71-year-old firearms and outdoor brands files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

Sporting goods retailers, including the broader hunting and fishing category, have struggled in recent years. That’s, at least in part, because the internet has taken a bite out of their sales.

As a casual tennis player, for example, I had to go to a sporting goods retailer if I needed tennis balls, which created the opportunity to buy something else. That’s a small lost sale for the retailer, but also a bigger opportunity to turn a purchase into something bigger.

“Research estimates a nearly 4 percent decline in brick-and-mortar spending due to the rise of e-commerce,” according to a Stanford University research report written in 2017.

Online spending roughly doubled to 15.8% in the third quarter of 2025 since the report’s study was conducted, according to Census.gov’s quarterly online retail sales report released in December 2025.

Retail foot traffic also fell 1.4 percent to sporting goods stores in 2024, according to Placer.ai data, while retail foot traffic across all retail grew 0.4 percent.

Declining foot traffic and a lack of a cutting-edge online presence spelled the end for a number of sporting goods and outdoor brands over the past year.

Now, Big Rock Sports has joined that list by filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Although not a household name, Big Rock Sports has been a major player behind the scenes as a distributor. The company shared some of its business model on its now-defunct website, which was visited by the Internet Archive.

“Big Rock Sports carries more than 200,000 product SKUs and services more than 20,000 fishing, shooting, camping, taxidermy and marine retailers in the US, Canada, the Caribbean and eight other countries,” the company said.

The distributor had a long history.

“The history of Big Rock Sports dates back more than 60 years to the founding of All-Sports Supply in Portland, OR. Back then, sporting goods was a much more personal business, and distributors knew the retailers’ names as well as their families,” he added.

(All Star Sports was founded in 1995, making Big Rock Sports’ history go back 71 years.)

Company specializing in firearms, firearm accessories and fishing gear.

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Big Rock Sports sold fishing gear.Shutterstock · Shutterstock

Big Rock Sports, LLC requested Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to BKAlerts.com.
The Chapter 7 filing was voluntary and is being managed by a court-appointed administrator, according to documents filed on PacerMonitor.
The case, case # 5:26-bk-00208, is being overseen by Judge Joseph N. Callaway, PacerMonitor added.
Since filing, the case is listed as “no asset” indicating limited or no real estate assets available for distribution, BKAlerts.com reported.
Big Rock’s operations included numerous brand names and divisions in the sporting goods and outdoor supply space, according to Inforuptcy.
Prior to the Chapter 7 filing, related Canadian operations were liquidated, all employees were terminated and inventory was sold in a liquidation process, Isolvency Insider Canada added.
Secured creditors (eg bank agents) and unsecured creditors are not expected to be repaid in full given the company’s limited realizable assets, Isolvency Insider Canada added.

Big Rock Sport (BRS) Canada was separated from the parent brand and incorporated under the laws of British Columbia on April 28, 2011. It operated as a Canadian sporting goods distributor.

“The Company was headquartered in Barrie, Ontario and, at the date of award, operated three leased distribution centers located in British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario. The Company operated as a Canadian subsidiary of Big Rock Sports, LLC, a US distributor of sporting and hunting firearms, fishing gear and camping equipment,” according to Isolvency Insider Canada.

On the bankruptcy date, the company terminated all 72 employees, with accrued wages and paid vacation time prior to termination.

Although the company had approximately $65.1 million in assets, preliminary estimates indicate significantly lower realizable values, with inventory, receivables and selected intangibles representing the primary sources of recovery.

“Based on estimated performance and outstanding secured debt, the trustee does not expect the proceeds, net of administration costs, to be sufficient to repay in full the secured lender Regions Bank, which acts as administrative agent for a credit union.

A number of big-name sporting goods and outdoor chains have been liquidated in recent years, including Modell’s, Olympia Sports, Moosejaw and the biggest of them all, Sports Authority. Failure to master online sales contributed to the demise of some of these chains.

“Sports Authority for much of its tenure ignored the undercurrent of a growing e-commerce channel. Given the plethora of industry peers from which consumers could choose, having relatively commodity, undifferentiated items did not bode well for the chain, exacerbated further by a near-absence from the ‘clicks’ side of retail,” wrote Daniel Pow Williamsints of Retail.

Supply chain issues and consumer sentiment also hit retail hard, according to data from McKinsey.

“For the first time since the global pandemic began to ease, we are seeing consumers becoming pessimistic rather than optimistic. Our surveys of consumers in the United States and Europe show that concern about the prospects for economic recovery has increased significantly and is now higher than during the Covid-19 crisis,” the consultancy said.

Increased competition has also added to the challenges facing retailers and distributors.

“The sporting goods market is highly fragmented with a growing number of challenger brands and digitally native companies making inroads,” according to BCG Matrix.

Related: Off-price clothing chain closes all stores in bankruptcy

This story was originally published by TheStreet on January 30, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a favorite source by clicking here.

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