private vestis retail group industry retail fate chapter 11 bankruptcy founded 1959 defunct 2016 headquarters la ca ada california number of locations 47 at closure 1 key people 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 . 1 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 on sunday june 26th 2016 . 2 contents 1 history 2 corporate environment 3 references 4 external links history edit sport chalet was founded on april 1 1959 by norbert olberz and his wife irene who bought a ski and tennis shop in la ca ada 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 . 3 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 . 3 sport chalet grew piecemeal in la ca ada 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 . 3 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 . 3 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 . 4 norbert olberz died in la ca ada flintridge on july 15 2011 . 5 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 . 6 on april 16 2016 sport chalet announced that all stores will close with may 15 7 being the last day for customers to use gift cards and store credits and that online merchandise sales had already been stopped . 8 subsequently vestis retail group which owns the eastern mountain sports and bob s stores sporting goods chains as well as sport chalet announced it had filed for bankruptcy protection and reorganization under chapter 11 of the united states bankruptcy code . 9 10 corporate environment edit sport chalet s claim was to pride itself by employing well trained and knowledgeable employees who had extensive knowledge and or experience in their respective departments leading to one of the companies slogans the experts . sport chalet was one of the few major sporting goods retailers to focus on a broad array of more specialized sports including kayaking scuba diving mountain climbing canyoneering and other extreme sports . sport chalet additionally used the slogan we ll take you to the limit . in 1998 olberz gave 1.5 million in stock to 109 employees who had been with the company for at least 10 years . 3 the company was the title sponsor of the u.s.b.a. california regional tour . the tour was a collection of three events that were sanctioned by the united states bodyboarding association that took place at different southern california beaches events ran between june 7 2008 and november 9 2008 . following the january 2010 earthquake in haiti sport chalet in conjunction with soles 4 souls began accepting donations of gently worn shoes at all their locations until january 31 2010 . they collected almost 1 million pairs of shoes in 2 weeks . references edit a b http www.webcitation.org 6gt8m0fex http www.webcitation.org 6iegdzsep a b c d e leslie earnest august 20 2008 . sport chalet s founder sees dream come true . los angeles times . pp . c1 c4 dead link craig levra appointed sport chalet chief executive officer . norbert olberz dies at 86 ; sport chalet founder ceo for 4 decades los angeles times july 19 2011 . sport chalet sold to vestis retail group . retrieved 2014 07 01 . chalet extends close out to may 15 http scvnews.com 2016 04 30 sport chalet extends close out to may 15 title sport chalet extends close out to may 15 check url value help . missing or empty title help sport chalet is closing all stores has stopped online sales retailer announces ktla april 16 2016 . http www.kccllc.net vestisretailgroup dawn mccarty & steven church eastern mountain in bankruptcy as shopping habits change bloomberg news april 17 2016 . http money.cnn.com news newsfeeds articles prnewswire lam16205112007 1.htm http www.bodyboarder.com press sport chaletusba partnership 2008 external links edit sport chalet website sport chalet facebook page retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sport chalet & oldid 741285233 categories companies based in los angeles county californiaeconomy of the southwestern united statesclothing retailers of the united statessporting goods retailers of the united statesretail companies established in 1959retail companies disestablished in 2016hidden categories articles with inconsistent citation formatsall articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from june 2010pages with citations lacking titlespages with citations having bare urlspages with url errors 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 26 september 2016 at 14 58 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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