Sport Chalet
 The Experts
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| Private - Vestis Retail Group | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Fate | Chapter 11 Bankruptcy |
| Founded | 1959 |
| Defunct | 2016 |
| Headquarters | La Cañada, California |
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Number of locations
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47 at closure |
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Key people
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Norbert Olberz, founder |
| Products | Apparel, Sports Equipment, Shoes, Snowsports, Team Sports, Climbing |
| Website | www.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. Most stores were over 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2) 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.
Sport Chalet was founded on April 1, 1959 by Norbert Olberz and his wife Irene, who bought a ski and tennis shop in La Cañada Flintridge, California. 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.
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.
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. Sport Chalet's location is 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, CA. By the mid-1980s, the company expanded to have stores throughout Southern California.
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.
Norbert Olberz died in La Cañada Flintridge on July 15, 2011. He was survived by his wife Irene.
In 2014 Sport Chalet was sold to Vestis Retail Group for $17M, as well as absorbing its current $50M in debts. Vestis is owned by the private equity firm Versa Capital Management.
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Wikipedia