Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 49 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. Marshalls first expanded into Canada in March 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sporting Life (retailer)</span> Canadian sporting retailer

Sporting Life is a sporting retailer shop based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Sporting Life sells sporting goods specially made for runners, cyclers, skiers, snowboarders, and hikers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Mountain Sports</span> Outdoor clothing and equipment retailer

Eastern Mountain Sports is an outdoor clothing and equipment retailer in the Northeastern United States headquartered in Meriden, Connecticut.

Consumers Distributing was a catalogue store in Canada and the United States that operated from 1957 to 1996. At its peak, the company operated 243 outlets in Canada and 217 in the United States, including stores in every province in Canada and in the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California and Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick's Sporting Goods</span> American sporting goods retailing corporation

Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. is an American chain of sporting goods stores founded in 1948 by Richard "Dick" Stack. It is the largest sporting goods retailer in the United States, and is listed on the Fortune 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harris Company</span> Former department store chain based in San Bernardino, CA

The Harris Company was a retail corporation, based in San Bernardino, California, that operated a chain of department stores named Harris', all in Southern California. Philip, Arthur, and Herman Harris – nephews of founder Leopold Harris of what was once the large Los Angeles–based chain Harris & Frank – started the company with a small dry goods store in 1905, and the company eventually grew to nine large department stores, with stores in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Kern Counties.

Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002.

Pay 'n Save was a retail company founded by Monte Lafayette Bean in Seattle, Washington, in 1940. Over the years, Pay 'n Save was the leading drugstore chain in Washington and was the owner of several Washington-based retailers, including Lamonts and Ernst. A 1984 sale of the company to The Trump Group and a 1986 attempt to transform the retailer into a bargain-basement merchandiser resulted in a loss of nearly $50 million. By 1988, Pay 'n Save was sold to Thrifty Corporation, who later sold the stores to PayLess Drug, who retired the Pay 'n Save name. As a result, most of the retailer's divisions were spun off as separate companies or shuttered. As of 2023, Pay 'n Save's membership discount chain, Bi-Mart, is the sole surviving division of the company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports Authority</span> Defunct American sporting goods retailer

Sports Authority, Inc. was an American sports retailer based in Englewood, Colorado. At its peak, Sports Authority operated 463 stores in 45 States and Puerto Rico. The company's website was on the GSI Commerce platform and supported the retail stores as well as other multi-channel programs. A joint venture with ÆON Co., Ltd., operates "Sports Authority" stores in Japan under a licensing agreement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FedMart</span> American discount department store chain

FedMart was a chain of discount department stores started by Sol Price, who later founded Price Club. Originally a discount department store open to government employees paying a $2 per family membership fee, FedMart earned four times more than its investors had projected in its first year. Over the next 20 years, FedMart grew to include 45 stores, mostly in California, and the Southwest in a chain that generated over $300 million in annual sales. The business expanded to several states in the Southwest United States. Many stores were previous White Front or Two Guys locations. Price later sold two-thirds of the chain to Hugo Mann, a German retail chain, in 1975 and was forced out of his leadership position the following year. FedMart went out of business in 1982.

Modell's Sporting Goods Online, Inc. is an online sporting goods and related apparel retailer. Modell's began with operating retail stores between the late 1980s and the late 2010s. In 2020, Modell’s became a brand owned by the private equity firm Retail Ecommerce Ventures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo-Ann Stores</span> US arts and crafts retail chain

Jo-Ann Stores, LLC, more commonly known as Jo-Ann, is an American haberdashery and mercery based in Hudson, Ohio. It operates the retail chains JOANN Fabrics and Crafts and Jo-Ann Etc. The headquarters of the company is located in the former General Motors Terex plant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stein Mart</span> American discount department store chain from 1908 to 2020

Stein Mart is an American discount men's and women's online retailer & former department store chain based in Jacksonville, Florida. Stein Mart had locations primarily in the Southeast, Texas, and California. Stein Mart stores sold recent trends in clothing for both men and women. Additionally, home decor, accessories, and shoes were all available at discounted prices.

