NEW SPORTING-GOODS STORES ADD TO AREA’S COMPETITION
The sporting-goods game is about to get more competitive in Central Florida.
Dick’s Sporting Goods is holding the grand opening of a 50,000-square-foot store near Orlando Fashion Square mall in Orlando today, the fifth in the area since 2008.
But along with Sports Authority, Dick’s is about to face more competition from Texas-based Academy Sports and Outdoors, set to enter the market next year with four stores.
Academy is moving into Orlando aggressively, trying to open four stores simultaneously and making a promotional deal with the University of Central Florida for advertising at home football games.
“Before Dick’s came, there really wasn’t many places to go for this kind of stuff,” said Steven Deborba, a Valencia College student who was picking up camping equipment last week at the Dick’s Sporting Goods location in eastern
Orlando on Alafaya Trail. “This place is like a playground to me.”
Academy pitches everyday low prices, so the added competition could be good for cost-conscious consumers
Until just a few years ago, Orlando lacked some of the nation’s largest sportinggood retailers, even as the industry bloomed nationally. Sports Authority, which has seven area locations, and second-hand specialist Play It Again Sports were the only large national chains operating in Central Florida.
There also are chains with smaller store footprints, such as Hibbett Sports and Foot Locker, but few that rival the size and breadth of the bigbox players.
Academy and Dick’s both blend traditional sports equipment and apparel with the high-growth outdoorrecreation markets. Dick’s actually started in 1948 as a hunting, fishing and camping store in Binghamton, N.Y., before moving toward teamsports equipment. Academy Sports dedicates about half of its square footage to outdoor equipment.
The two companies
also are among the fastest-growing in the industry.
Dick’s has added more than 150 stores nationally in the past five years, and Academy is trying to grow from its Southwestern and Midwest roots.
And that’s especially true in Central Florida, where between 2008 and 2015 the number of big-box sportinggoods specialists will have more than doubled.
“Over the past five years, the sporting goods stores industry fared well due to strong demand for sporting goods from more healthconscious individuals,” wrote Sarah Turk, an analyst on the retail industry with IbisWorld in a report earlier this year. “Sporting goods retailers have contended with intensifying competition over the past five years.”
Dick’s markets itself as a high-service retailer, Turk said. The stores have golf specialists who can customfit clubs and software to analyze swings. It also has employees who can analyze a runner’s step and gait and pick out the right style of running shoe.
Dick’s opened its first Central Florida store in Davenport in late 2008 but started construction on a second area store soon after in southern Orlando near the Mall at Millenia.
Texas-based Academy opened its first Florida store in 1998 but has spent the past 15 years expanding in the Southwest and Midwest. It will finally reach into the Orlando market with stores in 2015.
Academy only has Florida stores in Tallahassee, Pensacola and Jacksonville.
The company is trying to open the stores simultaneously to make a bigger immediate impact in the market, said Academy spokesman Eric Herrera.
Some of these stores will be moving in on long-established sporting-goods and outdoors competition. Bass Pro Shops opened its Orlando store on I-Drive in 2000, offering a destination retailer for hunting and camping gear. Wisconsinbased outdoor-sports retailer Gander Mountain opened in 2006 in Lake Mary, not too far from the site of a planned Academy Sports.
Orlando resident Shelby Westerberg, shopping recently at Dick’s, said she most enjoys the selection of athletic clothing.
“But having all the camping and outdoor stuff is really nice too,” Westerberg said.