End of the road for Sportsshoes store
ONE of Yorkshire’s best known sports wear shops, which its former professional footballer founder claimed was once the largest in the world, is closing its doors.
Sportsshoes, Bradford’s oldest independent sportswear store, is set to close after almost 30 years of trading.
The family run retailer, founded by former Bradford City striker Bruce Bannister, is to focus on its online and mail order business.
The Bradford store’s 14 staff will be offered the opportunity to work at the firm’s head office and distribution warehouse in Shipley, West Yorkshire, where it employs 80 people.
Sportsshoes will close the doors of its 16,000 sq ft retail unit following the termination of its lease agreement with landlord and car park operator, NCP, at the end of July.
Established in 1982, Sportsshoes, formerly known as Sportsshoes Unlimited, sells more than 250,000 pairs of trainers and dispatches more than 350,000 orders worldwide a year, through its online and mail order division.
Since it first opened, the store has served more than 1m sports enthusiasts, including sports stars Steve Cram, Ray Wilkins, Bryan Robson, Harry and Jamie Redknapp, Paul Gascoigne and Ian Botham.
Sportsshoes’s chairman Mr Bannister said: “As a Yorkshire businessman, born and bred in Bradford, I’m passionate about my home city and the store is close to my heart.
“So it is with great regret that we have to announce the closure of our Sportsshoes retail unit. We will be closing our doors at the end of July, as the renewal proposals were just not commercially viable. Our main priority is the future welfare of our dedicated staff and our loyal local customers.”
Mr Bannister’s son, Brett, is now the company’s managing director, while daughter Victoria and wife Janet are company directors.
Brett Bannister added: “Whilst this marks the end of an era, we are extremely confident about the future of the business. We have a growing customer base that extends from Bradford to countries worldwide, thanks to the huge success of our mail order and online business www.sportsshoes.com.”
