Many outdoor activity-oriented retailers are either in expansion mode and/or are expected to boost their upcoming and existing stores with more experiential bells and whistles. The trend for many of these retailers has been to enter untapped areas that have been underserved with a lack of sports-related shops, especially within smaller tertiary and secondary markets that are experiencing population increases. Look for Academy Sports + Outdoors, Sportsman’s Warehouse andthe Dick’s Sporting Goods experiential-related offshoot called Dick’s House of Sport to all be opening new units nationwide.
Academy Sports + Outdoors anticipates opening between 20 and 25 new units per year over the next five years. The brand has a strong presence already rooted in the Deep South and has been making inroads into more northern territories, including additional Midwest markets. Academy opened its first units in the new states of Virginia and West Virginia last year and will be opening additional stores in Indiana in 2023, plus seeking additional sites in Illinois. The retailer may also potentially push into new Midwestern markets such as Ohio, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Look for continued growth in states where the brand already has stores, especially more suburban and tertiary markets outside of the metros where it already has a presence, notably in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Kansas and Texas.
Academy looks for space between 40,000 and 80,000 s.f., usually as a standalone building, but the space can also be an inline or end cap of a power center, with about 300 parking spaces. The brand frequently occupies former Kmart buildings. Site should be on a major traffic thoroughfare street with other popular family friendly retailers, food tenants and fitness brands nearby, such as MOD Pizza, Hobby Lobby or 24 Hour Fitness. Academy, a value-priced sports retailer, carries a wide range of sports and outdoor activity items, including apparel, footwear and equipment, and provides services such as bike assemblage, propane exchanges and hunting/fishing licenses.
Sportsman’s Warehouse anticipates opening up to 18 new stores in 2023, followed by approximately 25 new locations per year until 2025. Expansion will take place in underpenetrated Midwestern states where the brand has a presence including Ohio — where Sportsman’s Warehouse opened its first unit in 2022 — as well as Indiana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota. Continued growth will also take place in California and Florida, with the Carolinas, New York, Virginia and West Virginia also being eyed for potential expansion.
The Sportsman’s Warehouse brand, with units that average 25,000 s.f., is very flexible with regards to store size and can accommodate space as small as 7,500 s.f., and as large as 60,000 s.f., depending on the population of the targeted market. The brand prefers second generation sites, whether it is a standalone building or a unit in a power center or a regional center, and Sportsman’s Warehouse has had success occupying former Stein Mart, Staples and Toys ‘R’ Us spaces. Ideal regions targeted are secondary and tertiary markets with easy access to outdoor activity spots, such as lake and mountain campsites, especially if those spots offer hunting options as Sportsman Warehouse specializes in selling firearms. Preferred co-tenants include fitness brands, such as L.A. Fitness, family friendly department stores, such as Walmart, and home improvement chains, such as Lowe’s.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, which already has a strong footprint in the U.S., will be further embarking on its experiential, entertainment-oriented Dick’s House of Sport concept this year, and into 2024. It is in the same vein as Scheels and Bass Pro Shops, two other outdoor sports tenants renowned as destination stores with larger square footage requirements.
The typical House of Sport unit is between 100,000 and 140,000 s.f., which is far larger than the average Dick’s Sporting Goods store, which runs between 35,000 and 80,000 s.f.
Up to 10 of these new House of Sport stores will be opening throughout the country over the next two years. Three of these stores, in Johnson City, N.Y., Boston and Pittsburgh, will be in enclosed shopping mall centers: the Johnson City unit will be a 140,000-s.f. new build in the revitalized Oakdale Commons mall project that will take over a former Macy’s store; the Boston unit will take over a former 117,000-s.f. Lord & Taylor in the Prudential Center mixed-use shopping mall; and the Pittsburgh unit will take over a portion of the former Sears space in the Ross Park Mall. The remaining units will be in neighborhood power centers or standalone buildings and will be a conversion of both a Dick’s Sporting Goods and its neighboring tenant, Field & Stream — a brand also owned by Dick’s. These will be in Friendship, Texas, Katy, Texas, Scranton, Pa., Latham, N.Y., Champaign, Ill., Chesapeake, Va., and Fayetteville, N.C. A Davenport, Iowa, unit will be a conversion of a Dick’s Sporting Goods and the neighboring tenant Golf Galaxy, another Dick’s owned entity.
The brand unveiled its first House of Sport store in Victor, N.Y., in 2021, and added two more such stores in Knoxville, Tenn., and Minnetonka, Minn. These House of Sport concepts contain such bells and whistles as an attached outdoor turf field with a running track that can be as large as 24,000 s.f. and can be used to physically test out merchandise, as well as act as a space for special group class events. The turf field can also double as an ice skating rink in winter months. Additional features at these concept stores include a batting cage, a rock-climbing wall, a putting green, golf hitting bays with simulators and a health/wellness area that features yoga classes. Services will also be provided, such as bike repairs, lacrosse stick stringing and baseball glove softening. The stores will also carry a wide range of outdoor apparel brands and equipment for team sports and fitness-related activities in a mini-specialty shop mall-like setting.
