Quirky outdoor retailer Moosejaw plans to close nearly all its stores in early 2024 and shutter its Madison Heights headquarters, less than a year after its purchase by Dick's Sporting Goods.

Dick's spokesperson Amanda Bonzo said Friday that all but three Moosejaw stores will be closing. The remaining stores will be the Birmingham store at 34288 Woodward Ave., and stores in Salt Lake City and Bentonville, Arkansas.

The stores that are closing will remain open until February, as will the Moosejaw headquarters in Madison Heights.

Dick's bought Moosejaw from Walmart in February. The Dick's spokesperson declined to share reasons for the store closures beyond the company's statement, which describes a partial merging of Moosejaw with Dick's own outdoor retail brand, Public Lands, which it launched in 2021.

Moosejaw will continue online retail sales through Moosejaw.com.

“After careful review of our outdoor specialty business, we have decided to form one team that will support the operations of Public Lands and Moosejaw. The team will be based at Public Lands’ headquarters in Pittsburgh," the statement said. “This move supports our business optimization efforts and will allow us to operate more efficiently, quickly leverage best practices across our outdoor business and drive our long-term success."

Moosejaw was founded in 1992 by longtime friends Robert Wolfe and David Jaffe and was long known for its zany promotions and edgy marketing.

In 2007, the founders sold to private equity firms Parallel Investment Partners and W Capital Partners.

By 2017, when the private equity firms sold to Walmart, Moosejaw had 10 locations and 350 employees. The current Moosejaw employee count was not available Friday. News of the store closures was first reported by Crain's Detroit.

The Moosejaw stores that will close are:

• Downtown Detroit, 1275 Woodward Ave.

• The Birmingham Bike & Snow shop at 284 West Maple Road in Birmingham

• Ann Arbor, 327 S Main St.

• Grosse Pointe, 17037 Kercheval

• East Lansing

• Grand Rapids

• Cannonsburg in Belmont, Michigan

• Boulder, Colorado

• Chicago

• Olathe, Kansas

• Kansas City, Missouri

One Moosejaw employee told the Free Press that headquarters employees were informed of the store closure plans Friday morning at a companywide virtual meeting.

Several employees also learned during the meeting that they were laid off — effectively immediately — and individuals who appeared to be police quickly escorted those employees out of the building, according to the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing potential future severance.

The employee said that Moosjaw stores had been losing money, although sales recently had picked up. Many employees were shocked by Friday's announcements, the person said, as they had previously been told Moosejaw had until 2025 to meet various performance targets.

“Dick’s did Moosejaw very dirty," the individual said. "They killed a Michigan brand."

A Dick's spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment on the employee's claims.

More: Another hot dog stand reopens at a Home Depot store in Madison Heights

More: Bell's Brewery makes Oberon year-round with the unveiling of Oberon Eclipse

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Moosejaw to close nearly all US stores, shut Madison Heights HQ