Nebraska Sports Industries, Inc. announces the sale of its school and team division to BSN Sports of Dallas, the nation’s largest team dealer.
The team sales division of Nebraska Sports operated as Lou’s Sporting Goods since 1972 and served high school and college athletic programs throughout Nebraska and Kansas. Lou’s had 14 school salesmen and represented all the major brands, including Nike, Under Armour, Adidas, Wilson, Rawlings, Mizuno, Asics, Baden and dozens more.
BSN Sports acquired 24 employees of Lou’s team division so that the entire division staff retained their jobs.
The BSN Sports purchase did not include the Nebraska Sports Retail stores in Lincoln, Columbus and Fremont. Those stores are being liquidated by Nebraska Sports under the terms of the agreement. BSN does not operate retail stores with their specialty being team business. They have more than 900 salesmen in the 50 states.
In a press release, the downtown Fremont Lou’s store will continue to operate under the name NEBRASKA SPORTS. It also operates a decoration operation which will continue to serve business customers and decorate uniforms for BSN Sports and Nebraska Sports customers. The decoration company will continue to employ its current staff of 10 and increase its efforts to sell and decorate garments for local businesses and other team dealers in the Midwest.
Nebraska Sports Industries, Inc. is also a licensed printer for the University of Nebraska, Creighton University, Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Nebraska at Kearney and other schools and colleges. It operates a wholesale division providing products to retailers and bookstores.
The company was founded in 1967 by Louis Wewel. Officials said the decision to sell to BSN was a difficult one due to the more than 50 years of successful operations. Joe and Sue Wewel, Roger and Dee Brackhan and Tom and Mary Coday are the remaining employee stockholders.
The release states that they are ready for retirement and with all the changes to the industry regarding access to product and marketing channels, it was obvious that the best solution was to accept the BSN offer that would continue to provide employment opportunities for so many of Lou’s employees.
The release concludes with officials thanking customers for their patronage as well as the employees who have worked for the company through the years.
