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Jack meets......Bolt-on Man in a true Saga of Upstairs-Downstairs.
One could easily be a wanderer into Bolton and be unaware of Tobutt Sports. The premises occupy a modest area in a not particularly interesting part of the town. However, a clue that this was not just another sports shop came from a car park attendant some few miles away who directed me immediately to the premises and told us, with a wink, that it was right opposite the ASDA car park. Be patient. We will come to the bolt-on bit in due course. Dougie Tobutt greeted me and introduced his daughter Mandy who was manning the till.
Dougie's school days were somewhat uneventful. He showed an early sense of humour, at least that is how he regarded his repertoire of practical jokes. In school productions he played ‘Bottom' and was ‘Handsome Walter' and if you should be ignorant of that last character, join the gang.
Tobutt Sports this year celebrates 85 years as a family business so they must have been doing something right, even though Dougie readily admits that they have had their ‘ups and downs'. Len, his grandfather opened up in 1923. A professional cricketer from Middlesex, he seems to have failed miserably when invited by the Scots to show them how to play cricket. He did continue to play well into his seventies. Senior citizens, Dougie told me, often come into the shop with a ‘remember your Granddad' story. Like many early sports shops much business was conducted among team players and there was a great deal of trust. Team mates would pay off their gear a shilling (5p for our Editor and others of the younger generation) a week. Such trust, one less-young visitor recently proclaimed, had saved his club from closure. Mrs. Scott had related how Len, wearing a new sweater and playing dominoes due to rain stopping play on the field, had called out "You bally bounder!" when she had yanked off the swing tab. Yes, you guessed it, the sweater had been borrowed and was due back in stock the following morning. Dougie's father, Geoffrey, was in the army during the second world war, joining the business in 1945. Twenty years on, aged 15, Dougie ‘felt obliged' to leave school and come into the business to prevent it closing.
In 1977 the council wrote to advise that the shop and his parents' house was on a compulsory purchase order. They offered scant compensation, "not enough" says Dougie "to buy a front door", classifying the property as ‘slums'. Threatened with the bailiffs and homelessness, his parents searched for a council house and a rented shop. They opened a shop in Astley Bridge, enjoying a few good years before the struggle, common to so many fellow traders, in 1985 when rates and rents were on the up and up as were the ‘sports sheds' selling down and down. He describes 1988 as the worst year in his life with his wife Eileen (excused attendance on the day of my visit) and a growing family, desperate to move house but with increasing business problems, unable to afford so to do. He had retired from football and squash and found running marathons a great way to travel. He had already run a dozen with no baggage problems. A suspected groin strain was diagnosed as arthritis of the hips. "Stop running now," advised his surgeon "or you will need hip replacements within two years." Aged just 38, he was told he had the hips of an 80-year-old. Add asthma and back problems and one cannot but feel sympathy.
Depression took an even firmer hold when in the summer his father died and then, three months later, he lost his mother. He recalls sitting down and thinking about his two choices. "Pack it all in and get a job delivering bread," (he had a good contact at Warburtons) or "stop feeling sorry for myself and give life a go." Not wanting to get to the end of his days thinking "if only", writing down a list of goals he drew up an immediate (one year) plan and a longer term plan. Number one objective was to buy his own premises. Then, and here we come to the long anticipated ‘bolt-on', he set out on various college courses on Health and Fitness, determined to deal with his own health. He resisted reliance on drugs, prescribed for his arthritis, asthma and back pains. Now, another 20 years on from what might have proved the depths of despair, Dougie is now, if not on top of the world, the owner of his own premises, three times the size of what had been before, and all paid for. And he has every reason to be satisfied that he made the right choice. And, the bolt-on - the ‘Good Health Therapy Centre' occupies the rooms above the shop. His college studies opened his mind to therapies, personal training, sports and remedial massage, life coaching and more. Twelve therapists make use of the five therapy rooms, which must sometimes change in character according to the treatment being practised. He divides his time between shop and the rooms upstairs. The crossover between selling the right shoes and what goes on upstairs, plus the ability to give good advice is surely obvious. It is easy to appreciate the potential. The client with a back problem will, in addition to receiving appropriate treatment, get advice as to what shoes to wear. Conversely when buying footwear the customer may be enticed to try some massage. Wow! Have you some space somewhere? The phrase ‘complementary medicine' I felt, had a new and profitable meaning. This column is certainly a place for ideas, and profitable ones at that.
