Dick’s Sporting Goods launches its own line of men’s leisure

Dick’s Sporting Goods enters a very competitive market for men’s sportswear with the launch of its own brand called VRST.

VRST premieres Tuesday on Dick’s website and on an independent VRST.com and will be unveiled at more than 400 Dick stores in the coming weeks, the company said. Items in the line, which include everything from shorts and shorts to t-shirts, zip-ups and hoodies, retail for $ 30 to $ 120, placing them on the highest market when it’s about prices.

Following Dick’s success with its Calia women’s leisure line, the company said it saw a blank space in its stores to have a more exclusive, lifestyle-oriented line. for men. The line will not compete directly with the sweat-absorbing performance equipment sold by Under Armor and Nike. Instead, it is more like Lululemon.

Still, Dick’s investments increase with private label, as renowned brands like Nike and Under Armor have committed to selling more merchandise directly to consumers. Adidas announced earlier this month that its direct consumer verticals should account for 50% of net sales by 2025. While Dick’s still carries those brands, the pivot has put more pressure on wholesale retailers to have exclusive lines. , such as Calia and VRST, to generate traffic and sales.

In 2020, Dick’s grossed $ 1.3 billion in sales of its own brands. Total revenue was $ 9.58 million. The company said its own brands surpassed national labels in the categories of golf, fitness, outdoor equipment and sports equipment Calia was the second best brand of women’s clothing that only fell behind Nike last year, he said.

VRST will be the second brand that Dick has launched with his own website. Calia was the first.

“When you look at VRST, it’s going to be a very different product assortment than we have now with our top supplier partners, and it’s a blank space,” Lauren Hobart, Dick’s chief executive, said earlier this month during a call from earnings. “It covers a wide range of activities.”

“VRST will put us in a much stronger position to compete with similar offerings from premium clothing brands and specialty clothing stores,” Hobart explained.

Companies like Lululemon, Nike, Adidas and Under Armor have seen more momentum over the past twelve months than clothing brands focused on workwear and more stylish items. And, in turn, more traditional clothing brands and department store chains quickly changed their merchandise and marketing to focus on convenience and casualness, creating more clamor in an already noisy category.

Before the pandemic, for example, Lululemon said he planned to double his male business in five years. Direct consumer male sports brands, such as Rhone, Ten Thousand and Vuori, have also doubled their online marketing spending to reach new customers. Even department store retailers Nordstrom and Kohl’s have put a renewed focus on active clothing to try to increase sales. Kohl’s efforts include a line of his own called FLX, which debuted earlier this month.

At the same time, there has been a huge growth in space.

Last year, active men’s clothing gained market share to account for 45% of the total men’s clothing market, compared to 39% in 2019, according to data collected by the research firm in NPD Group consumers. Categories that helped get dollars into space include tracksuits, which rose 16 percent year-over-year, and sweatshirts, which rose 3 percent, he said.

But VRST is not a quick fix to take advantage of a pandemic pop. It has been under construction for several years, the company said.

“And obviously we maximize the current momentum,” Nina Barjesteh, senior vice president of product development, said in an interview. “But more than anything, we continue to look at the long run and make sure we’re building products for which you want to come back more.”

Dick shares have risen more than 190% in the last twelve months, on the market close on Monday. The company has a market cap of $ 7 billion.