Remember The Old Eastbay Store on Brady Street in Milwaukee?

remember going to the old place with my pop and then going to gloriosos for food

got some of my first running shoes there when i was a kid

that was tony rodiez's place

he was a pretty respectable road racer back in the day

there also used to be one in racine i think

Okay, let me see if I can remember this exactly. The Eastbay on Brady Street was definitely the first one and it was owned by a guy that also helped design Brooks shoes I believe, but I can't remember his name. There were several franchise Eastbay's throughout Wisconsin with the one in Wausau becoming the large mail order company. Tony Rodiez was the manager of the Eastbay on Brady Street. When the Eastbay owner decided to sell his store, Tony Rodiez bought it. He later moved it a few blocks away to Farwell Avenue. Tony decided to open another store, but there was a franchise rule that you couldn't have another Eastbay within 20 miles of another, or something like that. At the time there was one in Waukesha, in addition to the east side of Milwaukee one. Tony opened up another store in West Allis, but it was called Westbay because of the franchise rules. Eventually Tony got rid of the store on the east side and separated from Eastbay and renamed his store in West Allis to Rodiez' Running Center. I am not sure what happened to all the other Eastbay's, but I think the one in Wausau is the only one left.

Bump to see if anyone has any more information on the original Eastbay. I am curious why all the Eastbay's in Wisconsin closed down except the mail order one in Wausau. Did they buy out the other ones?

hmmmmmm wrote:

there also used to be one in racine i think

Merrit's Running Center definitely used to be in Racine, I remember going there as a kid with my pops (no running stores in Kenosha at that time, I guess).

reminds me that i want to go run the parkside course when i go back this summer just for old time sake

thanks

I remember the original Eastbay in Stevens Point. I am pretty sure they opened in SP before Wausau. Next to Campus Cycle. It was the ONLY place in the area to have the Tiger Epirus in stock. I think it is the best running shoe ever invented.

Then the Wausau store took off and Eastbay was eventually bought out by FootLocker.

Rick G. and Don T. were on the track team at Point with me.

The Point store was managed by Rand Strachan, as far as I remember.

What business decisions prompted the Wausau store to become the main location.?? Perhaps because Rick Gering was a Wausau native and his bro-in-law Art Juedes (also from Wausau) became a partner in the venture. They also had some connections with the legal community in Wausau, which was no doubt a plus.

The winter I worked for them, Rick managed sales, Don had the wharehouse and shipping, and Art guided the business side.

These guys beat the bush, and beat it hard to get this venture up to speed. Service and support were excellent and sales growth reflected that.

Prior to Foot locker taking over Don pulled the pin and started his own sports store venture (Webko) which he still runs with John Miner. Rick and Art got a handsome buyout.

We still cross paths occasionally at track/cross country meets.

I cherish the memories of Friday night runs from the store, and camaraderie at the many road races they helped sponsor back in the day.

I work at the Brady Street Eastbay for Dave and Donna Hill, who started the Eastbay stores, and then for Tony and his parents. Dave worked with Brooks and designed the Chariot. He spent much of his time overseas working with the shoe factories and his wife Donna was the business manager at the store. The other Eastbay stores got their start while Dave Hill was the owner. There were stores in Stevens Point (eventually the Catalog operation), Iron Mountian MI, and Waukesha. Dave sold the Brady Street store to Tony and his Parents in 1984 or 85.

The move to the Farwell location happened in about 1989. The Brady street building was owned by a middle eastern grocer who had the store next door. He would not turn the heat on until sometime in November and then it was ON. I often sat directly on the radiators near the front windows to help work out the stiffness from hard training sessions.

The roof of the store leaked in biblical terms when it rained. I remember having a slew of hugh garbage cans positioned around the store room and having to mop the floor constantly. Brady street litteraly had no parking and the move to Farwell was in a small strip mall that was still on the eastside. Tony eventually bought the Waukesha Eastbay and when he relocated his business to the current 108th and Lincoln location he shut down the Waukesha store.

Rick was interested in opening a running shoe store and I brought him down to Milwaukee and made the introduction to Dave Hill on Brady- I was there when Dave agreed to put in an inital order to get Rick started. We went to a bank in Wausau for a loan to set up a store and without parents signature got turned down. I then got a job offer and left town- Rick went on to start selling shoes out of his van and brought in Art Juedes. I am pretty sure they did open in Wausau initially, then later opened up that location in Point managed by Rand Strachan. I never got the story how Rick got to keep the Eastbay name- always assumed they just paid him off.

The owners were Dave and Donna Hill. I was assistant manager at the Brady Street store from 1983 to 1986. Eastbay was named after a vacation spot I believe somewhere in Michigan that was near and dear to the Hill family. After the rift developed between Wausau and Milwaukee over catalog pricing and merchandising vs."boutique personalized" approach, they went to court and eventually sold the naming rights to the Wausau group. The Hills sold the store to Tony Rodiez and the name was changed to Rodiez's Running Store.

The Eastbay in Waukesha was owned by Ken Ward and managed by Hans Haupt.

Does anyone know the exact address? I'm standing on Brady Street right now.

I worked at Eastbay Running Store, 1229 East Brady St. in Milwaukee. I was assistant manager, Tony Rodiez was the manager. David and Donna Hill were the owners. The store was named after a favorite vacation or recreational spot of the Hill family - I believe in the UP or somewhere in Michigan. Dave Hill had an extensive background in the footwear industry. He was a consultant to several big name athletic shoe companies in the 70's and 80's. When I was employed at Eastbay, we received test shoes from dozens of companies - Brooks, Puma, Etonic, Nike.... all thanks to Dave Hill's involvement in product development. When Eastbay Wausau's catalog operation started to grow in popularity, the rift developed between the Hills and the Wausau franchise owners. Customers would come to the store on Brady St., pick our brain and take a lot of our time with fittings and consultations, then leave empty handed and purchase the shoes from Wausau at a discounted price. Thus the rift grew larger between the owners, eventually ending up in court. Wausau bought the Eastbay naming rights from Dave and Donna Hill. The Hills then sold the store to Tony Rodiez. In the beginning, it was Rodiez's Eastbay and there were two other locations - one nearby on the east side of Milwaukee and the second in Waukesha ("Westbay"). The other locations eventually went belly up and the name of the store was changed to Rodiez's Running Store and moved to it's current location in West Allis. And now you know the rest of the story!

Thanks for this topic and the stories. I have relatives in the area and vaguely remember the Brady St. store. And one of my favorite pairs of running shorts (Mulberry?) I bought from Rodiez's in the early 1990s-- notched, not too long, breathable but wore like iron.

RIP Eastbay