DICK’S Sporting Goods will open a new concept store, Public Lands, in Pittsburgh on September 24. The 50,000-square-foot store will carry an assortment of outdoor and lifestyle apparel, footwear and equipment brands.
The retailer will bring the outdoors inside with a 30-foot rock wall, along with an in-store gear repair and rental department and specialized in-store shops dedicated to outdoor activities including biking, camping, fishing, paddling, skiing, climbing, running and hiking. Associates who are passionate about the outdoors will elevate the experience by sharing their enthusiasm for outdoor activities and conservation.
Public Lands will have a charitable angle as well: 1% of all sales will go back into local and national conservation efforts. Benefits for local communities will include support for outdoors access and equity-based initiatives.
DICK’S also will open another Going, Going, Gone! store in September, bringing the off-price concept to a total of three locations. The sporting goods retailer has been steadily building momentum in 2021 through the launch of various new concepts. Other new banners include DICK’S Sporting Goods Warehouse Sale Store, which features discounts as high as 70%, and experiential in-store Soccer Shops.
Advertisement
The retailer’s most ambitious concept is the House of Sport, a pair of 100,000-square-foot flagships in Victor, N.Y. and Knoxville, Tenn. that emphasize experience. The Victor location includes a 17,000-square-foot outdoor turf field and running track, a rock-climbing wall, batting cages and golf hitting bays, among other features. DICK’S plans to use these stores as testing grounds for new concepts and ideas that can be used to inform strategies across its entire operation.
The new concepts have been paying off so far: in Q2 2021, DICK’S reported a 19.2% increase in same-store sales compared to Q2 2020, and a 3.2% rise compared to Q2 2019. Ecommerce sales fell 28% from their peak in Q2 2020, when many stores were closed due to the pandemic, but they are still up 111% compared to Q2 2019.
