The Houston Business Journal‘s Allison Wollam reports that a longtime Houston merchant was rebranded over the weekend:
The last trace of Houston retail institution Oshman’s Sporting Goods Inc. was erased last weekend as the 86-year-old retailer was taken out of the local retail game.
Englewood, Colo.-based The Sports Authority Inc., which inherited Oshman’s through its 2003 merger with Gart Sports Co., has converted all nine Oshman’s stores in the Houston area to The Sports Authority.
Oshman’s was founded in Richmond in 1919 and had grown into a publicly traded company — which was still run by the Oshman family — when it was sold to Denver-based Gart for $84 million in 2001.
Gart had maintained the Oshman’s name during its ownership period.
Tony Patino, district manager for The Sports Authority, says the company did away with the Oshman’s name in order to create a national brand.
[snip]
The product mix will remain the same, although the exercise, team sports and golf departments will be enhanced, according to Patino.
John Horan, publisher of industry newsletter Sporting Goods Intelligence, says the removal of regional brands such as Oshman’s is a good strategic move by The Sports Authority, which is the largest sporting goods chain in the country.
“It makes a lot of sense,” he says. “From the marketing and promotional standpoint alone, it’s certainly an advantage to operate under one brand.”
Dick’s Sporting Goods has already pushed into the Dallas suburbs, and Houston will likely follow at some point. The Sports Authority surely felt it had to bring Oshman’s under its main brand before Dick’s moves into town.
