The Number

Sport Chalet has closed its stores, including five in the San Fernando Valley region as well as its flagship location near its former headquarters in La Canada-Flintridge. And in March, Sports Authority Inc. announced the closure of 140 stores nationwide by end of this month, including five in the Valley. Valley sports stores closed That’s a total of 11 sporting goods stores in the region that have disappeared. Yet a report from iHumanMedia.com found that last year “sporting goods store sales amounted to around $44 billion, the highest amount to date and an increase of $10 billion from 2006.” And that figure doesn’t include the estimated $9.5 billion in online sporting goods sales. How can increasing sales and store closures occur at the same time? The answer seems to be what a recent report from the National Retail Federation calls “omnichannel,” meaning that unless retailers have a solid presence both online and in physical locations, they lose sales. “Consumers live omnichannel every day. Retailers must transform their businesses to embrace this new reality,” states the report, titled “Spotlight on Modern Retail.” The iHumanMedia research notes that the top retailer in the sector last year was Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. with 644 locations. Dick’s has invested heavily in its online operations, and during the fourth quarter online sales accounted for 16 percent of revenue, up from 14 percent a year earlier. “In 2015, we grew our omnichannel platform by maintaining strong new-store productivity and driving our e-commerce business,” Dick’s Chief Executive Edward Stack said in a statement. While Sport Chalet developed a website, its debt load didn’t allow the kind of investment pursued by competitors. Dick’s, for example, plans to spend $50 million to $55 million this year on both in-store and online improvements. – Joel Russell