Once a top seller of Nike shoes, Steve Warwick prepares to close his Sport Town shop as big Nike store opens

Steve Warwick remembers when Albert Miller walked into his Colfax store in 1972, carrying an attache case.

“Are you interested in a new line of shoes?” Miller asked. At the time, Warwick’s Sport Shack carried only guns, fishing tackle and Wilson Sporting Goods equipment. Sure, Warwick said, he’d give it a go.

Soon enough, Warwick was selling blue-and-yellow waffle trainers, a simple and sleek shoe with a big fat swoosh sewn to the side that looked screaming fast.

Thanks to Miller, who as the company’s top salesman helped make Nike the well-known brand it is, Warwick’s became Washington state’s first store to distribute the Oregon company’s running shoes, according to Warwick. Warwick’s business grew, and he opened stores in Pullman, Moscow and Spokane Valley.

In 1991, he opened Sport Town on the first floor of the Parkade.

Nike’s coming to town again, and this time Warwick faces a different fate. He was the first to sell Nike in Washington, and now he’s closing his Parkade doors for good, thanks to the arrival of a Nike outlet store just a block away.

“I have no ill feelings. I have no animosity,” Warwick said. “I think Nike, that store in that building, is going to do a lot of good for downtown. But for me it’s the last straw. I’m basically getting out of the way.”

According to permits filed with the city, a Nike Factory Store will be the major tenant in the old Macy’s building in downtown Spokane. Work on the interior space for the store is valued at about $750,000.

The renovation of the building is being done by Centennial Properties, a subsidiary of Cowles Co., which publishes The Spokesman-Review.

Last month, Nike’s job board solicited applications for the store, including positions for head coach, assistant head coach, and for part-time and full-time athletes – the company’s titles for managers and sales clerks.

“We’re looking forward to serving consumers with innovative product, services and experiences when Nike Factory Store Spokane opens this summer,” a company spokeswoman, Grace Chang, wrote in an email when asked for more details on the store.

Curt Kinghorn, who owns Runners Soul, was more forthcoming. He was critical of the city and Centennial Properties for temporarily closing Wall Street in front of his business and allowing the building that houses Urban Outfitters to punch out nearly 20 feet into the street.

“We’re invisible from Main Street. And I don’t know how much we lost during two years of construction,” he said. “I’m sure we lost a few there. But we do have a lot of loyal people that will come to shop with us.”

He said it was “odd to me” that a large company was being brought to downtown at the expense of local businesses, but that the “city in all their infinite wisdom will tell how great of a job they’re doing.”

While comfortable in the deployment of sarcasm, Kinghorn was serious when he said he didn’t expect Nike to undercut his business because the clothing found at an outlet store won’t compare with his “higher quality” goods.

“It doesn’t really have an effect one way or the other on me,” said Kinghorn, who’s run the athletic apparel store downtown for nearly 20 years. “Thankfully I’m old and about to die.”

Warwick, at 68, was more looking forward to retirement and more sanguine about Nike’s arrival.

He remembers the blue-and-yellow waffle runners, the innovation of the original Air Force shoes and the frenzy surrounding the annual release of Air Jordans.

For him, Nike’s arrival is just the latest sign of the collapse of traditional retail in the face of online shopping.

“I’ve been buying and selling Nike products for over 45 years,” he said. “My philosophy was high-end stuff for high-end customers.”

As more goods were sold online, Nike began limiting what it allowed stores like Warwick’s to sell, essentially dictating what Warwick could and couldn’t put on his shelves, he said.

“I’m an entrepreneur. I started this from scratch. Now they’re dictating what I can sell,” he said.

But when Warwick closes his store sometime after Hoopfest and before July 4, he won’t be completely out of the business. He still lives in Colfax and has a fitness center and store there called Sport Town. And, of course, he sells products online.

He has no regrets. Except, maybe, one.

“Guys like me helped build their brand. But things change, things evolve,” he said. “I worked six, seven days a week for 47 years. I did the best I could. I worked my tail off. But I wish I had put my money in Nike stock and not inventory.”