Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read together with our financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2023. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See the section of this Annual Report entitled "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements." When reviewing the discussion below, you should keep in mind the substantial risks and uncertainties that characterize our business. Known material factors that could affect our financial performance and actual results, and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements included in this discussion or otherwise made by our management, are described in the "Risk Factors" section of this Annual Report.
Who We Are
Academy Sports + Outdoors is a leading full-line sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailers in the United States. Originally founded in 1938 as a family business in Texas, we now operate 268 stores across 18 contiguous states. Our mission is to provide “Fun for All” and we fulfill this mission with a localized merchandising strategy and value proposition that deeply connect with a broad range of consumers. Our product assortment focuses on key categories of outdoor, apparel, sports & recreation and footwear (representing 31%, 28%, 21%, and 20% of our 2022 net sales, respectively) through both leading national brands and a portfolio of 20 private label brands, which go well beyond traditional sporting goods and apparel offerings.
We believe the following attributes differentiate us from our competitors:
• Value-based assortment that enables our customers to participate and have fun, no matter their budget.
• Broad assortment that extends beyond sporting goods and apparel to outdoor recreation and is localized for individual stores.
• Emerging, growing and profitable omnichannel strategy that leverages our buy-online-pickup-in-store program ("BOPIS") and shipping fulfillment capabilities.
• Strong customer loyalty, with opportunities to increase penetration in existing markets.
• Regional focus in the southern United States with a growing presence in some of the fastest-growing Metropolitan Statistical Areas (or "MSAs").
• Core customers comprising active families that we support with one-stop shop convenience.
• Significant whitespace opportunity for new stores for both in-fill and adjacent geographies and new markets.
We believe we sit in a sweet-spot of consumer demand, offering a broad, value-based assortment of sporting goods and outdoor recreation products, so our customers can participate and have fun, no matter their budget. Sporting goods shoppers consistently rate us as the top retailer for offering sporting and outdoor recreation products for a wide range of customers and being a one-stop shop. We carefully curate our products to provide the right assortment that appeals to customers from beginners to experts, including families and casual participants.
Our access to national brand and private label brand merchandise creates a comprehensive portfolio of value-based and diversified products, spanning various price-points, that differentiates our assortment from our peers. Our category, brand and price-point mix is unique to Academy and difficult to replicate at other retailers. Approximately 80% of our 2022 merchandise sales was comprised of national brand products, with the remainder coming from exclusive products in our portfolio of private label brands. No single brand we carry accounted for more than 11% of our 2022 sales.
We endeavor to offer products for customers of all ages, incomes and aspirations across sporting and outdoor recreation activities, seasons and experience levels. As such, we have a balanced, year-round business and a large customer base. Our average customer visits our stores anywhere from two to three times per year.
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Our Industry
The retail business is highly competitive based on many variables including price, product assortment, customer service, omnichannel experience and store locations.
The retail sporting goods and outdoor recreation retail industry comprises six principal categories of retailers:
• Mass general merchants (examples: Walmart, Kohl’s and Target) generally range in size from 50,000 to over 200,000 square feet and are typically located in shopping centers, free-standing sites or regional malls. Sporting goods merchandise and apparel and outdoor recreation products may represent a small portion of the total merchandise in these stores.
• Large format sporting goods stores (examples: Dick’s Sporting Goods and Scheels) generally range in size from 20,000 to over 100,000 square feet and offer a broad selection of sporting goods and outdoor recreation merchandise.
• Traditional sporting goods stores (examples: Hibbett Sports and Big 5 Sporting Goods) generally range in size from 5,000 to 20,000 square feet and are frequently located in regional malls and shopping centers and typically carry a varied assortment of primarily sporting goods merchandise.
• Specialty outdoor retailers (examples: Bass Pro Shop/Cabela’s and Sportsman’s Warehouse) generally range in size from 7,500 to over 100,000 square feet and typically focus on specific categories such as outdoor recreation.
• Specialty footwear retailers (examples: Foot Locker, Boot Barn and The Finish Line) generally range in size from 2,000 to 20,000 square feet and typically focus on specific categories such as athletic footwear.
