The Death of the Great American Sporting Goods Store

As of 2015, sporting goods stores in the US were bringing in as much as $48 billion in annual revenue, according to IBISWorld, up from $39.8 billion in 2012.
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There are an incredible number of national and regional multi-brand sports retailers in America: Dick's Sporting Goods, Cabela's, Champs Sports, Bass Pro Shops, REI, Academy Sports, Modell's, and Big 5 Sporting Goods Corporation, to name a few — and these are just the ones that still exist today.
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The market is also now congested with brands jumping into athleisure, the booming category that has caused the athletic wear market to grow 42 percent, to $270 billion, over the last seven years, according to Morgan Stanley. Seemingly every company, from high (Tory Burch, Net-a-Porter) to low (Target, Forever 21) is getting involved, eager to capitalize on a trend that shows no signs of slowing. While a typical Sports Authority shopper might be different from a Lululemon one, Mintel senior research analyst Diana Smith believes "there's definitely more of an overlap today."
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"The lines between wholesale and retail faded from black and white to gray to nonexistent," Greg Baldwin, vice president of merchandising at sporting goods chain Schuylkill Valley Sports, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I now compete with 90 percent of my suppliers via e-commerce, physical stores, or a combination of the two. The importance of the retailer as a pipeline to the consumer has been greatly diminished."
http://www.racked.com/2016/5/18/11692166/sports-authority-bankruptcy-dicks-sporting-goods-modells