Academy Sports + Outdoors has made notable tech investments that have enabled store associates to better help shoppers and drive sales at the same time.
In Tuesday’s conference call to Wall Street after posting first-quarter results, company CEO Steve Lawrence said, “We, like most people in our business have been dealing with the fluid situation [regarding tariffs]. It’s created a lot of complexity in how we forecast and manage our business on a day-to-day basis.”
While there have been adjustments in sourcing and supply chain, such as moving the production of goods out of China and working with vendor partners on strategies, as well as a look at capital allocation, it’s the company’s technological investments that are improving the customer experience at both the store level and online.
“We would attribute the momentum we’re starting to build in the business to the solid progress we’re making against our long-term objectives and goals,” the CEO said, adding that one of those goals is the expansion of its store base. “We’ve thoughtfully slowed the pace of signing deals for 2026 new stores. This will allow us to get a better handle on how the current tariff situation will impact construction costs moving forward,” he explained. “At this point, we don’t expect it to change the overall number of new stores, but it will shift the timing of openings that were originally targeted for Q1 into Q2 or Q3.”
Lawrence said work in the first quarter was focused on streamlining and improving the internal search functionality of Academy’s website. At the same time, it also has grown its aisle offering with an expanded assortment online that’s being supported through drop-shipping.
The big change has been the addition of handheld devices, which have kiosk functionality integrated into them.
“With this new capability, if a customer cannot buy something in a store and we own it somewhere in the chain, we can save the sale and get the customer what they need by shipping it to their home or to their closest store for both pickup, whichever is most convenient for them,” he said. “As stores have started to use this new technology, we’re seeing their save-to-sale revenue increased 900 percent on average per store.”
Another technological enhancement that improves the shopping experience has been the rollout of RFID scanners to all stores. The project — including the addition of the handheld devices for store associates — began in the spring and was completed at the end of May.
“Simplistically, we’re leveraging RFID chips already embedded in products with key brands such as Nike, Jordan and Adidas,” he said. Academy piloted the technology in 70 stores last year, finding that the use led to a 20 percent improvement in store level inventory accuracy.
“Rolling this technology to all stores will help improve our in-stocks, which ultimately will lead to increases in conversion. As we move through 2025, we expect to add more brands for regular RFID accounts, such as Levi’s, Under Armour, Columbia, Brooks and Puma,” Lawrence said. “Looking into next year, our goal is to embed RFID tags in most of our private label products, along with working with other national brand suppliers to follow suit where it makes sense.”
He also said that when Academy launched the Jordan brand in 145 doors and online on April 23, the specialty chain for the first time cross-merchandised apparel, footwear and accessories together by gender into a “branded shop concept.” So far, the initial reaction from customers has been strong and the brand is tracking ahead of initial sales plans. With the planned expansion of key items, such as cleats for football season and launching Jordan in all stores later this summer, “We anticipate the Jordan brand will be a Top 20 brand for us by the end of the year,” Lawrence told analysts.
Another plus for the retailer has been its new loyalty program, which the CEO said helps to drive value for the consumer. “We’re planning to add an additional 2 million customers to myAcademy Rewards in 2025, which should take us to over 13 million members by yearend. Growing our loyalty program membership will drive growth for us both now and in the long-term,” he said, noting that the more engaged customers tend to “shop Academy two to three times more in a year than an average customer and spend four to five times more on an annual basis.”
Academy has been working with suppliers on a case-by-case basis — its branded partners each have a different exposure to tariffs based off their unique supply chains — and believes it has mitigated the impact from tariffs. Lawrence did say that if reciprocal tariffs at the higher levels were to go back into place, such as the 145 percent for China, “prices are going up virtually on everything.” And while the company’s goal is to maintain its value positioning, he said a return to higher levels would likely result in some price increases to offset margin erosion.
In a telephone interview, Matt McCabe, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, said that customers have been “very receptive” to the Jordan brand, which is “exceeding our plan since the launch date, and we expect that to really take dividends as we head towards back-to-school.” He said it was too early to tell how much of the selling can be attributed to the growing traffic from the higher-income, trade-down customer.
McCabe also said that what has been driving traffic over the past few quarters “has been the upgrade to the retailer’s assortment mix to include more better and best level product.” That includes the retailer selling brands such as Brooks, and the higher-end Nike footwear, as well as growing its presence in running, in both the sports and recreation options.
And while retailers sometimes pull back on initiatives given the uncertainties in the retail landscape, McCabe said that’s not the case with Academy. “In terms of new initiatives to drive our business, we haven’t pulled back on that at all,” he said, adding that in the case of the Jordan Brand, “we are still full steam ahead.”
McCabe said Academy has a “really strong, softlines business, both in apparel and footwear. Footwear is actually the strongest.” He also said the expanded its Nike footprint on its sales floor by 20 percent, “where we now have vignettes where you can shop things like running and training.”
