Wesport, one of the last independent sporting goods stores left on O'ahu, closed down Jan. 31 and will have a liquidation sale today and tomorrow at its 'Aiea location as a final farewell.

Owner Wes Tagami said the bad economy and his bad heart are the major reasons he's shutting down after 25 years as one of the few providers of team-oriented sporting uniforms, equipment and supplies in the state.

Amateur sports league leaders said the store will be sorely missed. They said that while the advent of big-boxers such as The Sports Authority and Wal-Mart have taken away much of the sporting goods market, Wesport was the place they could go for a wide variety of sports equipment from chin straps to practice equipment.

"It's going to have a profoundly negative effect in our community," said Father John Frederick, a coach and president of several Leeward Coast football leagues who said he has relied heavily on Wesport over the years. "Why would we be buying our merchandise from the West Coast when we can invest locally?"

As for going to a big-boxer like Sports Authority, it might have only one color available for a team in need of uniforms. "You gotta buy white, or the helmets are different colors," Frederick said. "They don't have the quality or the variety that Wes carries."

Tagami would also keep in stock specialty items that Frederick said he otherwise would need to order from the Mainland, such as a screw used for football helmets.

"And the problem with the Mainland is you've got to order in bulk," Frederick said. "With youth programs in the community, you have limited funds to buy items like that."

HELPING ATHLETES

Joe Au, the intramural sports coordinator at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kane'ohe Bay, said he also will be disadvantaged by Wesport's demise.

Au said he's been scrambling around looking for basketball uniforms.

"(Tagami) was somebody who would have good prices and service, and everything else," said Au, whose program involves 600 to 700 athletes annually. "You could call him on short notice and he'd scramble."

Au said he also knows he helped out a lot of athletes, especially those on youth teams, by giving them good deals.

Liane Nakamura, Pearl City Little League president, said big-boxers also tend to be very seasonal. And in Hawai'i, where baseball is played throughout the year, Wesport would have baseball belts, socks, practice pants and gear from bats to chest guards regardless of the month.

"It's more in tune with the local community," Nakamura said.

Tagami worked at Sports Hawaii, a Kaka'ako sporting goods store that was one of the few legitimate businesses owned in the early 1980s by swindler Ronald Rewald. Unemployed and with nothing to do a year after Sports Hawaii closed, a friend talked him into buying the inventory.

With the help of a partner and a $25,000 loan from Tagami's parents, Wesport opened a short time later in Waipahu.

At one point, the store employed 10 people, Tagami said. When he closed, he had four part-timers. Tagami said the store thrived when a number of established sporting goods outlets such as Arakawa's, HonSport and Imua Sporting Goods closed 10 to 20 years ago.

FEWER SALES PEOPLE

At its peak, Tagami had two outside sales people who went to the schools and independent leagues ferreting out business. When he lost those positions, that affected his business, he said.

A little over two years ago, Tagami was diagnosed with a heart problem. If he kept working, "the doctor told me I wasn't going to last until 50." He was 49 at the time.

That's when he took a break and the business seemed to decline further. "I had some good workers but it's not the same as doing it yourself."

At 52, he came back to work last year but then he had a heart attack. This time, his doctor told him he wouldn't make it to 60.

About the same time, the ongoing national credit freeze also created a bigger burden by making it difficult for him to obtain credit necessary to restock.

"I felt at that point it was time to close it down."

Tagami said the one thing he and his wife, Trish, will miss is helping a youth new to a sport find the equipment he or she needed to succeed.

"That's what I loved to do is help people find the right stuff, get them outfitted right," he said. "I loved my job."