Key Takeaways
- DICK’S Sporting Goods reported $5.16 billion in Q1 net sales, up 62.7% year-over-year, with the recently acquired Foot Locker Business contributing $1.79 billion of that total.
- The legacy DICK’S Business posted 6.0% comparable sales growth on top of a 4.5% gain last year, with growth in both average transaction size and customer visits.
- The Foot Locker Business returned to positive comparable sales at 0.6%, its first growth quarter since Q4 2024, and delivered $17.5 million in operating income.
- The company’s Fast Break store remodel initiative scaled from an 11-store pilot to roughly 100 Foot Locker locations during the quarter, with double-digit comp sales at participating stores.
- DICK’S raised the low end of its full-year comparable sales outlook for both businesses and maintained its non-GAAP earnings per share guidance of $13.50 to $14.50.
Translating the Headline Numbers
DICK’S Sporting Goods reported first quarter results on May 27, with consolidated net sales of $5.16 billion for the 13 weeks ended May 2. The reported revenue beat consensus analyst expectations of roughly $5.09 billion and reflects the first full quarter of Foot Locker results inside the combined company.
A few financial terms worth unpacking before going further. Comparable sales, or comps, measure performance at stores that have been open at least 14 months, stripping out the noise from new openings. Non-GAAP figures adjust GAAP results to remove one-time items such as the costs of acquiring Foot Locker, giving a cleaner look at underlying operations. Operating margin shows how much of every sales dollar becomes profit before interest and taxes.
On a GAAP basis, DICK’S earned $3.54 per diluted share, up from $3.24 a year earlier. On a non-GAAP basis, earnings per share came in at $2.90 versus $3.37 last year. That year-over-year decline is not an operational issue. It reflects the 9.6 million new shares the company issued to fund the Foot Locker acquisition, which spreads profits across a larger share count.
The DICK’S Business Continues to Outpace the Category
The core DICK’S Business, which includes DICK’S Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy, Going Going Gone!, Public Lands, and GameChanger, generated $3.38 billion in net sales and delivered segment operating income of $361 million. The 6.0% comparable sales growth was broad-based across footwear, apparel, and hardlines, the three categories that make up the bulk of the chain’s mix.
Operating margin for the DICK’S Business landed at 10.7%, down from 11.4% in Q1 2025 against a tough year-over-year compare. The company gained roughly 50 basis points of market share in its core categories during fiscal 2025 and now holds an estimated 9% share of the roughly $140 billion U.S. footwear, apparel, and hardlines market, the largest position among sporting goods retailers.
DICK’S ended Q1 with 888 stores including 36 House of Sport locations, 44 Field House stores, and 168 specialty concept stores across Golf Galaxy, Going Going Gone!, and Public Lands. The company plans to open approximately 14 additional House of Sport, 22 additional Field House, and 15 additional Golf Galaxy Performance Center locations during fiscal 2026.
Fast Break and the Foot Locker Reset
The acquisition of Foot Locker closed in September 2025 at a total consideration of $2.5 billion, primarily funded with DICK’S stock. Five quarters in, the integration story is starting to show measurable progress.
The Foot Locker Business posted 0.6% proforma comparable sales growth, marking its first positive comp since Q4 2024. International stores, which had been a sustained drag, improved to negative 1.7% from negative 8.9% in the year-ago quarter. The business generated $17.5 million in operating income, roughly 1.0% of net sales, and is now profitable on a segment basis.
The Fast Break initiative is the operational lever behind that turnaround. The program started as an 11-store pilot focused on three retail fundamentals: clearer storytelling, better visual presentation, and a more curated and focused product assortment. By the end of Q1, Fast Break had scaled to roughly 100 stores globally. Management plans to reach approximately 250 stores by the back-to-school selling season. Stores running the Fast Break format delivered double-digit comparable sales growth and meaningful merchandise margin expansion during the quarter.
The company is also working through what it has called its “clean out the garage” review of unproductive Foot Locker assets. During Q1, the Foot Locker Business closed 75 stores in North America, including 43 WSS locations that brought that banner from 143 stores down to 100. Cumulative pre-tax charges from the acquisition review now stand at $486.5 million of an expected $500 million to $750 million range.
GameChanger and the Youth Sports Tech Engine
For the youth sports business audience, GameChanger remains one of the most significant assets inside the DICK’S portfolio. The platform reached nearly $150 million in sales during fiscal 2025, with close to a 40% compound annual growth rate since 2017. The company expects continued strong sales growth in 2026.
GameChanger’s user metrics underline its scale in the youth sports operating environment:
- Roughly 10 million unique active users in fiscal 2025
- More than 4 million average monthly active users
- More than 1 million teams created annually
- Nearly 10 million games covered
- More than 6 million hours of livestreaming video
Management identified GameChanger as one of the emerging drivers of long-term gross margin expansion for the DICK’S Business, alongside the DICK’S Media Network. The Media Network monetizes nearly 20 billion impressions annually across owned and offsite channels and is anchored by a ScoreCard loyalty program that now counts roughly 30 million athletes and drives more than 75% of DICK’S Business sales.
Updated 2026 Outlook and What It Signals
DICK’S held its top-line guidance steady at $22.1 billion to $22.4 billion in consolidated net sales and maintained non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $13.50 to $14.50. The company raised the low end of its comparable sales outlook for both businesses. DICK’S Business comps are now expected at 2.5% to 4.0%, up from 2.0% to 4.0% previously. Foot Locker Business comps are now expected at 1.5% to 3.0%, up from 1.0% to 3.0%.
GAAP earnings guidance was reduced to $13.27 to $14.27, down from $13.70 to $14.70, due to higher-than-initially-modeled acquisition-related charges. The non-GAAP figure that excludes those charges remained unchanged. The company still expects $100 million to $125 million in cost synergies from the Foot Locker integration over the medium term and continues to anticipate an inflection point in both Foot Locker sales and profitability beginning at back-to-school 2026.
Outside the earnings report, DICK’S also recently announced Coach by DICK’S, an agentic AI conversational tool built with Adobe Brand Concierge that will roll out within the DICK’S mobile app starting in June. The tool is positioned as a digital extension of the in-store athlete service model and adds another layer to the company’s omni-channel athlete experience strategy.
Setting Up a Multi-Year Sport-as-Culture Bet
The clearest takeaway from the quarter is that DICK’S is leaning into a multi-year window the company believes will be the strongest stretch for sport in the United States in decades. The 2026 FIFA World Cup hosted largely on U.S. soil, the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and the 2029 Ryder Cup are explicitly cited in the investor materials as anchoring the strategy.
For youth sports operators and brand partners, the signal is straightforward. The largest American sporting goods retailer is growing faster than the category, integrating the largest global sneaker retailer, scaling a profitable youth sports technology platform, and investing heavily in differentiated formats like House of Sport, Field House, and Golf Galaxy Performance Centers. Q1 results suggest the strategy is producing operational proof points, with the next major test coming at back-to-school when Fast Break scales and Foot Locker is expected to inflect.
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