What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2025-03-20 compared with 2024-03-21 · 23 added, 51 removed, 251 unchanged (23% of the section changed)

4 unchanged sentences

Academy Sports + Outdoors is a leading full-line sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer in the United States.

Originally founded in 1938 as a family business in Texas, we now operate 282 stores across 18 contiguous states.

Originally founded in 1938 as a family business in Texas, we now operate 298 stores across 19 contiguous states as of February 1, 2025.

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.

5 unchanged sentences

• 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").

• Regional focus primarily 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.

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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.

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Approximately 77% of our 2024 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 12% of our 2023 sales.

No single brand we carry accounted for more than approximately 12% of our 2024 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.

Our average customer visits our stores anywhere fr om two to three times per year.

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.

• Mass general merchants and department stores (examples:

Walmart, Kohl’s, Target and Macy's) 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.

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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.

Our merchandise consists of a full range of industry-leading national brands and strong private brands providing our customers with diversified product categories of good, better, best price points.

We deliver Academy’s unique product assortment through our strong partnerships with our vendors.

In 2024, we purchased merchandise from approximately 1,500 vendors.

For 2024, 2023 and 2022 no vendor represented more than 11% of our total purchases.

We have preferred access to hundreds of well-recognized national brands, such as Nike, Under Armour, adidas, Winchester, Columbia Sportswear, Brooks, Skechers, Yeti and Carhartt, which are critical to our market penetration.

Our relationships with key brands, on-trend private brands, and exclusive product offerings differentiates our assortment from our peers.

We have preferred access to hundred s of well-recognized national brands, such as Nike, including its Jordan Brand which we expect to launch starting in April 2025, Under Armour, adidas, Win chester, Columbia Sportswear, The North Face, Brooks, Skechers, Yeti, Stanley and Carhartt, 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.

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As such, we receive favorable product allocations from leading suppliers.

Our private label brand portfolio consists of 19 brands, including Academy Sports + Outdoors, Magellan Outdoors, BCG, O'rageous, Game Winner, Outdoor Gourmet, Freely and R.O.W.

Our private label brand portfolio consists of 19 brands, including Magellan Outdoors, Academy Sports + Outdoors, BCG, O'rageous, Game Winner, Outdoor Gourmet, Freely and R.O.W.

Our private label brand strategy focuses on in-filling categories and price points that our national brand products may not satisfy.

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Additionally, our private label brands generate strong brand equity and drive significant customer loyalty.

Approximately 55% of our customers purchased a private label brand from us in 2023.

Approximately 52% of our customers purchased a private label brand from us in 2024 and approximately 23% of our 2024 merchandise sales was comprised of private brand products.

As of February 1, 2025, we generally organized our merchandise in four divisions made up of sixteen categories as follows:

4 unchanged sentences

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, and backpacks and sports bags

Team sports Team and specialty sports equipment, including baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, racket sports, volleyball, backpacks and sports bags

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, sunglasses and front-end (consumables, batteries, etc.)

Front end Sunglasses and front-end (consumables, batteries, etc.), electronics, and watches

Apparel Outdoor and seasonal apparel Outdoor apparel, seasonal apparel, denim, work apparel, graphic t-shirts and accessories

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Fiscal Year Ended

February 3, 2024 January 28, 2023 January 29, 2022

February 1, 2025 February 3, 2024 January 28, 2023

Merchandise sales

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Net sales $ 5,933,450 $ 6,159,291 $ 6,395,073

(1) Certain products and categories were re-categorized among various categories and divisions, respectively, during 2023 as compared to prior years in order to better align with our current merchandising strategy and view of the business.

As a result, we have reclassified sales between divisions for 2022 and 2021 for comparability purposes.

This reclassification is in divisional presentation only and did not impact the overall net sales balances previously disclosed.

(1) E-commerce sales consist of 10.5%, 10.7% and 10.7% of merchandise sales for 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

(3) 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.

(2) Other sales consist primarily of gift card breakage income, credit card bounties and royalties, shipping income, net hunting and fishing license income, sales return allowance and other items.

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.

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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.

Of the 282 stores operated as of February 3, 2024, 281 are leased from third parties and one store is owned by the Company.

Of the 298 stores operated as of February 1, 2025, 296 are leased from third parties and two stores are owned by the Company.

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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We are focused on implementing and continually improving our customer centric marketing technologies, omnichannel services and experiences to save customers time and money while improving the long term health of our customer portfolio.

The Academy Credit Card program and Academy Sports + Outdoors app are foundational to build loyalty among customers while providing a seamless omnichannel shopping experience.

In July 2024, we launched our myAcademy loyalty program, which provides us a powerful tool to build a deeper connection and understanding of our customers.

The Academy Credit Card program, myAcademy loyalty program, and Academy Sports + Outdoors app are foundational to build loyalty among customers while providing a seamless omnichannel shopping experience.

We are committed to making a positive impact on the communities we serve and partner with over 542 organizations, including youth sports leagues that reach approximately 600,000 participants.

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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 are leveraging our data to make more informed decisions around inventory, marketing, store-level operations, and customer engagement.

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.

3 unchanged sentences

Our Team Members

Our mission is to provide “Fun for All” and a critical component to our success is our people.

Our missi on is to provide “Fun for All” and a critical component to our success is our people.

As of February 1, 2025, we employed approximately 22,000 team members in the U.S.

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• 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.

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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;

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Throughout our stores, distribution centers, and corporate headquarters, we employ policies, procedures, and training to promote safe and healthy work environments.

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.

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, evacuation, active shooter response, hazardous materials, and heat 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.

2 unchanged sentences

Name Age Position

Hicks 71 Executive Chairman

Steven (Steve) P.

5 unchanged sentences

McCabe 54 Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer

Hicks has served as the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors since June 1, 2023.

Hicks served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer from May 2018 to June 2023.

Hicks has served as a member of the Board of Directors since June 2020 and served as a member of the Board of Managers of New Academy Holding Company, LLC from May 2017 to June 2020.

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.

Hicks has served on the board of directors of Avery Dennison Corporation since July 2007, and as Chairman of the board of directors of Guitar Center Holdings, Inc.

since October 2023.

Previously, Mr.

Hicks served on the board of directors and the Compensation Committee of Whole Foods Market, Inc.

from May 2017 to August 2017.

Hicks graduated from the United States Military Academy located in West Point, NY, and served in the U.S.

He also earned a Masters of Business Administration with highest distinction from Harvard Business School.

Steven (Steve) P.

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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.

While a t 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 .

55 unchanged sentences

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business