Dick's Sporting Goods
1948
Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores and 50,100 employees. Dick's is America's largest sporting goods retailer, and it is listed on the Fortune 500.
1948
Richard "Dick" Stack started the company as a fishing tackle store in Binghamton, New York, in 1948. He began with a $300 loan from his grandmother.
1984
Edward W. Stack and his siblings purchased Dick's from their father in the early 1980s, when the company had two locations in Upstate New York. Stack established a board of directors, opened additional stores, and relocated the company's headquarters to Pittsburgh in 1994. He became chairman and chief executive officer following his father's retirement in 1984, and led the company during its initial public offering in 2002.
July 2004
Dick's acquired Galyan's in July 2004. The company agreed to purchase Golf Galaxy for $225 million in November 2006. Dick's confirmed plans to close Golf Galaxy's headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minnesota in mid 2008.
2006
The company signed a 20-year naming rights agreement for Dick's Sporting Goods Park, a soccer-specific stadium for the Colorado Rapids team in Commerce City, Colorado, in 2006. Dick's has sponsored the Pittsburgh Penguins and the team's home arena, PPG Paints Arena (formerly Consol Energy Center).
2009
Sporting events sponsored by Dick's have included the Dick's Sporting Goods Open and the Pittsburgh Marathon. Dick's began sponsoring ESPN's college football kickoff week in 2009.
2012
Following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018, Dick's stopped selling assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and increased the minimum age for purchasing guns to 21. Dick's-branded stores had suspended assault-style weapon sales following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, but the guns were still available for purchase at Field & Stream locations. Dick's has never carried bump stocks.
2012
In 2012, the company opened three True Runner stores targeting runners in Boston, the St. Louis suburb Brentwood, and Pittsburgh's Shadyside neighborhood. The stores closed in early 2017.
2013
Dick's opened its first Field & Stream store in Cranberry Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh, in 2013. Thirty-five Field & Stream stores are open across the country, as of 2018. Jason Aldean became the Field & Stream brand's first spokesperson in August 2016.
2014
In 2014, the Dick's Sporting Goods Foundation committed up to $2 million annually to fund youth sports via its Sports Matter program. More than 145 million USD has been pledged for youth sports initiatives, benefiting hundreds of thousands of athletes, as of December 2020. The organization also launched an awareness campaign with Jon Gruden and Michael B. Jordan serving as spokespeople, and worked with director Judd Ehrlich to release We Could Be King, a documentary film about two Philadelphia high school football teams forced to merge due to lack of funding. Following Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma (2017), the foundation donated $2 million to youth sports facilities and program in affected areas, including $120,000 for Houston's reVision soccer team, composed of immigrants from Africa. Dick's later featured the team in a documentary-style advertisement called reVision FC: A Holiday Assist.
2015
Dick's launched the women's athleisure, fitness, and lifestyle store Chelsea Collective in 2015, opening two stores in Pittsburgh and Tysons, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C. metro area. The shops closed in 2017.
2015
Dick's partnered with Carrie Underwood in 2015 to launch Calia, a fitness lifestyle line.
2015
In 2015, the company sponsored Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls, and became the "official sporting goods retailer" for Team USA for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. Dick's and Team USA established the Ambassador Program and Contender's Program in partnership with the United States Olympic Committee, employing Olympians and prospective Olympic athletes. Dick's employed approximately 200 Team USA athletes competing in 35 different Olympic and Paralympic sports, as of March–July 2016. The athletes worked in 89 stores in 32 states.
October 2016
Dick's acquired Golfsmith, the largest golf retailer in the United States, at a bankruptcy auction in October 2016. Dick's bid approximately $70 million for all of Golfsmith's intellectual property and inventory. The company planned to retain around 30 of Golfsmith's more than 100 locations, as well as 500 employees. Dick's rebranded 36–38 Golfsmith stores in 16 U.S. states as Golf Galaxy in 2017. This increased the number of Golf Galaxy stores to 98, located in 33 states.
2017
Dick's is the largest sporting goods retail company in the United States, with approximately 854 stores, as of 2020. The public company is based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, and has approximately 50,100 employees, as of March 2020. The company's subsidiaries include Field & Stream, Golf Galaxy, and Public Lands, and, previously, Chelsea Collective and True Runner. In 2017, there were 690 Dick's stores, close to 100 Golf Galaxy locations, and approximately 30 Field & Stream stores. The company launched Team Sports HQ, a collection of digital products, following the acquisitions of Affinity Sports, Blue Sombrero, and GameChanger.
2017
In 2017, Dick's entered a multiyear partnership with the United States Youth Soccer Association to provide team management technology and sponsor the US Youth Soccer National Championships.
January 2018
The company currently operates five distribution centers. The most recent, in Conklin in Southern Tier, New York opened in January 2018, and was further expanded to fulfill online sales a few months later.
2019
In 2019, Dick's launched its private-label clothing line called DSG. The company's other brands include the women's line Calia, and their menswear brand VRST.
2019
In 2019, the Dick's Sporting Goods Foundation launched a campaign to improve access to sports for one million children by 2024.
2021
Dick's opened its first "House of Sport" concept stores in Victor, New York and Knoxville, Tennessee in 2021. The stores are larger than Dick's flagship locations, sell higher-end gear and include features such as an outdoor turf field and track, climbing wall, batting cages, and a digital golf range. Dick's also launched Public Lands in 2021, a chain of stores that focuses on outdoor recreation including camping, hiking, and biking.
February 01, 2021
Edward W. Stack serves as executive chairman. Lauren Hobart is president and chief executive officer of the company and Lee Belitsky is chief financial officer, as of 2018. Hobart succeeded Edward W. Stack as CEO on February 1, 2021, becoming the company's first female CEO.
Early 2023
The company launched Dick's Team Sports HQ in early 2016, offering youth sports teams websites, uniforms, and sponsorship options.
