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Updated Aug 28th, 2008
Sport Chalet Founder’s
4-Decade Wait is Over
 Craig Levra
Sport Chalet CEO
By CRAIG LEVRA
Special to the Outlook
And to quote Sport Chalet
founder Norbert Olberz: “They
said it couldn’t be done.”
We at Sport Chalet are so
thankful for all the hard work of
our city council and staff, along
with the Chamber of Commerce,
in order to make last weekend’s
Sport Chalet grand opening happen.
There are some people I
would like to recognize:
• Mr. Jack Attwood, a pillar of
our community and a rock solid
leader in every way, has been
someone on whom Norbert and
the company relied heavily
through all the ups and downs of
this process.
• Our former City Manager
Jerry Fulwood, the current city
manager of Culver City, helped
convince us to keep our headquarters
here. We are grateful to Mr.
Fulwood and to Fred Schneider
for their invaluable assistance in
guiding us through the process of
building our corporate headquarters
in 2002.
• Darren Mattix, the developer
Eric Olberz chose to build our beautiful Town Center, and his
team of Bobby Sullivan and Steve
Sanders. Darren has literally
worked seven days a week for the
past 2-1/2 years to get us here, and
I personally don’t know of anyone
else who could have done so.
What a tremendous job he has
done.
• And, of course, Eric. Thank
you so much, Eric, for taking the
handoff from Norbert and finishing
the job. We all know that you could have decided not to proceed,
and you didn’t, and we sincerely
appreciate you.
Norbert truly had an impossible
dream. Coming here with nothing,
sleeping in the back of the shop,
taking cold showers with the garden
hose. It has been 33 years after
Norbert and Irene first came up
with the idea to leave the old Sportland building across the street
and build a new store.
This marks a new chapter in a
company preparing to celebrate 50
years in business. From our humble
beginnings — a 2,000-square-foot
ski shop with one employee — to
today, a company with two million
square feet of retail floor space in
53 stores in four states and an annual
sales volume more than $400
million.
We are proud to call La Cañada
Flintridge our home.
We embrace all of what Norbert
taught all of us:
• See things through the eyes of
the customer
• Do 1000 things a little bit better
• Be the image of a sportsman
• Create ease of shopping
• Not be the biggest, but be the
best
For Norbert, it always was and
always is about our customers. He
always wanted a new Sport Chalet
here, not as a testament to himself
or his family, but because he wanted
our loyal customers and our
hard-working employees to be able
to enjoy a nice, new store. It was
really as simple as that.
The very first time I interviewed
for my job with Norbert in 1997, he
showed me his plans for a new store
and headquarters here. He was so
excited and so enthusiastic. It was
contagious, and I quickly learned to
share his enthusiasm.
We have so many great memories
of many wonderful years. The
one that sticks in my mind the most
is the time when Norbert and Irene
decided to give more than $1.5 million
in Sport Chalet stock to the 129
longest-tenured employees at Sport
Chalet. What a gesture — his belief
to reward those who helped him
succeed. Many of these recipients
couldn’t afford to pay their income
taxes, so Sport Chalet paid them,
and then set up a modest payback
plan for each. What a great teacher
Norbert has been. This new store
will serve as a test platform, our
company’s retail lab, for new merchandise,
displays and store computer
systems. Everything we do in
all our stores will begin in this store.
We will listen to all of you, our
customers, to study your behavior
and listen to your comments, both
good and bad, on how we can do
better. You, in effect, will become a
year-round focus group for Sport
Chalet. The decisions we make will
be based on how you shop — you
will help shape the future of our
company. And I can assure you that
after 50 years, our company is really
just getting started; our best days
are ahead of us.
Craig Levra is Sport Chalet’s
chief executive.
Celebrating the ribbon-cutting at Sport Chalet's new store in the La Cañada Flintridge Town
Center last Thursday were (from left) Jack Attwood, Sport Chalet board member; Ken Olsen,
retired board member; Fred Schneider, board member; Craig Levra, Sport Chalet chairman and
CEO; company founders Norbert and Irene Olberz; Amy and Eric Olberz of La Cañada
Properties.
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