Walton’s Sport’s Shop, the former sporting goods store on Lake Avenue, has relocated and is now focusing solely on screenprinting and embroidery for athletic teams.  

Its new home is at 640 Maple Ave., about half of a mile past the middle school

On why the store moved after nearly a century at 59 Lake Ave., “It makes tremendous financial sense,” owner Tom LeCours said. The new space, where Walton’s started business Aug. 1, is a bit smaller, but “Its design is more conductive for what we’re doing,” he said. “Now we’re using the space much more efficiently. The Maple Avenue building was a former electrical contracting warehouse and office, Orsini Electric.

Over the past few decades since LeCours took over Walton’s, what started as a fishing and hunting gear shop in 1929, then transformed into an athletic sporting goods and apparel store, has evolved into a thriving screenprinting and embroidery business. “For all those years it was there as Saratoga’s sporting good store,” LeCours said. However,. the new location is no longer a retail shop.

As the sports equipment business dwindled thanks to big box stores, but printing orders kept flooding in, LeCours realized, “It’s not a convenience retail location that's important anymore,” he explained.

LeCours, who has owned the business since 1989, said he’s been tentatively planning the move over the past few years, as he casually browsed real estate listings and quietly decided not to restock shelves with sports equipment.

To sweeten the financial deal, LeCours will be renting the former shop space to new commercial tenants, Kane’s Liquor Store. Business owners Sean and Katie Kane have stores in Massachusetts already, but they live in Saratoga. The shop is expected open in October.  

As for Walton’s, “Business is great. We’re happy to have moved,” LeCours said. “And now we really can totally focus on the screenprinting and embroidery. Everything that we do now is gear 100 percent toward screenprinting and embroidery, so we can do even better.”  

For more information visit waltonssportshop.com or call 584-7151.

-Lauren Halligan