The story
Sport Chalet was founded on April 1, 1959 by newlyweds Norbert Olberz, a former baker, and his wife Irene, who bought a ski and tennis shop in La Cañada Flintridge, California, for $4000, equaling a $2500 check plus a negotiation, from Milo Svoboda, the original owner, whose store had only been open four months. 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.
When surfing became popular in the early 1960s, the store began carrying longboards and wetsuits.
Sport Chalet grew piecemeal in La Cañada 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. Sport Chalet's location was 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, California. By the mid-1980s, the company expanded to have stores throughout Southern California.
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.
Norbert Olberz died in La Cañada Flintridge on July 15, 2011, survived by his wife Irene and his son Eric. Two years later Eric resigned from the board, replaced by Miki Berardelli, chief marketing officer of New York women’s clothing designer and retailer Tory Burch.
In 2014, Sport Chalet was sold to Vestis Retail Group for $17M, as well as absorbing its current $50M in debts. Vestis was owned by the private equity firm Versa Capital Management.
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On April 16, 2016, Sport Chalet announced that all stores would close, with May 15 being the last day for customers to use gift cards and store credits, and that online merchandise sales had already been stopped. 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.
By June 2016, all stores had closed.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sport Chalet, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6