Our story

Les Moise was started in 1946 by a man called Leicester Moise in a large house on Astor Street in Milwaukee. Leicester, needing help running the business, hired Clem Rosmann, who had recently returned home from his deployment in the Philippines during WWII. Clem worked at the shop part-time while attending Marquette University. 

The original store looked quite different than you know it today. Hunting, guns, fishing, golf, and corresponding apparel were our primary sporting goods. Our ski selection was very niche, occupying just a small upstairs closet.  

In the 1950's, Les Moise passed away. None of Leicester's surviving family wanted his sporting goods store. Ultimately, Clem bought the store and soon after moved it from Astor Street to Silver Spring Dr. in Whitefish Bay. The new location was significantly larger than the Astor Street house, including two large open levels for merchandise. At the new location, Clem moved away from hunting and fishing and transitioned the business into ski, tennis, and snowboard equipment and merchandise.

Decades later in 1994, Les Moise expanded again, but this time to a second location in Brookfield, WI. For fourteen years the store was located in the newly built Harvard Square shopping mall before moving to our own building on Bluemound Road in 2008. Unfortunately, Clem passed away that year and never had the opportunity to see the new Brookfield store.

The new Brookfield store was an instant success for us. Its success spurned us to explore relocation of our Whitefish Bay store. In 2011, we identified a lot in Mequon, WI to build our own store. By summer of 2012, our new Mequon store welcomed its first customers.

Today, our stores specialize in skiing, tennis, snowboarding, and pickleball with expanded merchandise and service options. The small closet of skis on Astor Street is now our leading business. We strive to be Milwaukee's best sporting goods store while offering the best brands, goods, and services in the sports we specialize in. Our owners and employees are avid skiers, snowboarders, tennis players, and pickleball players just like you. We try to offer customers the best goods, services, and advice so they can keep enjoying the activities they love.

We are thankful for our decades of success and grateful to our many loyal customers over the years and the years to come.