• Catalogue & Internet retailers (examples: Amazon, eBay, and Fanatics) do not typically operate brick and mortar stores and primarily rely on delivery of goods. Sporting goods merchandise and apparel and outdoor recreation products may represent a small portion of the total merchandise on their websites.
Our primary competitors are large format sporting goods stores and mass general merchants that offer sporting goods, outdoor recreation products and other lifestyle and recreational merchandise.
Merchandising
Our merchandise consists of national brand products that we purchase and license from various vendors, private label brand products that we brand with our internal brands and exclusive license products that we purchase and license from vendors and carry exclusively. We have long-standing relationships with many of our suppliers and have partnered with them to grow our business over time. In 2022, we purchased merchandise from approximately 1,400 vendors. For 2022, 2021 and 2020 no vendor represented more than 11%, 11%, and 12% of our total purchases, respectively.
We have preferred access to hundreds of well-recognized national brands, such as Nike, Under Armour, adidas, Winchester, Brooks, Crocs, Wilson, Spaulding, Yeti, the North Face, and Columbia Sportswear, which are critical to our market penetration. These and some of our other national brands rely on us to broaden their consumer reach, which fosters a mutually beneficial relationship when it comes to pricing and assortment, and we play a critical role in delivering customer volume for these brands. Our national brand assortment spans across each brand’s price spectrum, which we complement with an assortment of our private label brands priced below the national brand price spectrum. As such, we receive favorable product allocations from leading suppliers.
Our private label brand portfolio consists of 20 brands, including Academy Sports + Outdoors, Magellan Outdoors, BCG, O'rageous, Game Winner, Outdoor Gourmet and Freely. Our private label brand strategy focuses on in-filling categories and price points that our national brand products may not satisfy. Our private label brand offerings support and complement our overall merchandising strategy due to limited price-point overlap with national brands. Additionally, our private label brands generate strong brand equity and drive significant customer loyalty. Approximately 56% of our customers purchased a private label brand from us in 2022.
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As of January 28, 2023, we generally organized our merchandise in four divisions made up of sixteen categories as follows:
Division Category Primary product types
Outdoors Camping Coolers and drinkware, camping accessories, camping equipment, sunglasses, backpacks and sports bags
Fishing Marine equipment and fishing rods, reels, baits and equipment
Hunting Firearms, ammunition, archery and archery equipment, camouflage apparel, waders, shooting accessories, optics, airguns and hunting equipment
Sports and Recreation Fitness Fitness equipment, fitness accessories and nutrition supplies
Team sports Team and specialty sports equipment, including baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, racket sports, and volleyball
Recreation Patio furniture, outdoor cooking, wheeled goods (bicycles, skateboards and other ride-on toys), trampolines, play sets, watersports and pet equipment
Front end Electronics, watches, and front-end (consumables, batteries, etc.)
Apparel Outdoor and seasonal apparel Outdoor apparel, seasonal apparel, denim, work apparel, graphic t-shirts and accessories
Youth apparel Boys and girls outdoor and athletic apparel
Athletic apparel Sporting apparel and apparel for fitness
Licensed apparel Professional and collegiate team licensed apparel and accessories
Footwear Casual and seasonal footwear Casual shoes, slippers, seasonal footwear and socks
Work footwear Work and western boots, shoes and hunting footwear
Youth footwear Boys and girls athletic footwear
Athletic footwear Running shoes, athletic lifestyle and training shoes
Team sports footwear Team and specialty sports footwear and slides
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The following table sets forth the approximate amount of sales (all of which are based in the U.S.) by merchandise divisions for the periods presented (amounts in thousands):
Fiscal Year Ended
January 28, 2023 January 29, 2022 January 30, 2021
Merchandise sales
Outdoors $ 1,940,811 $ 2,174,650 $ 1,968,514
Sports and recreation 1,366,785 1,463,172 1,256,357
Apparel 1,759,005 1,810,345 1,390,519
Footwear 1,291,224 1,290,197 1,044,502
Total merchandise sales (1)
6,357,825 6,738,364 5,659,892
Other sales (2)
37,248 34,764 29,341
Net sales $ 6,395,073 $ 6,773,128 $ 5,689,233
(1) E-commerce sales consist of 10.7%, 9.3% and 10.4% of merchandise sales for 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively.
