No Category selected Living the Dream at Sports 4

Living the Dream at Sports 4

July 18, 2011

By: Gwen Leron

For Jim Macfarlane, it all started in 1982 with a tiny sports store, four employees and a vision. Fast forward almost 30 years: Macfarlane now owns three thriving sports stores and is living his dream.

In the beginning it was all hands on for Macfarlane and his then-business partner. Nowadays, he oversees the operations in all locations, and running the stores has become a bit of a family affair with his 80-year old mother still doing the accounting and his wife taking care of community and corporate relations.

Macfarlane grew up in Montreal. His mother took care of the books for a chain of sports stores, and when he was 14, against his parents’ wishes, he decided that he would like to work at one of the sports stores as well. So he got a job and in time developed a great relationship with the owner of the stores who became a mentor of sorts to him. He came to idolize the owner because he enjoyed his job immensely and it showed. “I wanted a job like that so I too could have a fun, enjoyable life and make a living doing it,” he said.

Through a strange twist of events, Macfarlane moved to Ottawa and ended up working at the Ottawa Athletic Club stringing rackets alongside the store owner who would end up being his future business partner. For the next few years, he dabbled in the racket business, but wanted something more. In1986, Macfarlane bought out his partner’s Sports 4 shares to become sole owner of the store. He then decided to bring a new focus to Sports 4.

“I wanted to focus on shoes, so I decided to carve out a niche for the store and chose to focus on the medical community,” says Macfarlane. Sports 4 quickly became the best kept secret in Ottawa.

With no budget for advertising, Macfarlane decided to focus on stellar customer service and knowledgeable, highly trained staff. “We relied on word of mouth advertising and it worked for us,” he said. “It was only when we opened up our Kanata store in 1999 that we started to invest in advertising because we had more of a cash flow at that point.”

Sports 4 is not your typical sports store, each customer is treated like an individual. “We still always measure feet and we never rush customers. When people come into our store, they know that they may have to wait, but they wait. They know that if you want the right shoes, Sports 4 is where you go,” says Macfarlane.

And how does his staff know so much about the products in the store? “Each staff member is thoroughly trained before ever heading out on the floor,” says Macfarlane. “They shadow other staff members, and while many of our staff members are runners, not all of them are – but each and every one of them live and breathes athletics.”

Mizuno is a top brand at Sports 4, and like most Mizuno fans, Macfarlane loves the consistency that this line always delivers. “Mizuno never alienates the people who are using their shoes; the next version of a shoe is always slightly better than the other with the fit and feel always being the same,” says Macfarlane. “Once someone becomes a Mizuno customer, they tend to become loyal for life because they develop a trust for the brand.”

Almost 30 years later, Macfarlane still loves what he is doing. He says, “I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. It is always a new challenge every day and it is not a typical 9-5 job, and that’s what I love about it.”

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