70-year run ends for Elgin Sports

By Rosa Saba

After 70 years in business, Elgin Sports is closing its doors at the end of this month.

For current owner Karl Kofmel, it was a matter of time. He said business had been slowing due to competition from bigger stores, the economy, and the “changing face of retail.”

“I think people have less and less disposable dollars,” he said.

Conditions have been particularly harsh for locally-owned retailers who have struggled to compete with bigger stores and online commerce in recent years.

“Smaller retailers who don’t offer niche products that consumers need to squeeze before buying will struggle,” said Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business.  “Stores like Elgin Sports just don’t have the economies of scale to survive when I can buy my Nike shoes from Amazon or a big-box store.”

Kofmel has worked at the store at the corner of Albert and Bank streets for 32 years, but represents just a part of its rich history. He bought the store from Brian Noel, whose father Emmett “Red” Noel, known for his red hair, opened the store after the Second World War.

Red’s granddaughter Stephanie Noel inherited that hair, and when she worked at the store as a teenager, customers would recognize her as his granddaughter.

“They would say to me all the time, ‘You must be related to Emmett,’ ” she said. “It was cool to meet people that knew my grandfather in a different aspect than I did.”

She said that when she worked there, she saw a difference in sales as suppliers changed, big stores moved in, and the Internet became more popular for sports gear.

“It’s something that I think just in general kills small businesses,” she said of e-commerce.

The store was originally named Elgin Cycling Sports until her father Brian took over in 1981 and renamed it Elgin Sports.

It soon became the largest independent sports store in Eastern Ontario.

“It’s kind of cool that everything’s been within the family,” Stephanie said.

“You get to know people, and you get to know the regular customers,” she said. “It’s kind of nice that way.”

By that time, the store had expanded to specialize in sports shoes. It was the first store in Ottawa to carry Nike, which became popular soon after. Brian Noel not only renamed the store but also began to expand to other locations around Ottawa.

“Ever since I was a kid, I always knew that’s what I wanted to do,” he said.

At its peak, Elgin Sports had seven locations.

But when the GST was introduced in 1991, increasing taxes from eight to 15 per cent, Noel said businesses took it hard.

“That just decimated the entire country financially,” he said. “You couldn’t sell anything.” For the first time, Elgin Sports experienced a drop in sales that year.

Several years ago, Red passed away, and Brian Noel said this was a turning point for him.

“I lost a little of my passion,” he said. “My dad and I always spoke business.”

Brian Noel had always wanted to move to Florida, and he saw this as the right time to do it. During the next few years, he began to close the other locations one by one, until the only one left was at the corner of Bank and Albert.

“The world’s always changing,” he said of the store’s closing. “Seventy years is a long time.”

Ottawa resident Parker MacDonald has been going to Elgin Sports for years. He said he supports family-run businesses because of the service they provide.

He knew Brian Noel, and used to visit the store several times a week. He said he remembers the owner’s blue van, painted with a picture of King Kong, which was always parked outside.

“Family-run, friendly … they weren’t a big-box store,” he said. “Elgin Street was a lot different then than it is now.”