CANTON – A Main Street storefront is to be the home of a sporting goods and printing business, freeing up space at a growing lacrosse stick stringing workshop outside of town.

Just a couple of months after expanding the retail offerings at Youngs Brothers workshop at 6589 US Hwy. 11, Tim Youngs and his partners decided they needed more space and will be moving that part of the business to 103 Main St. to a store they are calling The Edge Sporting Goods and Printing.

Opening a retail store in downtown Canton will make for more room for his booming lacrosse stick stringing business between Potsdam and Canton.

Last fall, Youngs brought in Rusty and Deb Gotham’s DNR Printing of Edwards, to expand opportunities for custom printing of T-shirts and other items, and that led to offering more apparel for sale at the workshop store.

The 18 people who were working for the well established and growing lacrosse stick business, Youngs says, were moved to the back of that store.

But Youngs says it was getting a bit cramped, “and we weren’t getting foot traffic. People thought we were just lacrosse equipment.

“We had an opportunity to move downtown and get some walk-in foot traffic. It should be better.”

The new store is 1,900 square feet of “really nice space. They’ve restored it to the original woodwork. It’s a nice building.” It had most recently had been Chuck’s Pet Center.

Now they will have a more visible place for their full line of lacrosse sticks, gloves, helmets and other gear – “lacrosse, head to toe,” Youngs says – plus the hockey equipment and apparel including shirts, shorts, sweatshirts including hoodies, hats, and lots more. They are also carrying New Balance footwear.

Running the shop, Youngs says, will be “just ourselves, me, and Rusty and Deb, and we’ll send a couple of the college kids from here (the stringing shop) down there afternoons.”

Speaking from the workshop, Youngs says the stringers will move back to the front of the space.

“There are more windows and better light. The stringing business is enough to fill this place. We’re bringing the stringers back up front so they will have some more room.

“The space was tolerable, but this will be better,” especially since the stick business just seems to keep growing.”

The shop is stringing sticks for national brands such as Brine, Warrior, Harrow, Easton, Tribe 7 and Onyx.

On top of a steadily rising number of orders, “there’s been a little jump lately. The sport is growing so much now. They’re picking it up in the West and in warm-weather states, and kids are playing year-round now. There are more fall and winter leagues.”

Youngs says that “lacrosse is still the fastest growing sport in the world. Over the next 10 years, they say it will be growing at 10 or 15 percent a year.”