Dive Brief:
- As competing retailers grow their store footprint, Rally House, a sporting apparel, accessory and decor retailer, has surpassed 200 stores, doubling the retailer’s store count in a little over two years, the retailer announced on Friday.
- At the end of April the retailer opened its first Buffalo, New York, location along with additional stores in existing markets of Philadelphia, Chicago, Louisville and West Virginia, according to the announcement.
- Its recent store openings brought the total number of states in which it operates to 19. The company plans to open new locations this year in existing and major markets like Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver and Houston.
Dive Insight:
Rally House’s latest store openings mark the retailer’s continued brick-and-mortar expansion. Last year, the retailer opened stores in Illinois, Arizona, Kansas and Oklahoma, among other locations.
The family-owned retailer, which sells merchandise for local NCAA, MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL and MLS teams, is growing its footprint to cultivate a top-tier shopping experience and product assortment, the company said.
“Since our first store in 1989, we’ve stayed true to our mission of providing locally inspired merchandise and gifts,” Vice President of Marketing Strategy Aaron Johnson said in a statement. “No two stores are alike, which creates a catered shopping experience and product selection that is specific to each community we are in.”
Meanwhile, other sports retailers are also widening their physical store reach. In March, Dick’s Sporting Goods said it planned to start construction on 15 more experiential House of Sport locations this year as well as 16 next-generation Dick’s stores. That same month, Academy Sports and Outdoors said during an earnings call that it will open between 160 and 180 new locations over the next five years, half in current markets and half in new markets.
The growth of sporting goods retailers is yet another sign of optimism for the category. According to a recent World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry and McKinsey & Company report, 90% of sporting goods executives said they anticipate sales and margins to improve or remain stable this year.
Despite their positive predictions, 81% said they were also concerned about inflation, inventory levels and cost of capital, the report found. Eight in ten of the respondents said they had a greater inventory peak than the year prior. Meanwhile, more than half of respondents said overstocking has been a “persistent problem.”
