A merger of Dick’s Sporting Goods and Foot Locker could happen before the end of the year.

Dick’s Sporting Goods is expecting soft profits in 2025.

Each chain’s progress also reflects internal transformation efforts set before the pandemic.

Dick’s Sporting Goods is acquiring Moosejaw from Walmart. The sporting goods giant made the deal to advance its ambitions in the multibillion-dollar outdoor retail market. How do you expect Dick’s to manage the Moosejaw business?

When many retailers nationwide were forced to operate as e-commerce-only companies in March of 2020 due to pandemic-related lockdowns, Shawn Wilkinson, e-commerce program manager for personalization at Dick’s Sporting Goods, saw an opportunity target the right “athlete”. Do you agree with Mr. Wilkinson that bite-sized content tests are a good way to pursue customization and personalization?

Joining a number of other retailers with in-house investment vehicles, Dick’s Sporting Goods announced the launch of DSG Ventures, a $50 million fund that will initially focus on companies that directly serve athletes and their communities, or that help Dick’s better serve its customers. What should Dick’s Sporting Goods hope to gain from its launch of DSG Ventures?

Peloton, which seemingly overnight went from boom to bust, last week reached a deal to sell through Amazon.com’s U.S. website, marking its first wholesale selling relationship. Do you see more of an upside or downside to Peloton’s deal to sell on Amazon and possibly with other retailers?

Allbirds, the environmentally-friendly footwear upstart, has opened third-party distribution for the first time. Do you see more benefits than risks in Allbirds’ move to open up wholesale distribution?

Foot Locker is counting on Adidas, the second largest athletic footwear vendor, to help compensate for the loss of business as Nike, the largest, Nike, pulls back some of its business. Do you see Adidas as the lynchpin to resetting Foot Locker’s merchandise mix amid reduced allocations from Nike?

Dick’s Sporting Goods is piloting an in-store buy-back program for select outdoor hard and soft goods. The program is being done in partnership with Out&Back Outdoor, a re-seller founded in late 2019. Does a resale program make sense for Dick’s Sporting Goods?

Champs Sports, a sporting goods retailer owned by Foot Locker, will soon launch the first location of its HomeField experiential store concept. Will the concept help the company pivot away from reliance on Nike and expand its appeal in the broader sporting goods interests?

Dick’s Sporting Goods and Nike announced yesterday that the two companies are looking to deepen their relationship that will offer customers of both companies a connection to exclusive offers and loyalty benefits via Dick’s mobile app. What will Dick’s and Nike’s connected partnership mean for each company and their customers?

The Bank of America (BofA) has identified five “megatrends” — some accelerated by the pandemic — representing tailwinds advancing sports apparel and footwear growth. Do you expect sportswear growth to outpace overall apparel and footwear categories in the years ahead?

Dick’s Sporting Goods has been named as the Official Sporting Goods Retail Partner of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) beginning in 2021.  What will Dick’s deal with the WNBA mean for the sporting goods chain along with its other female-focused initiatives?

It’s only one store, but Dick’s Sporting Goods sees big things ahead for its new Public Lands concept, which will celebrate its grand opening on Sept. 24 in Pennsylvania. Do you see the Public Lands concept as in-tune with the needs of consumers in the outdoors lifestyle market?

Hibbett Sports detailed yesterday at its investor conference the numerous ways it is differentiating its omnichannel offering by elevating the post-purchase experience. Do you agree that the post-purchase experience is just as important as the pre-purchase experience?

Amid Nike’s moves to consolidate wholesale accounts, a few affected retailers are expressing confidence they’ll be able to shift to other vendors to fill the void. In March, Nike informed six chains that they were being cut off. Nine others were similarly informed in 2020.  How difficult will it be for most chains to replace Nike’s sales?

Wilson Sporting Goods, the 108-year old sports equipment maker, is introducing its first lifestyle apparel collection and opening its first stores to support the launch.  Do you see Wilson Sports’ launch of a lifestyle sportswear collection and physical stores as a natural progression or a stretch?

Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced the grand opening of its House of Sport experiential concept store. The new store will provide a variety of experiences for various sports both inside and outside the store. Is Dick’s on the right track with its experiential store concepts?

Nike reportedly plans to stop selling to six additional wholesale accounts as it increasingly emphasizes direct-to-consumer commerce and exits “undifferentiated” wholesale accounts. Is Nike at risk of no longer reaching certain customer segments or geographies with its pivot to direct-to-consumer and select “strategic” wholesale partners?

Dick’s Sporting Goods had a record-setting year in 2020 and its stats were impressive.  Where do you see opportunities for Dick’s Sporting Goods to build on its momentum from 2020 and where do you see challenges that could upset its forward push?

During a keynote session at the NRF Big Show, Doug Mack, Fanatics’ CEO, discussed how the online fan gear leader’s vertical commerce model helped the company make fast adjustments during the pandemic to deliver record sales and profits in 2020. What lessons can traditional retailers glean from the success of Fanatics’ vertical commerce model?

Dick’s Sporting Goods plans to test a new outdoors concept, called Public Lands, in 2021 as scores of Americans’ have embraced outdoor activities during the pandemic. Is now a ripe time for Dick’s to launch an outdoors-themed concept?

The two 30-second commercials being presented today are quite clear in their messaging about addressing the realities associated with the pandemic.  Which does a better job of connecting with each company’s core customers while reaching out to new shoppers?

For its first California Power Store, Foot Locker has committed to hiring local by partnering with the City of Compton to recruit talent within a five-mile radius of the location. Should hiring local be a priority for retailers, and is it a feasible goal for most?

