Dive Brief:
- Dick’s on Monday announced an effort to bring Lids shop-in-shops to more than 100 stores by late summer. The partnership is already available at 46 locations, per a company press release.
- The shop-in-shops will feature a selection of licensed and lifestyle headwear from Lids. Dick’s is pitching the experience as a way to expand access to fan merchandise.
- As part of the in-store partnership, Lids will work with Dick’s to train associates on products and visual merchandising.
Dive Insight:
For its latest upgrade to the in-store environment, Dick’s is throwing a hat tip to Lids.
"Our athletes are increasingly looking for new ways to rep their favorite teams, their style and the latest trends," David Progar, senior vice president of Licensed at Dick’s, said in a statement. "By partnering with Lids, a leader in licensed headwear, we'll be able to offer them more choices to meet their needs for sport, lifestyle and fandom."
Already, the shop-in-shop format is available in stores across 20 states.
It joins a variety of other initiatives Dick’s is undergoing to improve the shopping experience. The retailer is testing a rotating pop-up concept in New York’s iconic Hamptons area this summer showcasing its private labels, and also has several long-term plans for enhancing the store experience at core Dick’s locations.
The experiential House of Sport format continues to pay dividends for Dick’s, as well as the scaled-down version dubbed Field House. The company is opening roughly 22 Field House locations this year and is plotting 14 House of Sport stores.
Dick’s House of Sport locations drive strong sales and profitability, Hobart said in May, and also increase traffic to the malls and shopping centers where they open. The locations provide intangible benefits as well, like increasing dwell time from shoppers, and serve as an “on-ramp” for new and emerging brands, according to the executive.
“We just added Vuori to our mix of brands last quarter, Gymshark,” Hobart said. “That's all been enabled because of the House of Sport, where people can really bring a brand to life head-to-toe, tell their story, and it's a fantastic way for us all to get to know each other. So that's going to have tangible returns in the future that will impact the whole business.”
