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Back to List		www.sgbmag.com - March 2007 According to Plan Just seven months old, Sporteve is changing women's-specific retail in Culver City, CA. By Marianne Bhonslay As an urban planner, D'Lynda Fischer possessed little time to focus on personal physical fitness, much less the training regimens and athletic accomplishments of others. As the founder and owner of Sporteve, however, Fischer now devotes her days to outfitting and encouraging her fellow female athletes, ensuring they log their cycling and running miles attired in technically proficient, tailored gear. "I have one customer who is running four marathons this year-she is now up to 38 [marathons] and she will be 64 years old this year," says Fischer admiringly. "I like getting to know people, learning about them, giving them information and giving them options." Offering women fashionable choices in running, cycling and hiking apparel and footwear is what prompted Fischer to open Sporteve-a 2,700-squarefoot athletic store located in Culver City, CA-last July. A four-mile drive from Fischer's home in Venice Beach, CA-or cycle ride, for the days Fischer commutes to the store on her bike-Sporteve is one of the few female-owned and -operated retailers specializing in women's athletic products. With only six months of operating results available as of January, Fischer is far from proclaiming Sporteve a financial windfall. Yet few in the sporting goods industry dispute that growth in the women's market continues to outpace the men's, and that retailers may profit by catering to women. Nonetheless, running, cycling and hiking specialty stores devoted exclusively to women remain a novelty. "I think every community could use [a women's running store]," says Lori Shannon, owner and founder of the San Francisco, CA-based See Jane Run, a two-unit women's running specialist that opened in 2000 and has plans to expand beyond the Bay Area this year to Boise, ID. "The industry as a whole is getting a bit better each year, technically, with better product offerings for women. But it doesn't matter how much is being done [by vendors] if women's product is not presented well at retail." Indeed, it was Fischer's own search in 2003 for an engaging women's retail environment and women's-specific product as she shopped for a three-week hiking, kayaking and cycling trip to Alaska that induced her to open Sporteve. "I had to pack for three weeks in Alaska without knowing what the weather was going to be-whether it was going to be 50 degrees or 70 degrees, sunny or raining," recounts Fischer, who has a masters degree in urban planning from the University of Southern California (USC) and was working in that profession at the time of her trip. "I had three options when looking for outerwear: the local REI, Adventure 16 and Patagonia, but something was lacking. I would bring products in via mail order, try them on, and send them back. I spent a lot on postage but learned a lot about brands. " Yet, it was on that very Alaska adventure that Fischer contemplated launching a women's sports store. While cycling amid a downpour in Seward, she turned to her traveling cohort and said, "I could do this." Fischer began analyzing the Southern California market utilizing her metropolitan planning expertise. "I started focusing on Santa Monica, but my impression was that it was too crowded [for another retailer]," says Fischer, 47, whose undergraduate degree is in real estate and marketing, also from USC. "And Venice is too close to the beach. I wanted to draw from a broader sector, from Malibu to Palos Verdes, and to find an area that consumers could get to with relative ease." Adequate parking was another requirement, Fischer relates, and she soon discovered that Culver City was in the midst of redevelopment. "The city began rebuilding, planting trees along the streets, widening the sidewalks," she explains. "It put money and effort into the downtown area. First galleries opened, second were restaurants and third were movie theatres. People are now driving here for entertainment and restaurants. It is surrounded by residential areas, and a light rail is coming in one and a half years." Retail development will be next, Fischer reasons, and Sporteve will be well positioned, having secured a 10-year lease for its first floor, street-corner location long before national chains arrive. While the store's early sales reports are modest-revenues were $160,000 in the first six months-Fischer believes that Sporteve could become profitable within three years (the company's business plan indicates profits in year five). With the onset of the spring and summer marathon and triathlon season, Fischer says first-year sales projections are $650,000. Started with a personal investment of $500,000, Sporteve also has a business loan from the city of Culver City, says Fischer. She adds that the store's positioning as a highend "athletic boutique" targets customers between 30 and 