Dick’s Sporting Goods Chairman Ed Stack pulled back the curtain on the retail giant’s recent moves in a candid conversation with NRF Chairman and BJ’s Wholesale Club Chairman and CEO Bob Eddy at the opening session at NRF 2026 at Javits Center in New York City Sunday.
From expanding Dick’s large-scale, experiential House of Sport concept to the calculated risk of acquiring Foot Locker to cultivating a winning corporate culture, Stack detailed how a company that started as his father’s bait and tackle shop in 1948 is positioning itself to dominate the global market.
Growing House of Sport
The road to building 150,000-square-foot House of Sport stores began eight years ago, Stack said. The goal was to design the store of the future. However, the initial attempt didn’t pass the smell test. After building a prototype, the team realized it wasn’t distinctive enough from their existing operations. They scrapped it entirely and returned to the drawing board with a blank sheet of paper and a terrifying directive from Stack.
“I briefed it and talked to the team and said, ‘We need to build the concept that will kill Dick’s Sporting Goods,'” Stack said. “If somebody else built this store across the street from one of our traditional stores, we’re out of business.”
The result was an ecosystem centered on community, service and product — featuring climbing walls, batting cages, and outdoor fields.
The gamble has paid off. There are currently 35 House of Sport locations operating, with plans to open another 15 in the coming year. Looking ahead to 2028, Dick’s aims to operate between 75 and 100 of these massive locations.
And while many retailers have struggled this year due to economic uncertainty, tariffs and other pressures, Dick’s is delivering strong results. In the third quarter ended Nov. 1, comparable store sales grew 5.7%, driven by increases in both customer transactions and average ticket size.
“Our shoppers are in pretty good shape,” Stack said, adding that when kids need a larger size of soccer cleat, for example, their parents tend to provide them with what they need to play sports.
“With that being said, the consumer is a little bit more cautious today, and the consumer, at least from what we’ve seen, is looking for something that is innovative, different, and that they really feel will provide them a value,” Stack said. Value isn’t always a lower price either, he said. It could be products that make athletes feel like they’ll play better, or it can come from production innovation or marketing and storytelling, he said.
“Some of the products that are a couple years old, that haven’t changed, they’ve been difficult,” he said. “You need to reinvent the products that you carry and show that value to the consumer.”
The “Left Tackle” Culture: How Dick’s Defines Winning
Dick’s organizational chart is inverted from the conventional org. chart that most companies operate on, Stack said. In this model, Stack and the executive team sit at the bottom, and it’s their job to ensure that the associates above them are supported with everything they need to do a good job, ultimately serving the “athlete” (customer) at the very top.
Years ago, Stack commissioned an industrial psychologist to conduct a “DNA study” on the company’s 50 most successful people to understand what made them tick. The findings revealed that all the employees were highly competitive, but that their competitiveness was directed outward rather than inward, at their fellow employees.
Stack compared the team to Dallas Cowboys NFL legend Emmitt Smith. When Smith scored a touchdown, he simply handed the ball to the official and went back to the bench. He did his job without the need for excessive showboating.
“All they really want to do is win, and they don’t care what position they play,” Stack said of the team at Dick’s. This led to the creation of the internal Left Tackle Award. In football, the left tackle protects the quarterback’s blind side — a vital role that rarely gets the glory of a touchdown. Dick’s uses this award to recognize the unsung heroes who do the critical work behind the scenes.
To foster a collaborative environment, Stack implemented a specific rule for meetings: No one is allowed to say “No, because” in response to an idea.
“We made a rule in our company that whenever you’re in a meeting … the response has to be ‘Yes, if,'” Stack said. Instead of shutting down an idea immediately, the team must explore what conditions would make it possible. It shifts the mindset from obstruction to problem-solving, a critical component of their ability to pivot and innovate.
The Foot Locker “Fixer-Upper”
The discussion also touched on the company’s recent acquisition of Foot Locker. Stack acknowledged that Foot Locker had fallen on “difficult times” and lost its position as the premier specialty athletic footwear retailer.
The acquisition offers two primary benefits that Dick’s could not achieve organically:
- Global Access: Foot Locker provides an immediate footprint in Europe, the Middle East and Asia — markets where Dick’s had little to no presence.
- Urban Reach: The smaller Foot Locker format allows the company to enter neighborhoods and urban centers where a standard Dick’s Sporting Goods store simply wouldn’t fit or where rent would be prohibitive.
“If this was a house that we bought, we’d refer to it as a fixer-upper,” Stack said.
The turnaround strategy for Foot Locker hinges on leadership. Stack and CEO Lauren Hobart spent weeks analyzing the existing structure, using a “depth chart” exercise similar to a sports team roster. They identified gaps and recruited heavy hitters, including Ann Freeman from Nike, to lead the team.
Despite the challenges inherent in a turnaround, Stack expressed no regrets, saying that his team had done a good job on due diligence.
“If we had a mulligan… we’d do it all over again,” he said.
Sports Matter: The Mission Beyond Commerce
Dick’s focus extends beyond the boardroom through its Sports Matter Foundation. The initiative was formalized in 2013 but is rooted in a childhood experience Stack had working in his father’s store.
He recounted a story of his dad catching a shoplifter who had stolen a baseball glove. Instead of calling the police or scolding the kid, Stack’s father asked the boy why he did it. “I just want to play baseball,” the boy said, through tears. Stack’s father let the boy pick out a glove, a bat and a ball, and sent him on his way.
That moment cemented a belief that sports are a crucial safety net for youth, Stack said. With budget cuts threatening high school sports programs across the country, the foundation has stepped in to impact over 3 million kids.
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
