sporting life . this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . august 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message sporting life formation 1979 founder david russell patti russell brian mcgrath founded at toronto on canada website www.sportinglife.ca sporting life is a sporting goods retailer based in toronto ontario canada . sporting life sells footwear apparel and equipment catered towards runners cyclers skiers snowboarders and hikers . contents 1 history 1.1 expansion 2 sporting life 10k 3 references history edit it was founded in 1979 as a privately owned company by david and patti russell husband and wife and brian mcgrath . the three co founders are enthusiast skiers at a private club and are actively involved in picking merchandise with mr. russell into sports equipment ms. russell on with fashion ; and mr. mcgrath focused on footwear . in 2011 there were 270 full time staff and a total of 600 employees . fairfax financial holdings limited bought a 75 % share in the company in late 2011 with the founders retaining the remaining balance of shares . 1 sporting life originally had four locations until their 2014 expansion . their flagship store is located at 2665 yonge street just south of lawrence avenue and it contains 36 000 square feet over two stories having been recently expanded in 2011 . their 2545 yonge street location only sells bikes and snowboards and not apparel . they also have a 42 0000 square feet anchor space at sherway gardens which relocated to a new wing in 2015 as part of that mall s renovation while the original location will be replaced by nordstrom in 2017 . there is also a 10 000 square feet location in collingwood situated near blue mountain which was initially their only store outside toronto . 2 in 2008 sporting life launched its e commerce website . 2 expansion edit the co founders of sporting life sold a 75 % stake in to fairfax in late 2011 in order to fund the retailer s expansion . the plan was to open two stores a year with suggested locations in vancouver edmonton calgary and montreal each store being in the 30 000 50 000 square foot range . 3 sporting life s fifth and sixth locations opened in 2014 the first time in 14 years that they had opened a new store . sporting life had bought ottawa based tommy & lefebvre on june 25 2013 and moved their staff from the bank street location moved to their new store at a reconstructed lansdowne park in october 2014 . 4 5 another sporting life opened at the newly renovated markville in september 2014 replacing a sport chek . 2 3 sporting life will open their sixth store at hillcrest mall in spring 2016 on the site of the former the bay men s store and home store ; after the bay had consolidated its two separate mall locations into a newly expanded central space . 2 sporting life 10k edit sporting life 10k motto supporting camp oochigeas first event 2003 occur every year purpose to provide funding for camp oochigeas headquarters toronto ontario website sporting life 10k the sporting life 10k is an annual 10k running walking event on yonge street in toronto that has taken place every may since 2003 . 6 money raised from the sporting life 10k goes towards funding camp oochigeas a volunteer run summer camp to provide enriching experiences to victims of childhood cancer . 7 8 27 000 people participated in 2013 . 9 references edit fairfax announces acquisition of sporting life fairfax press release 2011 a b c d about us sporting life a b sporting life to open stores across canada . retail insider.com . retrieved 2016 01 19 . toronto s sporting life buys ottawa s tommy & lefebvre cbc 25 june 2013 sporting life acquires tommy & lefebvre at the wayback machine archived june 28 2013 ottawa citizen 26 june 2013 welcome . sporting life 10k . retrieved 2013 04 22 . charity the magic of ooch . sporting life 10k . retrieved 2013 04 22 . thousands take over yonge street for 10k run . citynews . retrieved 2013 04 22 . info . sporting life 10k . retrieved 2013 04 22 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sporting life retailer & oldid 735289998 categories challenge walkssporting goods retailers of canadacompanies based in torontohidden categories articles with wayback machine linksarticles with a promotional tone from august 2016all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 19 august 2016 at 19 17 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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