(2) Other sales consists primarily of the gift card breakage income, credit card bounties and royalties, shipping income, net hunting and fishing license income, sales return allowance and other items.
Stores
Our stores, all of which are based in the U.S., are designed to provide our customers with an easy-in, easy-out shopping experience. The interior of most of our stores are built around a central “racetrack” aisle that allows customers to efficiently navigate our selling floor. Additionally, our stores generally have consistent store layouts providing our customers familiarity across our entire store base. We seek to offer our customers strong merchandise assortment and a localized customer experience, which is facilitated by various types of merchandise fixtures and our large selling floor. Our central “racetrack” aisle and adjacent end-cap merchandising space allows us to adjust our inventory presentations throughout our various selling seasons.
Our stores average approximately 70,000 gross square feet, of which approximately 85% is dedicated to selling space. Our store locations are typically positioned adjacent to major highways or thoroughfares, allowing customers to easily locate our stores. We seek to position our stores in areas with certain population densities, demographics and other characteristics to maximize sales. These markets consist of metropolitan, suburban and smaller cities. Additionally, our stores are typically placed in retail centers adjacent to co-tenants who drive significant traffic, with no store tethered to crowded mall spaces. We seek to lease all of our stores in long-term lease agreements with third-party landlords, which typically range from 15 to 20 years. Other than stores that we may temporarily own, and for which we are in the process of executing sale-leaseback transactions, we do not own our retail locations.
We are active members of the communities in which we operate, and our long-time customers have grown up with Academy and passed their passion for us on to the next generation, enabling us to benefit from strong customer loyalty and shopping frequency.
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As of January 28, 2023, the number of stores that we operated, exclusively in the U.S., by state was as follows:
State Number of Stores
Texas 107
Georgia 20
Louisiana 18
Alabama 15
North Carolina 15
Florida 14
Tennessee 13
Oklahoma 13
Missouri 10
South Carolina 9
Arkansas 8
Mississippi 8
Kansas 6
Kentucky 6
Indiana 3
Illinois 1
Virginia 1
West Virginia 1
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We have a strong and growing presence in some of the fastest-growing MSAs in the United States, including Austin, Atlanta and Raleigh, which we believe presents significant growth opportunities in both our core markets and outside our footprint. We believe our real estate strategy has positioned us well for further expansion, and our track record has demonstrated that we can open and operate stores profitably. We believe there is significant near-term opportunity for expansion with stores in in-fill markets, where we already have an established presence, and in adjacent markets, markets nearby to current locations which are not fully represented. We expect to open 13 to 15 stores in fiscal 2023.
Marketing
Our marketing strategy is designed to reinforce our fun brand, broad selection of merchandise, and our value offering. We regularly analyze consumer trends on media consumption and rely on various media channels to communicate with our customers. We are continually expanding our targeting and personalization capabilities to deliver the right products and messages at the right time and in the media channel they prefer. Our media mix is a blend of digital and traditional, including paid search, email, affiliate, and social media along with linear and streaming broadcast and radio, print, outdoor and direct mail. Our advertising features a broad assortment of products and messaging tailored to the current selling season.
We utilize certain customer data obtained from our customer relationship management, or CRM, platform, which enable us to create effective customer-targeting strategies. Our current CRM programs focus on welcoming our first-time customers, recognizing our top spenders, reactivating our lapsed customers and cross-selling our category customers. We also utilize customer demographic data that we capture to better localize our marketing, to know when our customers buy from us and what items they purchase. With over 45 million customers in our database, there is ample opportunity to increase our communication directly with our customers via one-on-one marketing.
In addition to our CRM tools, our Academy Credit Card program also provides data to track our customers’ purchases across all channels, giving us the ability to better serve and target those loyal customers.
