Three former executives at the defunct G.I. Joe's Sports & Outdoors have opened a small store in Bethany, OR and are working on leases as part of a plan to revive the G.I. Joe's sporting goods chain. The new team-including B.G. Eilertson, Ron Menconi and Ed Ariniello-was confirmed by Menconi on Friday in a brief telephone interview. He said the group was in the process of ironing out an agreement with an investor and negotiating leases. Oregonlive.com, the website for The Oregonian newspaper, reported last week that the group planned to open three to five stores in the Portland area over the next 18 months, including some in former Joe's locations. Menconi declined to elaborate when reached Friday.
He did say the venture will focus on the same model used by the chain up until a private equity firm acquired control of the chain in 2007. That included a focus on boating, hunting and fishing. “Our plan is to carry same merchandise as before,” said Menconi. “That worked well and we will be into all those categories.”
Joe's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2009 and was quickly liquidated after being unable to secure funding. By May, all 31 stores were closed and a Canadian co-operative called UFA Ltd. had snapped up the G.I. Joe trademark along with its e-commerce operations and JoesSports.com and GIJoes.com domain names. Both those URLs now direct consumers to wholesalesports.com, the e-commerce site for UFA’s eponymous chain, which includes 15 former Sportsman’s Warehouse stores the co-op bought in a separate bankruptcy proceeding in 2008.
That has already complicated G.I. Joe’s resurrection. Menconi confirmed Friday that the co-operative has told him and his partners that they have no intention of relinquishing the trademark or domain names. The partners, however, are prepared to argue in court that because they have been using the name at a modest storefront since January, they have a legal claim to the trademarks.
