Olympia Sports

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Olympia Sports began in 1975, when Edward Manganello and partners opened a small sporting-goods store at the Maine Mall in South Portland, Maine. Shoes, team gear, equipment and athletic apparel: the regional formula was not fancy, but it knew exactly where the cleats were.

From its Maine roots, Olympia expanded through New England, New York and the Mid-Atlantic, favoring community-minded stores in malls and smaller markets. At its height in the early 2010s, the chain operated more than 200 locations. Its corporate headquarters was in Westbrook, Maine, close to the home turf that launched the whole operation.

In October 2019, JackRabbit acquired Olympia Sports’ operating assets and brand, while dozens of Olympia locations were slated to close. The remaining chain faced an increasingly difficult retail climate, including online competition and pandemic-era disruption. In July 2022, Olympia announced liquidation of its final 35 stores; the operating company filed for Chapter 11 that September.

Our Olympia Sports collection celebrates the stubbornly useful regional sporting-goods chain: a place for last-minute sneakers, practice balls, gym bags, and the annual realization that somebody had misplaced a shin guard again. Maine mall energy, preserved for the afterlife.