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We often create events at our stores to drive customer traffic. These events range from small, private local league shopping nights to large grand opening celebrations to commemorate new store openings that offer various indoor and outdoor activities, athlete and celebrity appearances, fun activities to test our products and meet our suppliers along with food and games. We also leverage sports championship moments when professional or collegiate sports teams in our markets win league titles. At these events we extend our store hours and offer official commemorative merchandise and may also host autograph signings and/or meet-and-greet events with players or coaches from the championship team. We are committed to making a positive impact on the communities we serve and partner with over 700 organizations, including youth sports leagues that reach more than 500,000 participants. We also partner with school districts, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), local parks, hunting and fishing organizations, military bases and local first responders.
Distribution Centers
We operate three distribution centers in Katy, Texas; Twiggs County, Georgia; and Cookeville, Tennessee. The distribution centers receive and store products from vendors and use sophisticated sorting and logistical equipment to fill the product needs of the retail store locations they serve, as well as to fulfill e-commerce orders. Our distribution centers are leased under long-term agreements. Third-party trucking companies are used to disburse inventory from the distribution centers to and from our stores. These distribution centers are strategically located throughout our footprint to efficiently serve our retail locations and have the capacity to service up to approximately 120 stores per distribution center.
Information Technology
Our information technology systems are critical to our day-to-day operations as well as to our long-term growth strategies. Our technology is integrated across multiple functions throughout the organization, providing the data analysis, automation and solutions necessary to support our communications, inventory and supply chain management, store operations, distribution, point-of-sale, e-commerce, financial reporting and accounting functions. Our technology is the foundation of our merchandising and marketing functions; it processes our customers’ orders and integrates our e-commerce sales with stores. We are leveraging our data to make more informed decisions around inventory, marketing, and store-level operations. We have agreements with third parties to provide hosting services and administrative support for portions of our infrastructure, and utilize cloud-based systems in addition to those hosted on premises.
Seasonality
Our business is subject to seasonal fluctuations. A significant portion of our net sales and profits is driven by summer holidays, such as Memorial Day, Father’s Day and Independence Day, during the second quarter. Our net sales and profits are also impacted by the November/December holiday selling season, and in part by the sales of cold weather sporting goods and apparel during the fourth quarter.
Our Team Members
Our mission is to provide “Fun for All” and a critical component to our success is our people. As of January 28, 2023, we employed approximately 22,000 team members in the U.S. and ten team members in Hong Kong. Of those team members, approximately 50% were full-time and 50% were part-time. Our employment levels fluctuate over the course of the year mainly due to the seasonality of our business. None of our team members are covered by collective bargaining agreements. The Company believes that it has a good working relationship with its team members.
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Culture and Core Values. We strive to provide rewarding careers, benefits, and a workplace culture where team members are empowered to be their authentic self—drawing on their unique perspectives, passions, skills, interests, and experiences in their day-to-day jobs. Our core values establish a strong foundation for our culture and represent the key expectations we have of our team members. These include the following:
• Customer focus and service
• Excellence in all we do
• Responsible leadership
• Initiative with urgency
• Students of the business
• Integrity always
• Positive impact on our communities
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. At Academy, we believe the diversity of our team members, customers, and all others with whom we interact enhances the quality of our work environment and our customers’ shopping experience. Academy encourages team members to work together and to value the strengths each team member brings to the team. Our strategy begins with attracting, recruiting, developing, and retaining team members with backgrounds that are representative of our diverse communities because it makes our company and communities stronger. We require all team members to complete unintentional bias training to help eliminate biases from recruiting, hiring, promotions, job assignments and opportunities, evaluations, compensation, and customer service.
In 2020, we established our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee, and they led the organization in the creation of our team member led Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging groups throughout the Company. These groups provide a forum for team members with common interests and/or backgrounds to connect, network, and provide input on issues related events while helping educate and celebrate our team members' diverse backgrounds and experiences.
Talent Management. We believe the best way to serve our customers is to invest in top talent, be open to innovation, and have the vision to succeed. We are focused on creating a winning team by recruiting and retaining great people, promoting teamwork, and fostering an enjoyable and rewarding work environment. We also strive to provide all team members with opportunities for personal growth, cross functional training, job opportunities and career advancement. We offer a mix of instructor-led, online, and blended courses in several key areas, including Career Development and Leadership Development. Our wide variety of courses ranges from job specific (i.e., functional) to broad based leadership training to safety, security, ethics, and compliance training. We also engage in regular and ongoing feedback, annual performance reviews and annual talent calibration conversations. Succession planning is conducted on an annual basis to identify suitable internal candidates for key positions within the Company.
