Athletic Locker has come a long way since selling shoes out of the back of a car. This is truly an inspiring story of building a business from the ground (or the car!) up.
It all started in 1977 when Mike Dyon purchased a pair of the Brooks Villanova in Florida and liked them so much he bought a pair for his brother Paul. It is almost hard to believe that the purchase of these two pairs of shoes was the beginning of a very successful business.
They borrowed their mother’s station wagon, headed for the U.S. and bought $750.00 worth of Brooks running shoes. They purchased shoes in their sizes (81/2 and 9) and decided if they couldn’t sell them they would be set for life with their own supply of running shoes. Mike would sell the shoes out of the back of his car at races he attended. From the back of a car to a business that now not only distributes Brooks, but other products such as RipZone, Powder Room, Umbro, and Teva, and many others to some of Canada’s major retailers.
In the early days we ran an annual sale in our warehouse to help us clear our older inventory to make way for the newer inventory. This “Annual Brooks Warehouse” sale was highly anticipated and each sale grew bigger and the feedback was awesome so we decided to grow into what we call Pop Up Retail! For the last 15 years we have been Popping up into neighborhoods all over Southern Ontario. We also have two warehouses that we run regular sales out of. We now buy and introduce new product and great prices as well as clear out older inventory in our events. The perfect blend to create the best value for our loyal customers.
