Chekmark

John did.

John loved playing football … he played for a professional team but he just couldn’t find the shoes he wanted. But he had an idea how he could.

Together with his brothers and a friend, they pooled their life savings of $9,000 and opened a tiny store in Calgary. The goal? To sell running shoes for serious athletes … hopefully, if things went well, they would eventually sell the store, make some money and also get free shoes for life.

Well things did not go quite as planned …

sales were ok but profits were slim … things were so bad at one point John’s mother helped out as a cashier for free.

But then something amazing happened … more and more people started to work out and lead more of an active lifestyle … and they needed good shoes … and then they needed sports equipment. So John’s store added more products and then he opened another store and then another. And then he acquired other sports stores.

Today, the company John, his brothers and friend started to get free shoes has over 500 stores across Canada and sales of over $1 billion a year under the SportChek, Nevada Bob’s, and Atmosphere banners among many others.

The Forzani Group … which Canadian Tire bought for over $770 million in 2011 … not a bad return for an initial $9,000 investment.

Forzani Group is a great idea … because running a new route can earn you a big score, and you know, who doesn’t get a kick out of that?