Compensation and Benefits. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package. Our benefits package is designed to allow team members the ability to pick and choose which benefits are the best for their and their family’s health and well-being. Depending on the team member’s employment and work status, they may be eligible for: medical, dental, and vision insurance; participation in the Company’s 401(k) Plan with a six percent dollar for dollar match up to the IRS deferral limit; participation in the Company’s Employee Stock Purchase Plan which provides a 15 percent discount on the lower of the stock price at the beginning or the end of each offering period; paid time off and paid vacations; the ability for team members to get a portion of their earnings paid daily; tuition reimbursement programs; professional license/certification reimbursement; medical, family, and bereavement leave; additional voluntary short/long term, life, legal, pet, and accident insurance; paid maternity and parental leave; and a 20 percent team member discount on most all of our merchandise, to name a few. We also provide, in all our distribution centers and our Katy corporate office, subsidized meals for all team members at our onsite café and an annual health and benefits fair. Specific to our Katy corporate office, we engage our team members through the opportunity to participate in intramural sport teams, 5K fun walk/run events, subsidized membership in the company gym and exercise classes (this is also open to our Katy distribution team members); “food truck Thursdays”; onsite dental and car wash service; and a company holiday party and other team member appreciation events. In 2022, the Company increased the annual merit and adjustment pool over prior years to recognize and reward our team member’s efforts and support in a unique and challenging year.
Workplace, Health and Safety. The health and safety of our customers, team members, and communities is our top priority. We strive to ensure that a safe and hygienic working environment is provided and that occupational health and safety practices which prevent accidents and injury are promoted. Throughout our stores, distribution centers, and corporate headquarters, we employ policies, procedures, and training to promote safe and healthy work environments.
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Our team member handbook outlines safety expectations, but we also empower our team members with knowledge and skills from various safety training courses during the onboarding process and on an ongoing basis through our learning engagement system with topics such as incident reporting, behavior-based safety, evacuation, active shooter response, hazardous materials, ergonomics, heat safety, electrical safety, industrial truck and pallet jack safety, confined space entry and parking lot and garage safety. We continue to focus on developing and driving our safety-first culture through awareness, training, and actions to reduce the frequency and severity of safety incidents.
Information about our Executive Officers
Below is a list of our executive officers, their respective ages as of January 28, 2023 and a brief account of the business experience of each of them.
Name Age Position
Ken C. Hicks 70 Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Michael P. Mullican 47 Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Steven P. Lawrence 55 Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer
Samuel J. Johnson 56 Executive Vice President, Retail Operations
Sherry Harriman 53 Senior Vice President, Logistics and Supply Chain
Jamey Traywick Rutherford 49 Senior Vice President, Omnichannel
Manish Maini 49 Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer
William S. Ennis 53 Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer
Rene G. Casares 47 Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Ken C. Hicks has served as the Chairman and our President and Chief Executive Officer since May 2018. Mr. Hicks has served as a member of the board of managers of New Academy Holding Company, LLC (our predecessor company) since May 2017 and as a member of the board of directors of Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc. since June 2020. Mr. Hicks served on the compensation committee of the board of managers of New Academy Holding Company, LLC from May 2017 to May 2018. Mr. Hicks previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Foot Locker, Inc. from August 2009 to February 2010, and also served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer at Foot Locker, Inc. from February 2010 to November 2014, and as Executive Chairman at Foot Locker, Inc. from December 2014 to May 2015. Prior to joining Foot Locker, Inc., Mr. Hicks held senior positions at J.C. Penney Company, Inc., Payless ShoeSource, Home Shopping Network, May Department Stores Company, and McKinsey & Company. Mr. Hicks has served on the board of directors of Avery Dennison Corporation since July 2007 and served on the board of directors of Whole Foods Market, Inc. from May 2017 to August 2017. Mr. Hicks graduated from the United States Military Academy located in West Point, NY, and served in the U.S. Army. He also earned a Masters of Business Administration with highest distinction from Harvard Business School.
