Changes ahead for Watkins Sporting Goods

Jan 25, 2023 at 07:29 am by Observer-Review


Changes ahead for Watkins Sporting Goods ADVERTISEMENT

Changes ahead for Watkins Sporting Goods

The office of Bill Phoenix at Watkins Sporting Goods does not look as if he's leaving it any time soon. That's because he isn't. While the owner of the store at 123 East Fourth Street plans to close the door on retail sales at the end of January, this actually translates to a change in business direction rather than an end to this iconic Watkins Glen business.
School and college teams in a hundred-mile radius of Watkins Glen have always known they could depend on the store's products, he says, whether it was for equipment they ordered or a mom suddenly discovering the child she was delivering to a game had forgotten their socks. "All good folks," he says of the customers he encountered. Over the years, the store also sponsored many youth sports teams.
The store is still filled with equipment for every sport enjoyed in this area, from waterskiing to football, racquetball to whiffle ball, camping gear, horseshoes for pitching to Phoenix's personal specialty, darts. It's also been a place where tourists could find memorabilia to take home as a souvenir of their visit. Even the still-half-full vintage gumball machine at the front of the store offers a chance to shoot a hoop before the gum drops into a waiting hand. As of Monday, Jan. 23, everything left in the store will be 75 percent off.
Some of what you'll see, including the duffle bags printed with team logos and the trophies lining one back wall, will continue to be available. For the more than 40 years Phoenix worked in and owned the store, part of the business included engraving trophies, screen-printing tee-shirts and other team apparel and accessories, embroidering names and logos, imprinting baseball caps, all specialized processes and equipment he learned to use from his earliest days there.
Customers have relied on his skills for more than sports equipment. An office wall filled with a collage of tee-shirts attests to the wider community of non-sports groups that also value teamwork, like the Lake Country Players and the annual Cardboard Boat Regatta. Their shirts commemorated participants with logos that were printed here.
The high-ceilinged back rooms where extra stock was stored, also house a long computerized embroidery machine able to adorn eight shirts at once with embroidery in a rainbow of colors. The tin ceilings hark back to the older era of the almost-century-old building, but the embroidery machine and screen-printing equipment upstairs are modern and continue to be in use. There's also engraving equipment for trophies. Phoenix says he's learned how to do it all, though he prefers to hire specialists for this work.
Personalized trophies and plaques can be awarded for a variety of endeavors in addition to sports, and they sometimes get creative. Phoenix once created an award from a gold-painted, spiked track shoe, but a mounted wine bottle was part of another.
Built as a furniture store in 1927, the building served the community in a variety of incarnations, including as a furniture store. Founded in 1956, Watkins Sporting Goods did business in several different locations until it moved here. Phoenix isn't sure when that happened, though by 1980 when he started working for Jeff Gage, the previous owner, the store was already here.
Its location is just a little off the beaten path, Phoenix says, which means it's been a little harder than the stores on Franklin Street for tourists to find. Amazon and big box retailers have also, over the years, impacted consumers' buying habits. Additionally, many small area schools have combined their sports teams, meaning fewer players require team jerseys and equipment. The changes have increasingly made the equipment end of the business harder to maintain.
Thus the changes, partly fueled by Phoenix's disinclination to retire, make sense. He's not yet sure how the building's work spaces will be reconfigured after the retail stock is dispersed, but he definitely intends to keep going at this same address. Reach him there during business hours at 607-535-2756.

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