Eastbay is a world supplier of quality athletic footwear and apparel, featuring major brands such as Nike, Reebok, adidas and New Balance. Established to meet the performance needs of high school and college athletes, that mission takes Eastbay's catalogs and Internet site around the globe - to all 50 states and more than 120 foreign countries and properties. It's a remarkable story that began in 1980 when boyhood pals and coaches Art Juedes and Rick Gering set out to find professional-quality shoes for their athletes and ended up in business for themselves. With little more than $7,000 worth of running shoes and a dream, they set up clinics near their Wausau, WI, home. At each stop they told about the benefits of their shoes and handed out a price list. In 1983 that price list become a four-color catalog, featuring shoes for track and field as well as baseball. Operators were hired to take the orders, and by 1988, Eastbay's call center, shipping and creative departments occupied an entire city block. Eastbay's team sales division was created in 1989 and its first in-house catalog was produced in 1990. That also was the year Eastbay established its own brand of clothing, offering jackets, pants, short and tops in a variety of team colors. Still, Eastbay's biggest move came in 1995 when it was decided to take the company public. And on Friday, Sept. 29, Eastbay opened on the Nasdaq stock exchange at $19.50 a share. Two years later, shareholders sold the company to retail giant Woolworth for $146 million.