Michael P. Mullican has served as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since January 2018. He previously served as our Executive Vice President and General Counsel from February 2017 to January 2018. Prior to joining Academy Sports + Outdoors, Mr. Mullican served as the Managing Director of Aureus Health Services, a specialty pharmacy owned by Meijer, Inc. Before being named Managing Director at Aureus, Mr. Mullican held several leadership roles at Meijer, including Vice President of Business Development, and Vice President and Assistant General Counsel. Additionally, Mr. Mullican served as Divisional Counsel and Assistant Secretary at Family Dollar Stores, Inc., and Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary at Horizon Lines, Inc. Mr. Mullican holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from North Carolina State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School.
Steven (Steve) P. Lawrence has served as our Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer since joining the Academy Sports + Outdoors team in February 2019. Prior to joining Academy Sports + Outdoors, Mr. Lawrence was President and Chief Executive Officer at francesca’s. From May 2012 to September 2016, he served as Chief Merchandising Officer at Stage Stores. Mr. Lawrence also spent nearly 12 years working in various merchandising leadership roles at J.C. Penney after 10 years at Foley’s. Mr. Lawrence also served on the board of directors of francesca’s from October 2016 to January 2019. Mr. Lawrence obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.
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Samuel (Sam) J. Johnson has served as our Executive Vice President, Retail Operations since joining the Academy Sports + Outdoors team in April 2017. Prior to joining Academy Sports + Outdoors, Mr. Johnson spent seven years with hhgregg, Inc., where he most recently served as Chief Retail Officer. While at hhgregg, Inc., he led functions including store operations, customer relations, commercial sales, real estate and visual merchandising. Prior to hhgregg, Inc., he spent more than 20 years in various leadership roles with Sears Holdings Corporation, including Vice President of Small Stores.
Sherry L. Harriman has served as our Senior Vice President, Logistics and Supply Chain since joining the Academy Sports + Outdoors team in August 2018. Prior to joining Academy Sports + Outdoors, Mrs. Harriman spent 29 years at Walmart, Inc., where she served in various logistics and operations roles until she was promoted to Regional Vice President – Logistics in 2007. In 2010, she was promoted to Divisional Vice President – Supply Chain for Florida and Puerto Rico, where her team delivered innovative Supply Chain solutions that supported omnichannel strategies and disaster relief initiatives. Ms. Harriman holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a Master of Business Administration from John Brown University.
Jamey Traywick Rutherford has served as our Senior Vice President, Omnichannel since joining the Academy Sports + Outdoors team in May 2018. Prior to joining Academy Sports + Outdoors, Ms. Traywick Rutherford spent over 17 years at AutoZone where she served in various e-commerce roles until she was promoted to Vice President, e-commerce in 2010. She transitioned to Vice President, Merchandising in 2017. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Denver, and a Master of Science in e-commerce from the University of Memphis.
Manish Maini has served as our Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer since joining the Academy Sports + Outdoors team in June 2017. Prior to joining Academy Sports + Outdoors, he served as the Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President at The Children’s Place U.S. where he led a 120-member team, and was responsible for the development and implementation of the company-wide IT strategy. Mr. Maini also spent nine years at Ann, Inc., formerly Ann Taylor Stores Inc., where he served in various IT leadership roles, including Vice President of Enterprise Systems. Mr. Maini holds a Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics and Communication from STJ Institute of Technology in Karnatak, India.
William (Bill) S. Ennis has served as our Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer since March 2016. Mr. Ennis joined the Academy Sports + Outdoors team as Vice President of Human Resources in April 2008 and served in that role until October 2010 when he was appointed as Senior Vice President, Human Resources. Prior to joining Academy Sports + Outdoors, Mr. Ennis spent over 19 years with Stage Stores, May Department Stores and Federated Department Stores in multiple capacities including human resources, stores, buying group, store operations and finance areas. He currently sits on advisory boards for the Texas A&M Center for Retailing Studies and Texas Retailers Education Foundation, and he is also the governing body chair for the Houston HR Leadership Summit. Mr. Ennis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas.
