Sporting Life is thriving with ‘riot of merchandise’
Retailer is succeeding in a struggling industry, opening a store in Sears’ former spot in Yorkdale
Since co-founding Sporting Life with her husband and a business partner in 1979, Patti Russell says a lot has changed.
“When we first opened the store, we had 12 employees, and we did everything . . . we worked about 90 hours a week,” she said.
Since then, the company has grown to about 1,500 employees, with a 10th store to open at Yorkdale mall on Thursday, taking over the 49,000 square feet of space Sears occupied before its descent into bankruptcy.
“When we first opened, we were a ski shop,” Russell said. “Now we’ve (added) fashion, footwear, lifestyle,” or “fashletic,” a term that captures the company’s offering of high-end sports apparel alongside designer clothes.
A week before opening, the store was still coming together, but racks were already filled with jackets, walls were lined with skis and a barren apple tree was installed in the roof, hanging upside down.
“This is not the Zen school of merchandising, this is a riot of merchandise,” said David Russell, Patti’s husband, Sporting Life co-founder, and CEO of the company. The store boasts labels such as Canada Goose, Moncler, Patagonia and Salomon.
“We’re not Uniqlo,” he said, referring to a thriving Japanese retailer known for its minimalist stores.
“Everyone knows they’ve got 60 in the back, but there’s only three on the shelf. That’s not us.”
For their stylistic differences, both Uniqlo and Sporting Life are succeeding in a struggling retail industry where giants such as Sears have fallen, and others, such as Hudson’s Bay, are stumbling.
In 2014, Sporting Life’s rapid expansion began. After Fairfax Financial Holdings bought 75 per cent of the company in 2011, they had the capital to grow from four stores to their current 10.
Sporting Life recently opened a second store in Calgary, and is eyeing three locations in Montreal and the same number in the Vancouver area. They will only enter a market with the right real estate.
“We want really good real estate, we want 40-odd thousand feet, and we don’t want to pay too much,” said David Russell. A few years ago, he didn’t imagine Sporting Life would ever get into a mall, but the collapse of Sears and Target’s Canadian pursuit has made it possible. He is even open to expanding outside Canada.
“When we can demonstrate that we can do a really good job in this country, then I would say why not the United States, why not Europe, why not Asia?”
He thinks that expansion will come with its challenges, as regional tastes differ.
“We’ll probably get humbled and have to learn,” he said.
No matter where they are located, Sporting Life will offer customers high-end goods, although David does not consider his stores to be luxury.
“We want to be the place you buy the real stuff,” he said. “We’re not luxury, we’re below luxury, and, I think, accessible.”
Brian Winston, principal of Winston Collective, a luxury retail consulting firm, attributes the company’s success to its products and its customer service.
“I think what people have come to expect from them is this level of customer service, and a real appreciation,” Winston said. “It’s their enthusiasm for the products.”
David Russell says his company is ready to tackle all the challenges of a modern retailer, including e-commerce, which they have done since 2008.
“Online is important, and it’s not going away. We don’t have our head in the sand, and we’re aggressively going in that direction,” he said.
“The biggest change we’ve seen is that our vendors are our competitors,” he added. Companies such as Canada Goose now have their own stores. Sporting Life is the biggest reseller of Canada Goose apparel.
“We would rather all of them stop doing it, but that’s not going to happen,” David said. “Our advantage is that we’re not a monolith.”
Asked if he would take the company public like Canada Goose, which is flying high on the stock market since its IPO in March, Russell recounts advice from Fairfax chairperson Prem Watsa.
“Always make the decision for the right reason, not the short-term, make all decisions for long-term,” he said.
“I’m not sure in a public company, you can always do that."