Pro Hockey Life, the ultimate hockey mega-store, has opened four new stores in Ontario – Sudbury, Barrie, Kingston and London.
Each store features a clean, open and easy-to-navigate layout with enhanced in-store services to help players test and find gear that will ultimately improve their game.
Barrie is the largest of the four new stores at 28,000 square feet with a Race Track Floor Plan layout and two shooting pads (a large pad for shooting and a half pad to test out Hockey Shot training aids on Dyland tiles).
“Now after our four new openings, we’re up to 20 across Canada,” said Kris Maslanyk, VP National Sales Support Canadian Tire Retail & Store Operations Pro Hockey Life.
The first store opened in Montreal in 1973. Canadian Tire acquired the brand in 2012.
New in-store services include:
- The Bauer Fit Lab scanning station that identifies athletes unique foot type and provides personalized orthotic and skate recommendations for ideal fit and performance;
- Shooting Zone that allows players to try before they buy;
- The Fitting Centre where players can work 1 on 1 with PHL’s Fit Experts to find gear that fits right.
- Individual lockers in the centre of all the Protective Equipment area where players will get a dedicated locker to try on equipment along with draped fitting rooms for extra privacy.
Maslanyk said typically stores are between 17,000 to 22,000 square feet.
“We renovated our Hamilton location (last year) to get this new prototype but these are the first four new ones in a while,” he said.
“We’re always assessing the market for future opportunities because we’re now across five provinces and obviously the response has been very positive so we’re always looking at what opportunities there may be. For this year the four was a huge undertaking.”
Maslanyk said the four new stores are in proven markets with strong hockey backgrounds.
“There was a natural opportunity to get into some of these markets,” he said.
Throughout July the Pro Hockey Life stores in Sudbury, Barrie, London and Kingston will be celebrating their official grand openings with games, interactive hockey challenges, tons of giveaways and exclusive in-store deals.
Grand Opening Weekend Event Schedule:
- Sudbury GO: July 5-7
- Barrie GO: July 12-15
- London GO: July 19-21
- Kingston GO: July 26-28
“We’re seeing a real need for that kind of specialty retail environment. We’re a full service specialty hockey retailer. We’ve got a world class selection of the latest gear and equipment. We’ve got the top brands. We feel like we’ve got a great service model to service these customers,” added Maslanyk.
“I think we’re just seeing a real niche of people wanting that expertise and wanting access to the latest and greatest brands. You can buy things on ecommerce but obviously our stores are where you have some of the technology and experiential pieces as well. We’re really seeing customers gravitating to going back to the stores to get their expertise and try before you buy mentality around some of the hard goods.”
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