Rene G. Casares has served as our Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since March 2018. He joined the company in July 2013 as Senior Director, Associate General Counsel and served as Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary from March 2016 to March 2018. Prior to joining Academy Sports + Outdoors, Mr. Casares served as an Associate Attorney at the global law firm, Vinson & Elkins LLP, from 2008 to 2013, where he advised major and middle-market companies with mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate governance and capital markets. He also served in a similar capacity as an Associate Attorney at the global law firm, Latham & Watkins LLP, from 2006 to 2008. Additionally, Mr. Casares has a background in finance and consulting after serving as an Associate at Growth Capital Partners. L.P., a Strategy Consultant at KPMG Consulting, Inc., and an Analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. Mr. Casares holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and a Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School.
Intellectual Property
Our trademarks, service marks, copyrights, patents, processes, trade secrets, domain names and other intellectual property, including our Academy Sports + Outdoors brand, our private label brands, such as Academy Sports + Outdoors, Magellan Outdoors, BCG, O’rageous, Game Winner, Outdoor Gourmet and Freely, and our designs, names, slogans, images and trade dress associated with these brands, are valuable assets that are critical to our success.
We also enter into intellectual property agreements whereby the Company receives the right to use third-party owned trademarks typically in exchange for royalties on sales. These agreements typically contain a one to three-year term and contractual payment amounts required to be paid by the Company.
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Governmental Regulations
We operate in a complex regulatory and legal environment that exposes us to regulatory, compliance and litigation risks that could materially affect our operations and financial results. Specifically, we are subject to regulation by numerous federal, state and local regulatory agencies and authorities, including the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, Federal Trade Commission, Customs and Border Protection, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, SEC, Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, and Environmental Protection Agency and comparable state and local agencies.
Laws and regulations affecting our business may change, sometimes frequently and significantly, as a result of political, economic, social or other events. Some of the federal, state or local laws and regulations that affect us include but are not limited to:
• consumer product safety, product liability or consumer protection laws;
• laws related to advertising, marketing, pricing and selling our products, including but not limited to firearms, ammunition, and related accessories;
• labor and employment laws, including wage and hour laws and forced labor prevention laws;
• tax laws or interpretations thereof, including collection of state sales tax on e-commerce sales;
• data protection and privacy laws and regulations;
• environmental laws and regulations;
• hazardous material laws and regulations;
• customs or import and export laws and regulations, including collection of tariffs on product imports;
• intellectual property laws;
• antitrust and competition regulations;
• banking and anti-money laundering regulations;
• Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, and similar state and local laws and regulations;
• website design and content regulations;
• U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act, or UKBA, and other anti-corruption laws; and
• securities and exchange laws and regulations.
We are a federally licensed firearms dealer, and we sell firearms, ammunition, and related accessories. Firearms represented approximately 6% of our net sales in 2022. Numerous federal, state and local laws and regulations govern the procurement, transportation, storage, distribution and sale and marketing of firearms, ammunition, and related accessories, including the regulations governing the performance of federally and state mandated procedures for determining customer firearm purchase eligibility (such as age and residency verification, background checks and proper completion of required paperwork). In June 2021, the United States Department of Justice announced a new policy to underscore zero tolerance for willful violations of the law by federally licensed firearms dealers that put public safety at risk. In the future, there may be increased federal, state or local regulation and enforcement affecting the sale of firearms, ammunition, and related accessories, including taxation or restrictions on the type of firearms and ammunition available for retail sale, which could reduce our sales and profitability.
For additional information, see the risk factors herein in "Item 1A. Risk Factors" under the sub-caption "Legal and Regulatory Risks".
Available Information
Our website address is www.academy.com. We use our website as a channel of distribution for company information. We will make available free of charge on the Investor Relations section of our website our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. We will also make available through our website other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC under the Exchange Act, including our proxy statements and reports filed by officers and directors under Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act, as well as our Ethics and Code of Conduct Policy. Financial and other material information regarding the Company is routinely posted on our website and is readily accessible. We do not intend for information contained on our website to be part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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