Nike last week launched a new store concept — Nike Rise — in China that promises a curated “1-to-1, personalized shopping experience that connects consumers to sport, their communities and one another.” Does Nike Rise appear to bring additional value to Nike’s portfolio of retail concepts?

Dick’s Sporting Goods announced last week the opening of two clearance concepts — OVERTIME by Dick’s Sporting Goods that will be open “for the foreseeable future” and Dick’s Sporting Goods Warehouse that will open only for the next six months. What do think is behind Dick’s Sporting Goods’ introduction of clearance stores?

With the coronavirus pandemic leading to the temporary and possibly permanent closure of scores of local restaurants and stores, the “shop local” movement appears to be getting a huge boost. Is COVID-19 giving more license for local retailers to capitalize on their importance to communities?

With last week’s decision to postpone the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which had been set to start July 24, the world may be without major sporting events until the fall. How do you see the loss of league games and major sporting events such as the Olympics affecting retail?

Dick’s Sporting Goods, which earned national headlines in February 2018 for its decision to end sales of assault rifles, last week announced plans to remove the hunting department from another 440 doors. Does Dick’s make a solid business case for getting out of the hunting category?

Dick’s Sporting Goods became the latest retailer to tell Wall Street it will move away from reporting online metrics. Are online growth and/or penetration metrics becoming irrelevant with increasing omnIchannel behavior by consumers?

Family-owned chain Modell’s Sporting Goods, a familiar retailer throughout the northeastern U.S., has hit the skids, and the CEO has taken an unusual step of reaching out publicly to crowdsource funds in order to keep the company afloat. Will Modell’s crowdsourcing campaign help pull the chain out of its downward spiral?

Dick’s Sporting Goods is crediting its recent performance improvements, in part, to increased investments in employees, including the launch of an associate training program earlier this year and a heightened focus on employee recognition. Is retail any better or worse than other industries at recognizing strong performance by employees?

Stew Leonard’s and Title Nine are orchestrating competitions mimicking the hit show, Shark Tank, to discover fresh ideas. What do you think of Shark Tank-style pitch competitions as a way for retailers, shopping center owners or vendors to discover new ideas?

Mitchell Modell, CEO of Modell’s Sporting Goods, believed he had only 48 hours to avoid liquidation after a Wall Street Journal article came out. What lessons should other retail leaders glean from Modell’s success shoring up trade credit support?

Visitors to the first full-sized U.S. location of global sporting goods brand Decathlon will find the checkout not at the front of the store, but all around them — on the iPhones carried by the store’s staff. Is having staff stationed throughout a store at mobile stations a good way to streamline the checkout process?

Dick’s wants the ability to create and control solutions that meet its specific business needs and place itself into a position of competitive advantage over rivals. Do you approve of the decision by Dick’s to bring its software development in-house rather than rely on solutions from third-party vendors?

While the department store channel garners much of the negative retail press these days, specialty stores generally earned poor marks in our annual consumer study, “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.” Have specialty retailers been affected any more or less by online disruption than other retail verticals?

Foot Locker is launching a standalone experiential store concept, a strategy that it’s already piloted abroad. Will Foot Locker succeed with standalone experiential concepts in the U.S. rather than with a mall focus?

In sessions at the NRF show in New York this week, brands explored the payback from taking stances on hot-button political and societal issues. Has it become more beneficial for brands to take stands on societal and political issues?

After seven weeks of head-to-head competition, it’s time to pick the champion of the 2018 RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge. Which retailer commercials do you think were worthy of note for the holiday season?

Can a commercial with just over 100 views on YouTube beat another that pulls at the heart strings and has been played over three million times on the social media channel? What is your critique of Big Lot’s “Stock Up On Joy!” and Dick’s Sporting Goods’ “The Table”?

Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced that it will no longer sell the AR-15 rifle and similar firearms after the recent murder of 17 students and teachers at a high school in Parkland, FL. Given the current political climate surrounding gun control, what do you think is the best business response from retailers that sell firearms?

Nike plans to put its eggs in fewer baskets going forward. The athletic wear brand announced yesterday a plan to focus its organizational resources on 40 key retail partners and its own consumer direct efforts. How likely is Nike’s “massive transformation” to prove successful?

Last week at the B. Riley 3rd Annual Consumer Conference, Chris Work, CFO of Zumiez, noted that three out of four key factors that separate the chain from competitors involve motivating employees. What’s your ideal motivational package for store associates and managers?

Dick’s Sporting Goods has a price perception problem and the retailer plans to take competition head on with more promotions “to drive market share.” Will increased promotional activity and price matching help Dick’s to overcome the consumer perception that its prices are not competitive?

Amazon.com isn’t the only online rival that Dick’s plans to match with its new “best price guarantee,” but it is among the most important in the sporting goods chain’s efforts to maintain its lead in the category. Where do you think Dick’s will see the most competitive pressure going forward?

Social media hasn’t turned out to be the bastion of sales that brands and tech companies had hoped. But one brand is partnering with Instagram to see if the platform can work as an official sales channel. What factors will determine if Nike is able to find success selling on Instagram?

In May, Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship location in New York City opened a 16,000 square-feet concept shop that has been offering a wide range of fitness and meditation classes. Does it make sense to bring fitness and meditation classes to a retail store setting?

Believing lease costs are heading south, Dick’s Sporting Goods earlier this week said it was “significantly” reducing new store openings in the years ahead. How should retailers alter their real estate strategies to adjust to rampant store closings in the near and long term?