Shoe Box & Sports Center

This business – and this type of business, for that matter – has felt a negative effect of big-​box sports stores like Dick’s and Sports Authority to an extent, but because they not only sell off-​the-​shelf sporting goods but also do custom team uniforms, tees, and the like, they’ll (I hope) survive and always have a ready market.
Shoe Box & Sports Center seems to be really two businesses joined together in the same building: one is a shoe store that focused on sneakers but is apparently going out of business soon, whereas the Sports Center is a sporting goods business geared towards custom uniform items for local teams. The staff is beyond nice: one lady showed me the basement of their historic building which once held a men’s store and still had mirrors and a hat rack in place. We had a long talk about retail business, downtown revivals, and doing business in a small city where the economy isn’t what it once was, which isn’t just Covington but many small towns across America – especially mill towns. Sports Center can do a single tee for you, be that your needs, or a whole set of complete uniforms for your baseball team. Many small southern and midwestern towns have stores like this, catering to the local high schools and other teams. They’re a fixture of the community as much as the local beauty parlor or diner or court house. They’re Americana at its best.