Sports gear chain scores new concept

BRADENTON — Athletic footwear and apparel retailer Champs Sports plans to debut what it calls a unique store-within-a-store concept.

Bradenton-based Champs, a unit of Foot Locker, says it will partner with Under Armour to launch the Armoury at Champs Sports, according to a release. The first location will be in a Champs store in a mall in Columbia, Md., near Under Armour's Baltimore headquarters.

“Under Armour has earned a loyal and dedicated following among our customers over the last decade, so we are very excited to collaborate through this innovative retail offering,” Champs Sports President and CEO Bryon Milburn says in the statement. “The Armoury at Champs Sports gives us the opportunity to showcase the breadth of Under Armour's product line and tell its story in a single, cohesive context.”

Grand opening events for the store concept are scheduled for this weekend.

Champs sports is one of the largest mall-based specialty athletic footwear and apparel retailers in North America, with more than 540 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada.