Sport Fair

Sport Fair has been run by two generations of the native Arlingtonian Ramsey family. Second-generation owner Gary Ramsey says his father opened the doors in 1955 with his best friend, to provide sporting goods, including hunting and fishing gear, to the corridor. When the Northern Virginia Swimming League (NVSL) began in the late 1950s, Sport Fair began to feature swimming apparel and gear to support the burgeoning league. Over the years they have become the go-to location for regional swim clubs, college teams, and high schools to buy team suits. Gary started working at Sport Fair forty-seven years ago and remembers the rapid growth of their swimming business pushing out all the other sports by the 1980s. Sport Fair now focuses entirely on swimming and is now the third-largest Speedo dealership in the United States with hundreds of team clients.

While Gary is proud of the history and growth of the business, he is most proud of the generations of local teens he has employed at Sport Fair, including Olympian Torri Huske. He has always strived to  provide them with a place to learn life skills and responsibility before moving on to college and the real world. Gary sees Sport Fair as a safe community space for customers to come and forget about their day job or their busy lives, and just talk with employees and other locals about the sport that they all love.