MVP Athletic Supplies

If you’ve got a kid moving up to a bigger glove, or a team that needs uniforms by opening day, MVP is the shop Langley’s ball families tend to end up at. It’s a specialist, not a general sporting-goods store: baseball, softball, football and lacrosse, and a lot of each.

What’s on the walls

• Gloves: a long wall of baseball and softball gloves, plus catcher’s gear, bats and cleats
• Football: helmets, pads and practice clothing (practice jerseys were listed at $24.99 when we checked)
• Lacrosse: sticks, heads, gloves and protective gear
• Custom orders: Rawlings, Mizuno and Wilson custom gloves, plus glove break-in and re-lacing
• Teams: uniforms, embroidered hats and printed fan gear

Custom gloves take a while. The shop’s own page lists roughly 6 to 8 weeks for Rawlings, 4 to 6 for Mizuno and 12 to 14 for Wilson, so order well before the season if you’re going that route.

The family behind it

Harold “Hanch” Hancheroff started MVP in March 1973 with help from his wife Carol and from Ross and Doreen Poynter. The first store opened in New Westminster in 1979, selling mostly to schools. The business came to Walnut Grove in 2005, on 88 Avenue, and moved to the bigger 97 Avenue space in 2017. The Hancheroff and Poynter families still own it.

They’ve sponsored the Canada Cup International Women’s Softball Championship since 2006, and the company history mentions the Ride to Conquer Cancer and myasthenia gravis awareness too.

Before you go

It’s open seven days: 9 to 5 most weekdays, until 8 on Fridays, 9 to 5 Saturday and 10 to 3 Sunday. Call 604-525-8833. The online store is handy for checking whether something’s in stock before you drive over.

For more family-owned shops around here, see Shop Local in Walnut Grove.