Eastbay was an American supplier of

athletic footwear Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used f ...

, apparel and sports equipment, which sells by

direct mail Advertising mail, also known as direct mail (by its senders), junk mail (by its recipients), mailshot or admail (North America), letterbox drop or letterboxing (Australia) is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The d ...

. Since 1997, it has been the direct-to-mail division of the

F. W. Woolworth Company The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or simply Woolworth) was a retail company and one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. It was among the most successful American and international five-and-dime businesses, se ...

, now known as Foot Locker, Inc.

History

The company began in 1980 when Richard Gering and Art Juedes set up a

shoe A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture ...

sales company. With about $7,000 worth of running shoes, they set up shoe clinics near their hometown of

Wausau, Wisconsin Wausau ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States. The Wisconsin River divides the city into east and west. The city's suburbs include Schofield, Weston, Mosinee, Maine, Rib Mountain, Kronenwetter, an ...

. At each stop they sold their shoes and provided price lists. In 1983, they developed a catalog for

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

shoes and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

shoes. In 1988, phone operators were hired to take orders. In 1989, the company began a team sales division and in 1990, they created and produced its first in-house team sales catalog. By 1990, Eastbay's call center, shipping and creative departments occupied just under one city block. Eastbay established its own clothing brand in 1990, offering jackets, pants, shorts, underwear, socks and tops in various sports teams' colors and styles, with the Eastbay logo. On September 29, 1995, Eastbay made an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Two years later, shareholders sold the company to

. In July 1997, Eastbay moved its downtown corporate operation and retail store to a larger space on Wausau's near-west side. Three months later, it combined the shipping department and various warehouses into a new distribution center on the outskirts of Wausau. In March 1998, Eastbay converted its marketing website into an e-commerce site. Two additional call centers were subsequently opened in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Juedes and Gering retired on June 30, 1999. Eastbay's parent company, F.W. Woolworth Company, also underwent a major revision, being reorganized as Venator Group in 1997 and changing its name in 2001 to Foot Locker, Inc. Eastbay shut down permanently on January 13, 2023, resulting in 210 layoffs in Wausau.

References

External links

* {{Woolworth, No Collapse Foot Locker Sporting goods retailers of the United States Retail companies established in 1980 Companies based in Wisconsin 1980 establishments in Wisconsin