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BUSINESS
Glenn's has been selling sporting goods for 40 years
HUNTINGTON -- When Glenn Brumfield first opened his own sporting goods store in 1970, its shoe offerings were limited pretty much to Converse Chuck Taylors. In black or white.
Then, throughout the course of the 1970s and early '80s, there was an athletic shoe revolution of sorts. Nike got started in 1972. Adidas, which had only been sold in Europe, began selling shoes in the United States, and Reebok came onto the scene. Meanwhile, shoe manufacturers started making different shoes for different sports and new sports were growing in popularity -- jogging and aerobics, as examples.
"Shoes made us," said Brumfield, now 86 and chairman of the board for Glenn's Sporting Goods on 4th Avenue, which celebrates 40 years in business this month.
Glenn's son, Jim Brumfield, is now president of the company, which has diversified and used different tactics to survive as a downtown local retailer. But Jim Brumfield gives credit to his father's vision for helping the company flourish at the right time.
If a shoe manufacturer made a new shoe, Glenn's bought it.
"The American public was eager to wear a better athletic shoe. I have to give dad credit," Jim Brumfield said. "He had the vision to say, 'The people in Huntington want the best.' "
And that's what Glenn's has striven to provide over the decades.
Eventually, there got to be more and more sports clothing on the market as well. At first, you could buy a Marshall University sweatshirt at Glenn's but not a North Carolina sweatshirt, or an NFL jersey. Now you can buy variety of Marshall wear and other athletic wear, including the brands The Northface and Under Armour.
Since the early days, Glenn's has been an elite Nike dealer, which has included limited edition products over the years, such as Air Jordan basketball shoes and Air Force 1 shoes.
And today, along with selling a variety of shoes, clothing and athletic equipment, Glenn's has a division for supplying sports teams, a lettering department and for the past 20 years has had a federal government division, which sells clothing to Army bases and prisons.
Diversifying "has been our salvation," Jim Brumfield said. "It's very important to who we are today and why we're able to leverage ourselves like we do."
After three expansions over the years, the business has about 12,000 square feet of retail space in the Coal Exchange Building at the corner of 11th Street and 4th Avenue, and it has 25,000 total in square footage, including a warehouse on 3rd Avenue.
It could have moved out of the city of Huntington, particularly its wholesale division, to avoid certain taxes, but the owners were committed to downtown Huntington, Jim Brumfield said. And its survival as an independent, small downtown sporting goods business makes it a rarity.
Since 1980, 70 percent of locally owned sporting stores have gone out of business, Jim Brumfield said, and he's convinced that if he tried to start up a sporting goods store today in downtown Huntington, the manufacturers wouldn't work with him.
Glenn's Sporting Goods survival can be attributed to a number of things, he said.
Not only has it diversified over the years, but it's remained flexible, keeping an eye on what people want to buy.
When it first opened -- in 1,500 square feet of selling space with three employees -- it sold toys and games.
"We sold Madame Alexander dolls, and people lined up," Jim Brumfield said, adding that Glenn's and Stone & Thomas were the only downtown businesses where they could be bought in the early 1970s.
"It was a big deal buying those for your daughters," he said.
Glenn's business also has grown geographically, serving school teams and other clients throughout the Tri-State and beyond.
Also beneficial has been Glenn's membership in a national buying cooperative that has helped it as a small business in getting better prices on merchandise and insurance.
Independently, the store wouldn't survive without that national connection, Jim Brumfield said.
It's a struggle to pay taxes, bills and livable wages for employees, many of whom have stayed for several years, Jim Brumfield said. Of its 40 employees, Glenn's has three employees who have been there more than 30 years, six who have been there more than 20 years and three who have been there more than 15 years. A woman named Justine Price helped Glenn Brumfield -- a 1943 Ceredo-Kenova High School graduate and World War II veteran -- get the business started 40 years ago and worked until she was 88 years old. She passed away in 2008.
Current employees have more than 400 years combined experience, Jim Brumfield said. And much of the work takes a great deal of skill, such as the work done in the team department, measuring for uniforms, football helmets and the like, he said.
He's also proud of the about 500 Marshall students who have worked at the store since it opened.
"We feel like we've helped by being flexible with their schedules," he said.
Glenn's also has contributed to more than 1,000 youth teams. "You look at most communities, and we either have a sign on the field, or a team on the field," he said. "And we just contributed to a new trail they're building."
Glenn's also played a key role in helping the Tolsia football program get back on the field in just a matter of days after the team's uniforms and equipment were destroyed in a fire last fall.
The Tri-State is the perfect size for a small business to make a difference, Jim Brumfield said.
"I feel like we're a small business that does great things," he said.
During the month of June, Glenn's Sporting Goods will celebrate its 40th anniversary with sales and promotions to thank the public for their support over the years.
The business will mark the event with a proclamation from Mayor Kim Wolfe at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, June 18.
