City Sports May Finally Make Its Comeback
When Boston-born City Sports shuttered all 26 of its stores in 2015, it felt like the end of an era. We got a glimmer of hope a few months later, when brothers Brent and Blake Sonnek-Schmelz, who run the Soccer Post chain, announced they’d purchased City Sports’ intellectual property and would revive the brand.
More than a year later, it looks like that’s finally happening. Per a Boston Globe report, the duo will operate a pop-up shop at this month’s Boston Triathlon, paving the way for future event partnerships and, hopefully, full-on stores in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.
“We’re brick and mortar people,” Brent Sonnek-Schmelz told the Globe. “Our family has been in retail for several generations. I believe in storefronts. I think they’re vital to Main Streets and downtowns.”
But don’t expect the chain to pick up right where it left off under previous ownership. Sonnek-Schmelz says he envisions operating 10 stores or fewer, and doesn’t plan to expand into the suburbs. Storefronts likely won’t exceed 5,000 square feet, a stark departure from the massive stores that once populated the likes of Boylston Street and Commonwealth Avenue. (The Comm. Ave. location still sits empty, City Sports branding intact.) Merchandise will skew more toward fitness than sports, in a nod to today’s fitness-obsessed clientele.
Sonnek-Schmelz says he hopes to have a temporary shop up and running in Boston by next spring, and a permanent location open by the end of that year. Until then, you can shop online—and perhaps rebuild your t-shirt collection with one of these.
