Brandon Source for Sports adds more space for clothing, footwear

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/01/2016 (3804 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Happy New Year! If you’re a resolution setter and one of your goals in 2016 is to be more physically active, then head down to Brandon Source for Sports to check out the newly expanded store for some inspiration to help you meet your goals.

I recently spoke with Brian Barnes, one of the five owners of this locally owned sports and recreation store, to find out more about the business and why they decided to expand their already 10,000-square-foot building.

“It’s been two years in the making and we thought that if we didn’t buy the adjacent land, we wouldn’t be able to grow our business. So the first step was to buy the land,” Barnes said. “We’re fairly well known as a hockey store and we do a lot of hockey business, but like other entrepreneurs, you look at other options to grow your business.”

With the new addition, Brandon Source for Sports added 3,500 square feet of retail space. While being one of the largest suppliers of everything hockey, the store also carries a large selection of goods for baseball, soccer, football, volleyball, figure skating, rugby, golf and curling.

“We’re basically a general sporting goods store. We’ve always been a mom-and-pop-type operation, now we’re just a much bigger mom-and-pop operation.”

The new area will now house apparel and footwear lines, and they recently signed on as a concept store for Under Armour, one of the hottest brands in the fitness and recreation industry. Now they’ll have an even bigger selection of Under Armour products than before with the goal of becoming a destination store.

“Our customers didn’t realize how much clothing we actually carried because it was really jammed into a small space. It wasn’t easy to see what we had because the racks were too tight. The new space will allow us to display our lines better and will be a much better shopping experience for our customers,” Barnes said.

Another component to the business that was launched early in 2014 is providing in-house embroidery services. Barnes said they wanted to create a convenient, one-stop shop for teams where they could choose from a wide selection of products at various price points and get the labelling done all at the same time. In addition, they also do embroidery work for corporations, businesses and associations.

The business originally opened in 1988, but it wasn’t always known as Brandon Source for Sports. It first opened on Ninth Street as Sports Traders, then in 1995 it became Sports Excellence. Eight years later, it became Brandon Source for Sports when the store moved to its current location on Brandon Avenue.

Barnes started working for the original owners on a part-time basis in 1989 and because of an employee shareholder program, he’s now one of the main owners. Rod Klassen, Travis Gouldie, Scott Kozoroski and Joel Whiteside are also all shareholders and partners.

“It’s a great exit strategy, especially for Rod and myself. By selling shares to key employees, it allows the business to carry on into the future. A lot of businesses in this day and age with older entrepreneurs don’t always have an exit strategy. If your business grows to a point like ours has, it seems like there really isn’t anybody who just comes off the street to buy it from you. So we’re now able to sell to some of our people and continue our legacy, so to speak,” Barnes said.

For more information, go to sourceforsports.com or visit the store at 2025 Brandon Ave.