The running hasn't stopped and shows no sign of doing so. He has already run beyond his target of one hundred marathons. He has run in 40 difference countries over six continents. He aims to make that 50 different countries and one final continent, Antarctica. And yes, he still runs with those hips which were threatened with just two more years. To comprehensively list the places that his feet have traversed would take too much space. When we met, he had recently run in Egypt. His journeys have enabled him to see the midnight sun in Norway and such wide ranging venues as Marrakesh, Lithuania, Rio and Macun (China). What a way to see the world.
Not every run is smooth sailing (sorry about the mixed metaphor) and I could see the pain in his face as he described his final three miles of a run in Selby, Yorkshire, when he walked the last three miles with a back seized up in agony. Still, he made it, and ‘making it' sums up Dougie Tobutt. He loves to recall characters from ‘the old days', Mitch from Prostar who always told him to get his hair cut, ("he couldn't say that today") and Harold Glazier of Fairbrother Darts who he always had to reprimand for adding to his order. And there was ‘Soli' who from selling army surplus clothing and backpacks from his garage, eventually explained that he was moving to larger premises, and that was the start of Regatta. There was the boom in trainers, the popular Power Tunis and the Gola Jet. And that young guy, David Singleton who persuaded him to stock a shoe called Reebok. Being a Bolton company he could hardly refuse and the rest of the Reebok story, is indeed history. Unlike these days, reps were in abundance and many were memorable characters. Walter Rigby from Humphries (later Umbro) would smoke his pipe, drink his tea and spend lots of time with his Dad putting the world to rights and writing the occasional order. There were no traffic wardens or even Enforcement Officers to worry about. And he recalled the shell suits of the eighties, "horrible, but great sellers until the market was saturated".
Dougie is constantly watching for signs of the times. In his old premises there was a step in the middle of the shop which used to trip up many punters. He placed a sign by the side of the step saying, ‘Please mind the step' Soon afterwards, a customer fell over the sign. Next day he erected a new sign, placed on the ceiling, on which was written, ‘Please mind the MIND THE STEP sign.' Well, that's his story. But what of the present? Looking at the signs, he has concluded that specialisation is essential. A very significant part of his trade is concentrated on running. He is an enthusiastic stockist of Brooks and wishes they would bring back the Chariot. Asics and New Balance feature strongly in his display. Every customer is important and he offers a service that takes into account their special requirements and feet-ures. (couldn't resist that one.) I put him to the test, running on his machine for 45 seconds. It would seem that my left side is heavier than my right side, whilst my left leg is shorter by half an inch. Medial support was recommended inside the shoe. Yes, I know you would be interested. What you may not have known was that the softer area around the base is white, while the darker parts are indicative of a stiffer material. As they say, or somebody did, ‘The longer you live, the more you learn' but of course it is putting that knowledge to work that really matters. No doubt his sales of orthotics is well supported upstairs. He does offer equipment and clothing in activities other than running, but not in a major way. Tobutt Sports currently has two web sites. Apart from the one specialising in running and fitness, there is ‘Boxclever' with ranges of boxing and wrestling for sale. The secret of success, even staying in business, would seem top be the ability to offer a service that is not to be found in the larger outlets and items that, while having a very definite demand, are not considered worthy of space elsewhere.
The tables have indeed turned in Dougie's life. From being lectured, he now gives talks on health and fitness and lectures at Preston's Alston Hall College. He also writes regularly in a local magazine. I had better watch out or he will be after my job. But maybe not. By the time this is published, he will be doing another marathon. Next stop, he told me, was Riga in Latvia. "Life," he says, "really is a rollercoaster." And it works better, I suggested, with a bolt-on.
Jack welcomes your comments and is always glad to discuss your ideas, problems and concerns, either person to person, or in print.
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