New owners Brent and Blake Sonnek-Schmelz are looking to revive retailer City Sports after bankruptcy, the Boston Globe reported. The fitness apparel shop will open in April in suburban New Jersey, near the home base for the brothers’ 32-store Soccer Post chain. But it will be the model for what the brothers do with their future City Sports locations, with Boston and Philadelphia next in line. They hope to have a “pop up” store in those cities by the end of 2018. The locations could become permanent if the stores are successful, Brent Sonnek-Schmelz says. Previous owners of City Sports grew too aggressively, expanding beyond the downtown locations that served their urban customers resulting in bankruptcy in 2015, then liquidation. The brothers, though, saw opportunity and scooped up the City Sports “intellectual property” — such as the website and customer lists — for $400,000.