60 years old. "It is a matter of economics," Fischer explains. "We are a high-end store." According to Fischer's own research, other outerwear, running and cycling stores positioned their products as "good, better, best." She explains, "They had price points for everybody. We don't. I bring in the best [product] within each category. Even at trade shows, I don't look so much at price point as I do at the product. So it is that type of customer that we will attract." Sporteve's merchandise mix testifies to the eclectic, fashion-conscious Southern California taste. Apparel brands include Descente, Pure Lime, Shebeest, Sugoi, Isis, Zoot, Icebreaker, Brooks and Finis. Sports bra brands include Hanro, Moving Comfort, Pure Lime and Isis. Sports categories within the store are denoted as Running, Cycling/Spinning, Hiking, Nordic Skiing, Swimming and Watersports, and Staying Fit. The store carries cycling shoes by Sidi and Pearl Izumi, while the store's sole bicycle model is the Biomega Amsterdam, a chainless bicycle imported from Denmark that is designed for urban commuters. Salomon, Vasque and Montrail represent the hiking footwear lines. Cycling and Spinning bags are by Knog and Detours. Sporteve also merchandises a Dog Walking category, complete with apparel by Horny Toad and Prana, socks from Fox River, and toys from Planet Dog. Claiming that the store is for all women seeking fashionable workout wear-not just those that run 10Ks in under 40 minutes-Sporteve's apparel offerings run to size 12. "One of my goals is to support businesses like me-small startup companies," says Fischer, citing the Boulder, CO-based Verve. "I've never run a retail business, and I am certainly not the forerunner of [an exclusive women's sports retail business]. Those are Outdoor Diva, See Jane Run and Title Nine. When a woman walks into the store, it's like walking into a candy store." She adds, "Look at almost any bike store. It is typically run by a man who likes to cycle, who likes to hang out in a cycle store." While such an environment may work for male cyclists and hardcore female riders, Fischer and other female retailers maintain that a woman's touch-such as extra-large, private dressing rooms-appeal to many female customers. Fischer claims that the industry has heeded the call for women's-specific products. "My first concern [when ordering merchandise] was that I wouldn't find enough women's-only product," recalls Fischer. "Then I realized, when I started ordering product, that I don't ever have to be concerned about having enough good women's-specific product." For companies such as Brooks Sports, which cites its women's categories as growing faster than it's men's, the ability to cater to female runners, for example, offers a retail advantage. "The market is there-there is absolutely an opportunity," says Brooks CEO Jim Weber, referring to women's running retail. "There are lots of different types of runners: competitive, walkers, Baby Boomers, event participants. But there is not a segment within the market that has seen more growth than women's. A lot of these running shops don't have enough [women's] inventory and someone with the fit expertise [for women]. There is not enough selection and the dressing rooms are not conducive to women." According to Weber, the women's line at Brooks has grown faster than the men's for the past 10 years, and footwear sales are now evenly split between men's and women's product. "Men and women are different customers," adds Weber. "They buy differently, they shop differently, they select products differently in both footwear and apparel. And they use key influencers- such as in-store sales personnel or friends-to select product differently. It takes a great retail merchant to figure it out." Fischer, for one, understands the plight of women trying to stay fit or gain fitness for the first time. After growing up skiing, riding horses and cycling in Alaska and Sun Valley, ID, Fischer's college and career paths took her to Boston, New York and finally, Southern California, during which time she was a smoker. After moving from West Hollywood to Venice Beach, she traded smoking for cycling. "Bike riding became my vice," says Fischer, adding that her routine eventually included cross-training with running and weight lifting. Along with increasing sales, the immediate business challenges include computerizing the store, hiring on-floor sales experts and refining the ordering process. Yet, Sporteve already has a database of approximately 2,000 customers, many of whom are increasingly returning to the store. Ever the urban planner, Fischer is already considering which market may be best suited for a second store, citing Pasadena as a possible choice. "This [high-end women's] market is specialized, so I have to be in a place where enough customers fit my market," says Fischer. "Hopefully, in five years I will be able to look around and see how to improve this store." ?

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