By Craig Patterson

Toronto-based sport and fashion retailer Sporting Life has opened its first store in the province of Quebec with the opening of a one-level store at Quartier DIX30 in suburban Montreal. It is Sporting Life’s 11th store location as the company looks to double its store count over the next several years.

The impressive looking store, which is located in the 'Square DIX30' part of the commercial complex, carries a wide assortment of sporting goods and related fashion products from an array of designers, some of which are quite high-end. The store’s interior is similar to that of other recently opened Sporting Life stores, which feature attractive bright lighting and warm interiors with accents of wood and other natural materials. This article includes several photo galleries that were supplied by Sporting Life.

The Quartier DIX30 Sportig Life spans 29,690 square feet between Apple and Michael Kors in a retail space once occupied by Holt Renfrew’s now-shuttered HR2 off-price retail concept.

David Russell speaks to the audience at the opening.

Quartier DIX30 is a unique outdoor ‘lifestyle’ shopping complex that is a combination fashion mall and power-centre. The centre is gigantic, occupying more than 2.7 million square feet of retail in the suburban community of Brossard. The centre boasts more than nine-million visitors and more than 10,000 parking spaces, and houses approximately 300 retailers and restaurants. Major anchors include Walmart, Canadian Tire, Rona and Cineplex.

Sam Winberg represented Sporting Life when he was with brokerage Northwest Atlantic, which was recently acquired by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). In Western Canada, Chris Wood was working with Sporting Life’s expansion and he, too, is now part of the JLL team based out of Vancouver. Mr. Wood negotiated a deal that will see Sporting Life open its first store in British Columbia early next year at ‘The Amazing Brentwood’ in Burnaby, just east of Vancouver.

Oxford Properties owns and manages Quartier DIX30 and Sporting Life’s move into the centre marks the fourth Oxford Properties-managed centre to feature Sporting Life as a tenant. Other Oxford malls housing Sporting Life stores include Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill, Ontario (October of 2016), Southcentre Mall in Calgary (October 2016) and most recently, Sporting Life unveiled an impressive store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre in the fall of 2017.

Besides the four locations currently operating in Oxford malls, Sporting Life operates stores on Toronto’s Yonge Street (2665 Yonge Street and ‘Bikes & Boards’ at 2454 Yonge Street) as well as at Toronto's CF Sherway Gardens (which relocated to a new space in September of 2015), Collingwood ON (222 Hurontario Street), Markham ON (CF Markville), Vaughan ON (Vaughan Mills), Ottawa (Lansdowne) and at CF Market Mall in Calgary, which opened in the fall of 2017.

Sporting Life will further expand by opening stores in Quebec — Maxime Frechette informed us that, at the opening of the Quartier DIX30 store last Thursday, the company said that more Montreal-area stores are in the works and that a location at CF Carrefour Laval, north of Montreal, had already been secured.

In a previous interview with Sporting Life’s President/CEO/co-founder, David Russell, he said that Sporting Life will look to eventually operate about 20 stores Canada-wide. He explained that the Sporting Life brand will become truly national as it expands into the Vancouver/British Columbia market in 2019, with plans for three store locations in the Lower Mainland. While the Calgary market is adequately served with its two stores, an Edmonton location was a goal for the company, he said, though a deal for a downtown ‘ICE District’ location is said to have since fallen through. The Greater Toronto Area has room for between two and three more Sporting Life locations, according to Mr. Russell, and the Montreal region could eventually see as many as three stores as well. Store locations will ideally be in the 44,000 square foot range, he said.

Canada Goose is a top vendor for Sporting Life. PHoto: Maxime Frechette

In an interview last year with Marina Strauss of the Globe & Mail [Paywall], Mr. Russell revealed that Sporting Life’s current annual revenue is about $160 million annually (a quarter of which is said to be from the Canada Goose brand), and that the company intends to eventually see sales numbers of about $400 million from its 20 or so stores. Sporting Life is profitable and store sales are increasing at low-single-digit rates. E-commerce currently makes up about 15% of sales and Mr. Russell told Ms. Strauss that he expects that number to reach about 20%.

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Founded in 1979, Sporting Life sells apparel and footwear, as well as equipment geared towards runners, cyclists, skiers, snowboarders and hikers. It has a large selection of outerwear, fleece and coats from popular brands Moncler, Canada Goose, Arc'teryx and The North Face, among others. It also carries a mix of high-end and casual clothing brands such as Barbour, Bogner, Hugo Boss, Mackage, John Varvatos and others. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. bought 75% of Sporting Life in December of 2011.

Craig Patterson, now based in Toronto, is the founder and Editor-in-Chief Retail Insider. He's also a retail and real estate consultant, retail tour guide and public speaker.

Follow him on Twitter @RetailInsider_, LinkedIn at Craig Patterson, or email him at: craig@retail-insider.com.

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