Dick's Sporting Goods is starting to build out its roster of House of Sport locations, opening nine of its new hands-on stores that permit customers to try out gear on real fields and do some rock climbing in between shopping.
The Coraopolis, Pennsylvania-based retailer is in a major expansion mode with its House of Sport store format, roughly 100,000-square-foot stores that feature not only a wide assortment of products but on-site shopper-engagement activities such as a climbing wall, multiple golf bays with TrackManTM simulators, and multisport cages that can be used for baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer to give customers an opportunity to try products while measuring and tracking their performance.
Dick's expects to open between 75 to 100 House of Sport stores by 2027, following the trend of retailers looking to engage shoppers by letting them interact with merchandise.
Dick's announced it held grand openings in July and August for House of Sport stores in:
- The Shoppes at Park West, 24600 Katy Freeway, Katy, Texas.
- Baybrook Mall, 18650 Gulf Freeway, Friendswood, Texas.
- Davenport Commons, 5511 Elmore Ave. A, Davenport, Iowa.
- Market Place Shopping Center, 2000 N. Neil St., Champaign, Illinois.
- Greenbrier Square, 1501 Sentinel Drive, Chesapeake, Virginia.
- Freedom Town Center, 2741 Freedom Parkway Drive, Fayetteville, North Carolina.
- Latham Farms, 579 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, New York.
- Viewmont Mall, 440 Viewmont Mall, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
- Oakdale Commons, 629 Harry L. Drive, Johnson City, New York.
Those locations join the first three House of Sport stores that previously opened in Victor, New York; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Minnetonka, Minnesota.
Dicks — which has more than 850 namesake stores, Golf Galaxy, Public Lands, Moosejaw, Going Going Gone! and Warehouse Sale locations — reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings on Tuesday. Net sales were up nearly 4%, to $3.22 billion. Comparable store sales rose roughly 2%.
"These are solid numbers that make Dick’s one of the continued winners in retail," Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a note on Tuesday.
"This is especially so since second quarter sales are up by an impressive 42.7% since pre-pandemic 2019. Over this time, Dick’s has increased its share of spending and customers across almost all the sporting categories it operates in. This includes clothing and footwear, where Dick’s has made some extensive inroads not just into sporting related apparel but into items for casual use."
Saunders also discussed the House of Sport concept in his note.
"While House of Sport is an excellent concept, its large footprint means that it is not suited to every location; nor would it be possible or desirable to convert all existing Dick’s stores into the new format," he said. "However, Dick’s has developed a model that takes some of the thinking from the House of Sport concept and injects it into its mainstream stores. This is still being trialed with the first store open in South Bend, Indiana. However, we believe this has potential for many other stores as Dick’s embarks on refreshing the experience both to remain relevant and to enlarge its share of spending."
Dick's didn't immediately respond to an email from CoStar News seeking comment on Saunders' remarks.