News
Shrivers to open sporting goods store
Scott Wagar
06/18/2013
Jeff Shriver and his wife, Echoe, will be opening a new business on Main Street in downtown Bottineau on June 28 with a grand opening that will introduce the community to sporting goods and apparel.
The business will be called 4J’s Sporting Goods, and it will be a full-service sporting goods store which will offer hunting and fishing products, apparel, sporting equipment, shoes, skates and much more with a unique niche to their products.
One of the unique fortes of 4J’s Sporting Goods will be archery and fishing equipment, along with a 20 yard bow range and a live bait shop in the back of the store.
“Individuals can buy their bows here and we customize them, along with allowing people to shoot the bows right in the building,” Shriver said. “Our range has a bow press, poundage tool and allows people to sight their bows in.”
At the present moment, the range will be used for customers to try out bows, for sighting and recreational use. The range is wide enough to allow one or two archers to shoot at the same time.
Shriver added that if the range takes off he would like to install five or six ranges in the store’s basement.
The bait shop will have live minnows and worms and the store will have fishing and hunting licenses for their patrons to purchase.
4J’s Sporting Goods will also be offering custom made bows and fishing equipment, along with the less expensive equipment to meet the needs of all of their customers.
Echoe’ specialty at 4J’s Sporting Goods will be DTG Printing, or Direct to Garment Printing which is a high tech system that utilizes a computer to print shirts with designs.
“Basically, it is through a printer, you can get designs and Echoe can print shirts to design with the machine,” said Jeff Shriver, who added that 4J’s printed all the t-shirts for Bottineau’s tee-ball season this summer. “It’s an awesome machine and it has the capability to do 30 shirts a minute. What is really great about DTG Printing is that screen printing sits on top of the shirt and peals and cracks, but DTG forces design right into the shirt and the design will fade with the shirt in time.”
Shirts for the DTG printer are being sold at 4J’s, but individuals can also bring shirts in and Echoe Shriver will see if they can work with the shirt to give the customer a good quality product. The quality will depend on the type of shirt which is brought into the store.
Individuals can bring in their own pre-made designs, too, and if it has the right pixilation Echoe Shriver will be able to place the design on the shirt.
“DTG Printing is pretty affordable,” Jeff Shriver said. “Especially for the quality you get.”
4J’s Sporting Goods will also be offering brand name apparel and equipment.
“We will have Under Armour, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, all the big names,” Jeff Shriver said. “However, we want people to know that we want to be a sporting good store, not a clothing store. We have that (clothing), but we want to create our own niche and we do not want to duplicate a business that is already here in town.”
Along with Jeffrey and Echoe, 4J’s Sporting Goods will also have three part-time employees.
The business will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and is located at 510 Main Street, the Kainz Villa building, or the former Ace Hardware building.
The name from the business comes from the names of the men in Shriver’s family.
“Jeff, Jayhawk, Jacob and Joshua,” Jeff Shriver said. “It’s all Js.”
Remember that on June 28, 4J’s Sporting Goods will being opening their store and having their grand opening. It will be an opportunity to meet the new owners, see some great merchandise, tour the building and enjoy a community event.