The outdoor gear and apparel and sporting goods retail segment has consolidated over the last 10 years as retailers filed for bankruptcy, closed stores, and sold their chains to competitors.
Several household names in the sports and outdoor gear retail industry have disappeared in the last decade, including Sports Authority, Sports Chalet, Model’s, and Golfsmith.
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Sports Authority, which operated 463 stores nationwide, filed Chapter 11 in 2016, liquidated and was sold to Dick’s Sporting Goods.
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Dick’s also purchased the Golfsmith chain out of bankruptcy in 2016.
Sporting goods retail chain Sport Chalet, which operated 47 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah, also filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016 and closed all of its stores and liquidated.
Another regional sporting goods retail icon, Modell’s, which operated 153 stores in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, filed for Chapter 11 protection on March 11, 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was starting.
Modell’s began store closing sales on March 13, 2020, but shortly after starting liquidation sales, the pandemic forced the chain to stop the sales and shut down operations. The sporting goods chain finally reopened its liquidation sales in late June 2020.
Maine-based sporting goods retailer Olympia Sports on Sept. 11, 2022 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed all 35 of its Eastern locations.
Mountain Sports, which operated about 50 sporting goods and apparel stores in seven Northeast states under the Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob’s Stores brands, on June 18 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to restructure its debt and reorganize its business after defaulting on a loan agreement with PNC Bank.
Mountain Sports on July 2 revealed that it would close and liquidate all of the Bob’s Stores.
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Mountain Warehouse, an outdoor gear and apparel company based in the United Kingdom, on Sept. 2 revealed it had purchased Eastern Mountain Sports’ key assets, including the long-established brand name, website, and seven profitable stores, for $5 million, along with another $5 million for other assets not mentioned in the statement.
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The acquisition saved more than 100 jobs, and the buyer said it plans to stabilize and grow the chain’s business.
Mountain Warehouse said EMS will continue operating as a standalone brand in the company’s group and the stores will maintain their Eastern Mountain Sports brand name on store locations.
A fly fisherman shows off a rainbow trout before releasing it back into the water at the Y Pool on the Swift River, Belchertown, Mass. (Photo by Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Outdoor retailer Orvis closing locations
Finally, Manchester, Vt., outdoor gear and apparel retailer Orvis on Oct. 4 said that it plans to close an undisclosed number of its over 80 retail stores in the U.S., lay off 112 of its employees, and discontinue its historic retail catalog to “enable a smaller and more agile business,” VTDigger reported.
The company did not indicate any plans to file for bankruptcy.
Orvis, which was founded in 1856 by Charles F. Orvis, claimed that it had the oldest mail-order catalog in the U.S., as it was sending out catalogs before the Civil War and was established 20 years before the Sears Roebuck catalog was first published. Sears discontinued its catalog in 1993.
The retail chain sells fishing and hunting gear, men’s and women’s outdoor apparel, dog accessories, packs, bags, luggage, and home goods.
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