Dive Brief:

• Dick’s Sporting Goods and its Public Lands banner are getting into the used gear market. The retailer on Wednesday announced the launch of an in-store buyback program for outdoor gear, including hard and soft goods in select markets.
• The pilot program, in partnership with online platform Out&Back, is available in two markets: Denver (where Out&Back is headquartered) and Pittsburgh (close to where Dick’s is headquartered). The program will launch at Public Lands’ Pittsburgh store on Friday.
• Out&Back will accept gear at certain Dick’s and Public Lands stores Friday through Sunday in exchange for “instant cash payments.” The program accepts products like tents, backpacks, outerwear, skis and snowboards, and more categories will be added “as the partnership evolves,” according to a press release.

Dive Insight:

The resale market has seen a slew of entrants over the past couple of years as program providers like ThredUp expand their reach.

Outdoor retailers have been ahead of the industry in launching refurbishment and resale programs, in part because they say their business and their consumer have deeper ties to the environment. Legacy outdoor players like REI and Patagonia have expanded their offerings in the used gear market for years, with REI doubling its used gear sales in 2020 and growing its revenue in the space by more than 80% last year. Patagonia in 2019 even tested a physical pop-up for its Worn Wear resale business, and REI has done the same, with purchasing limited to its co-op members.

Public Lands, however, is a new entrant to the outdoor space, launched by parent company Dick’s Sporting Goods in 2021. In discussing the new banner in 2020, Executive Chairman Ed Stack said the banner would take on sustainability issues, including protecting public lands. Through the resale pilot, Out&Back and Dick’s will donate 1% of the offers given to sellers to environmental organization 1% for the Planet.

“We launched Out&Back because we knew there was an unmet need for reselling outdoor and adventure-based gear,” Barruch Ben-Zekry, founder and CEO of Out&Back, said in a statement. “When listening to our consumers' needs, it became clear that an all-in-one platform inclusive of equipment and accessories was the obvious next step for us. Since launching in 2019, we’ve seen 43% growth in the soft-goods category and predict through our partnership with Dick’s and Public Lands we will see equal demand for hard-goods in the outdoor and adventure space.”

In the athletics space more broadly, resale and refurbishment programs are catching on. Nike launched a footwear refurbishment program in 15 stores about a year ago, while Fabletics and Adidas both debuted resale programs in partnership with ThredUp. Allbirds began its own resale program in February, and Lululemon expanded a recommerce pilot nationwide on Earth Day.