Dick’s Sporting Goods Sales Rise as Consumers ‘Prioritize Activities’

Dick’s Sporting Goods says that even amidst tariff worries, people want to be active.

It’s that mindset that the athletics retailer said helped drive a 4% increase in sales, according to the company’s quarterly earnings report issued Wednesday (May 28).

CEO Lauren Hobart said during an earnings call that the company was reaffirming its guidance for 2025, which includes the “expected impact from all tariffs currently in effect.” Comparable sales are projected to be in the 1%- 3% range.

Despite what she called a “more cautious consumer mindset,” Hobart said the company’s shoppers haven’t scaled back. Customers have, she said, “held up very well, and this has been a trend for some time and it continues to be a trend where people are prioritizing activities, healthy, active lifestyle, team sports, running, walking, being outside with their kids.”

“And so this quarter, we actually saw no trade down from best to better to better to good. We saw growth across all income demographics. And we saw growth in tickets and transactions,” the CEO added.

This shows Dick’s shoppers bucking a recent trend noted by PYMNTS Intelligence. The May edition of the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Consumer Tariff Sentiment: Informed Americans Are Skeptical of the Benefits” found that more than 80% of consumers were buying less, trading down, or stretching out payments because of concerns about the potential impact of tariffs.

However, consumers might be breathing a bit easier now that there’s a truce in the U.S./China trade war.

The Conference Board announced earlier this week that consumer confidence had picked up in May following five months of decline, in part due to the pause on some of the higher tariffs on products imported from China.

“The rebound was already visible before the May 12 U.S.-China trade deal but gained momentum afterward,” Stephanie Guichard, senior economist, global indicators at The Conference Board, said in a news release. “The monthly improvement was largely driven by consumer expectations as all three components of the Expectations Index — business conditions, employment prospects and future income — rose from their April lows.”

Wednesday’s earnings call was the first since Dick’s announced plans to acquire sneaker retailer Foot Locker, a deal the company says implies an equity value of $2.4 billion and an enterprise value of $2.5 billion.

Management said during the call that Dick’s expects the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to approve the merger in the second half of the year.