News

Sherman’s Sports and Army Store closing after more than 100 years on Main Street.

Becky and Rex Banadyga stand outside their store, Sherman’s Sports and Army Store. The store is closing after more than 100 years on Main Street.

By Amy McCraw, Published: September 25, 2025

Becky and Rex Banadyga know the exact moment they decided it was time to retire.

The two were at home one day this past summer trying to remember the name of a product they sell in their Main Street business, Sherman’s Sports and Army Store.
“I couldn’t think of it, and I asked Becky,” Rex said.
But the product’s name seemed to have also vanished from Becky’s memory.
“We started giggling,” Rex said. “We said, ‘You know, this isn’t going to get any better.’”
After talking a little more about the idea of retiring, the projects they want to tackle around the house and the trips they might want to take, the two decided to close the store Becky’s grandfather, Louis Sherman, opened more than 100 years ago.
The store’s going-out-of-business sale began the Wednesday before the North Carolina Apple Festival held over Labor Day weekend in Hendersonville.
A sign on the window of the store calls it a Retiring Sale with everything offered at 25 percent off.
A letter taped to the window next to the sign congratulates Becky and Rex and bids them farewell.
“Since its founding in 1922, Sherman’s Sporting Goods has been a cornerstone for local athletes and families, nurturing generations and serving as a gathering place for the Hendersonville community,” the letter says.
The letter also invites customers to sign a guest book and share their favorite memories of the store and their gratitude for Becky and Rex.
The community’s reaction to the store’s closing and the stories from customers recounting their memories of shopping at Sherman’s has been unbelievable, the two said.
“I think it’s been more emotional for some of our customers,” Becky said of the decision to close the store.
One woman had tears in her eyes as she told the Banadygas about buying her children and later grandchildren shoes at Sherman’s. Another customer who first came to Sherman’s as a child told Becky he had known her for 60 years.
Rex said the the community will also miss long-time employees Suzanne Vernon, Margo Betancourt and Meta Berkowitz.
“They have been so dedicated,” he said.
Becky said she has tried to not think about what her grandfather and father, Kalman, might think about the family business closing.
She said she suspected that it might be more difficult for her father if he was still alive.
“It was all of my father’s life,” she said. “Dad’s biggest change was when they paved the streets.”
Becky’s grandfather, Louis Sherman, opened the store carrying his name in 1922 on Main Street a short distance from where it operates today across the street from the county’s Historic Courthouse at 126 North Main Street.
When Louis Sherman retired in the 1950s or early ’60s, his son, Kalman, took over the store that by that time featured sporting goods and until the 1990s hunting and fishing supplies.
Becky said boredom overtook her grandfather shortly after his retirement and he opened an Army surplus store down the street from the sporting goods store. The two stores later combined to make Sherman’s Sports and Army Store at its current location.
The Banadygas took over from Becky’s parents in the early 2000s and continued the store’s motto: “Everything. That’s All.”
In a Hendersonville Lightning story marking the store’s 100-year anniversary in 2022, they described witnessing county history on Main Street and at the historic courthouse across the street from their store’s windows.
U.S. Secret Service agents in 1992 plucked a dummy hand grenade from the showcase of their store while preparing for a campaign visit by President George H. W. Bush.
The Secret Service inspected Sherman's because of its location directly across from Henderson County’s Historic Courthouse. Bush spoke at the Historic Courthouse Plaza during the N.C. Apple Festival that year as he campaigned during what turned out to be his unsuccessful bid for re-election.
A few years later, the Secret Service visited the Banadygas again when Hillary Clinton was campaigning for president on Main Street near the store.
From the store’s front window, they also witnessed everything from wedding ceremonies on the courthouse plaza to Ku Klux Klan rallies on Main Street.
But some memories are more personal than the historic events happening outside store’s doors.
When he considers the current high cost of shoes, Rex said he remembers the time he and Becky’s father traveled to Asheville to meet with an Adidas salesman.
“He had a new product to show us,” Rex said.
But the new shoes designed specifically for basketball players left Sherman skeptical.
“He said, ‘I don’t know that we can get somebody to pay $25 for a pair basketball shoes,’” Rex said. “Now they cost hundreds of dollars and they’re not even leather.”
Becky and Rex, who are both in their late 70s, described retirement as a new challenge they plan to approach by deciding which corner of their home to clean first.
“Everybody talks about downsizing,” Becky said. “I just want to go through and purge.”
The two also hope to take long put off vacations beginning with a road trip Becky plans to take with three other ladies.
Sherman’s will close once the store’s inventory is sold and the going-out-of-business sale is complete.
They said they expect the sale to continue into October.
“It’s going pretty fast,” Rex said.
The Banadygas said they plan to rent the two buildings that make up their store once the business closes.
They said three local businesses have expressed interest in the space and while they did not want to name any names, Rex said he would like to see a retail business in the space.
The people renting two apartments on the second floor of the two buildings will remain, they said.
On a recent day, a few customers came in to Sherman’s to check out the remaining socks, shoes, T-shirts, hats and other items left in the store as the retirement sale continued. The customers also visited with Becky and Rex, some commenting on how much they will miss seeing the couple at the store when they visit Main Street.
Rex seemed to anticipate how much he and Becky will also miss their customers when he considered retirement in 2022 during the store’s 100-year anniversary.
“It’s either this or do yard work,” he said at the time when asked why they were not interested in retiring just yet. Rex then paused for a moment before speaking again. “That’s wrong. I think we really enjoy coming in, seeing our regular customers and meeting new ones.”
Sherman’s Sports and Army Store is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:20 p.m. Monday-Saturday during the going-out-of-business sale. The store will close at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 1 and reopen on Friday, Oct. 3.