Parkway Plaza is a shopping mall in El Cajon, California. The mall's anchor stores are Crunch Fitness, Dick's Sporting Goods, Ashley HomeStore, Bob's Discount Furniture, Burlington, Extra Space Storage, Regal Cinemas, and JCPenney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hastings Entertainment</span> Defunct American retailer

Hastings Entertainment was an American retail chain that sold books, movies, music, and video games and functioned as a video rental shop. As of 2016 it had 126 superstores, which were mainly located in the South Central United States, Rocky Mountain States, and in parts of the Great Plains and Midwestern states. Hastings Entertainment stores were also located in many college towns in the U.S. Hastings Entertainment was headquartered in Amarillo, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob's Stores</span> American retail store chain

Bob's Stores was a chain of retail stores in the northeastern United States owned by GoDigital Media Group. Founded as Bob's Surplus in Middletown, Connecticut, by Robert "Bob" Lapidus in 1954, the chain expanded gradually until it was acquired by Melville Corporation and has been reacquired five more times since then. The chain targets moderate-income customers with a selection of footwear, workwear, teamwear, and activewear.

Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. was an American golf specialty retailer based in Austin, Texas. Each store, along with golfsmith.com, housed a wide selection of golf clubs, shoes, apparel, gadgets and gear from all the major brands as well as proprietary offerings. They also offered custom club fitting, lessons and services for golfers.

Oshman's Sporting Goods Inc. was a sporting goods retailer in the United States. Their headquarters were in East End, Houston, Texas. It operated traditional sporting goods stores and Oshman's Supersports USA megastores.

Edison Brothers Stores, Inc., was a retail conglomerate based in St. Louis, Missouri. It operated numerous retail chains mainly located in shopping malls, mostly in the fields of shoes, clothing and entertainment, with Bakers Shoes as its flagship chain. The company was liquidated in 1999, though some of the chains it operated continued under different owners.

References

  1. 1 2 "Sport Chalet". Archived from the original on 2016-04-17. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
  2. ↑ "Sport Chalet". Archived from the original on 2016-04-17. Retrieved 2016-06-30.
  3. 1 2 Carol Cormaci (2016-04-20). "The quick success and slow decline of a local icon". San Fernando Valley Sun. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Leslie, Earnest (August 20, 2008). "Sport Chalet's founder sees dream come true". Los Angeles Times. pp. C1, C4.[ dead link ]
  5. ↑ "April | 2016 | SBCSentinel". 30 April 2016. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  6. ↑ "Craig Levra Appointed Sport Chalet Chief Executive Officer".
  7. ↑ "Norbert Olberz dies at 86; Sport Chalet founder, CEO for 4 decades", Los Angeles Times , July 19, 2011.
  8. ↑ Business Journal Staff (2013-10-15). "Son of Sport Chalet Founders Resigns from Board" . Retrieved 2019-10-26.{{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  9. ↑ "Sport Chalet sold to Vestis Retail Group". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2014-07-01.
  10. ↑ "Sport Chalet Store Closures". CNN.
  11. ↑ "Sport Chalet Extends Close Out to May 15". 30 April 2016.
  12. ↑ "Sport Chalet Is Closing All Stores, Has Stopped Online Sales, Retailer Announces", KTLA, April 16, 2016.
  13. ↑ "VRG Liquidating, LLC (F/K/A Vestis Retail Group, LLC)".
  14. ↑ Dawn McCarty & Steven Church, "Eastern Mountain in Bankruptcy as Shopping Habits Change", Bloomberg News , April 17, 2016.
  15. ↑ Cardine, Sara (2016-04-20). "End of the game for Sport Chalet". La Cañada Valley Sun. Retrieved 2024-06-25.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.