After nearly 35 years of serving the North Kitsap community, Poulsbo’s Sport Haus will soon be closing due to the retirement of its owners.

Owners Ed and Paulette Huisingh have seen generations of kids come through their family owned business to buy sports apparel for youth sports, high school sports and beyond. The Huisingh’s stated that “retirement calls and we must go.”

Tuesday, crew at Sport Haus began their closing sale, planning to sell their inventory and fixtures over the next few weeks. Every item will be discounted. The business hopes to see bare walls at the end of their sale and reconnect with many of their past and current customers in the process.

The Sport Haus opened in July, 1984 in the newly constructed Poulsbo Village Shopping Center off Highway 305. Over the years they expanded their offerings to include more active wear and casual shoes to broaden their scope of customers.

“What we’ve done over the last 35 years is adjusted to the community needs and as some of the sport offering changed, we would increase or decrease that area,” co-owner Paulette Huisingh said. “We chose to be in a small town rather than a large area so we would know people and know the community.”

Paulette also mentioned how the rapport with certain customers grew to the point that they’d be willing to travel to get their merchandise.

“Interestingly enough, some of these kids would move to Seattle and still come back each vacation and shop here because it was easier than navigating Seattle,” she said.

When asked if any other competing businesses pushed them to close, Paulette quickly denied that notion stating “there’s nothing business wise in the area that pushed us to do this, it’s just time.”

Paulette said the Huisingh’s plans for retirement include living life, getting caught up at home, enjoying the family and taking some vacations.

The Sport Haus is located at 19505 7th Ave. NE in Poulsbo.

—Tyler Shuey is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. He can be reached at tshuey@soundpublishing.com