In over 41 years, The Hockey Store has probably put skates on the feet of half of Guelph.
The staple in Downtown Guelph has seen generations of hockey enthusiasts. It has seen fathers and mothers bring children for their first skate fitting — an unforgettable moment etched into any young player’s mind — and has seen those same children pass that experience to their kids.
It witnessed the technology evolve and the game evolve but one thing remained constant in the four decades and is perhaps the reason the store stood steady in the storm of COVID: the community feel and the undying love for the game in Guelph.
“It has been the toughest time in 41 years in the last 16 months we've been amazed to see there’s a light at the end of the tunnel now,” said Todd Gumbley, who co-owns the store with his sister Tracey Duffield.
The last year put a halt to hockey games at every level. Community rinks were closed and COVID restrictions shut the store which had a minimal online presence. The store laid off 13 of its employees. It wasn’t until the recently-lifted restrictions and the abridged NHL season which brought a sense of normalcy back to the store.
People began coming back as restrictions eased and the NHL season resumed. For the Gumbley siblings, the success of the store goes way beyond the credit that saved it.
“It's the personal relationships you build with customers and it's not just customers, they know us by name, we know them by name. They come in, they ask about our families,” said Gumbley.
“We're very fortunate, we're one of the sports that people can't just move with the click of a mouse to get what they need. Helmets need to fit properly for safety reasons, every pair of skates fit differently ... our customers are so fantastic. They come in with their families, and they just know we're going to look after them. They don't even ask us the price."
Signed jerseys hang on the window wall. The inside of the store has hockey memorabilia on every corner. From the walls hang antique ice skates with wooden and hand-forged blades, signed posters from greats like Wayne Gretzky and a collection of pucks from old leagues barely recognized today. But the most valuable are photos and memories of Ron Gumbley across the store — the man who launched this business for his love of the game and his love for his community.
The late Gumbley is known across Guelph for the passion he had for hockey and baseball. Duffield remembers her father, who was inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame in 1998, would sit on a bench in front of Guelph City Hall every morning with seniors in the community sharing hockey stories over a cup of coffee.
“He has fitted more skates than Buster Brown has shoes in helping many generations of young boys and girls to enjoy the sports he enjoyed so much as a boy,” reads his page on the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame.
Ron Gumbley passed away in 2020 right before the pandemic making the year rougher for his family. Duffield recalls that her father probably only missed two or three days in the store since he retired 15 years ago.
“It's been a tough year. It's been tough not having him here brightening up our day but he’s still with us,” said Duffield in tears.
For Gumbley and Duffield, the store has been all they’ve ever known since the two began working there during high school. It’s their second home. The attachment to hockey brought not just them, but much of the community together for decades where they would chat while their children would get their skates fitted.
And it wasn’t just them that gravitated toward the store.
“We have staff that we hired when they were kids, co-op students at school. We see them now as firefighters and they're bringing their kids to get fit for hockey and it's really nice to see what we've given back to the community with our staff whose first job was here,” said Duffield.
“They come in like 30 years later, we reminisce and we have some good laughs.”
The siblings remain optimistic throughout the tough times. They can feel the community yearn for the games they missed in the last year.
“You see it on Facebook, I see it every day. All my friends are like you know what? I hate Montreal, I’m a Leafs fan but they’re my team now with Toronto being out, and that’s so unheard of in Hockey. Either you're a Leafs fan and you hate Montreal or you're a Montreal fan and you hate the Leafs,” said Gumbley.
“It would be so good for Canada and so good for hockey just to get people feeling good about things again.”
“This area has a lot of sentiment. It’ll be hard if we close the doors one day,” said Duffield.
