DICK'S (DKS) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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DATE

May 27, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Executive Chairman — Edward W. Stack
• President and Chief Executive Officer — Lauren R. Hobart
• Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer — Navdeep Gupta
• Operator

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TAKEAWAYS

• Consolidated Net Sales -- $5.16 billion, up 62.7%, driven by a $1.79 billion contribution from the newly acquired Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) business, and a 6% comparable sales increase at DICK'S Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) business.
• DICK'S Comparable Sales Growth -- 6% comp in the DICK'S business, comprised of a 5.5% increase in average ticket, and a 0.5% rise in transactions.
• Foot Locker Segment -- Pro forma comparable sales up 0.6% globally, 1.4% growth in North America, and a 6.4% comp increase in the U.S. Foot Locker banner, marking the first quarter of positive Foot Locker comps since Q4 2024.
• DICK'S Segment Inventory -- Up just 3%, with management stating inventory remains well positioned to support growth for both DICK'S and Foot Locker businesses.
• House of Sport and Field House Expansion -- One new House of Sport and two Field House locations opened; plans to add approximately 13 House of Sport, and 20 Field House locations in 2026.
• GameChanger Platform Engagement -- In Q1, around 50% of all games covered were streamed live, which management described as “a record for the business.”
• Consolidated Non-GAAP Gross Profit -- $1.73 billion, representing 33.4% of net sales, down 328 basis points primarily due to Foot Locker's lower-margin mix.
• Operating Income -- Non-GAAP operating income at $378.4 million (7.3% margin), with DICK'S segment at $361 million, and Foot Locker segment at $17.5 million.
• SG&A Expenses -- Consolidated non-GAAP SG&A up 68.4% to $1.33 billion, with $480 million of the increase driven by Foot Locker; DICK'S business SG&A deleveraged 31 basis points, “driven by investments digitally and in-store.”
• EPS -- Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $2.90, including the dilutive impact from 9.6 million shares issued for the Foot Locker acquisition; GAAP EPS was $3.54 due to “$174 million of pretax litigation and other settlements partially offset by $97 million of pretax footlocker acquisition-related costs.”
• Updated Full-Year Guidance -- Raised low end of DICK'S comparable sales growth guidance to 2.5%-4% (from 2%-4%), and Foot Locker to 1.5%-3% (from 1%-3%).
• Foot Locker Turnaround Progress -- Fast Break stores delivered double-digit comps in Q1, with management aiming to expand this initiative to about 250 stores by the back-to-school season; further expansion planned ahead of the holiday season.
• Capital Allocation -- Net capital expenditures for 2026 expected to be $1.4 billion, split roughly 70% for DICK'S and 30% for Foot Locker segments; $114 million in dividends paid, and 719,000 shares repurchased for $141 million in Q1.
• Cost Synergies -- Management reaffirmed $100 million to $125 million of projected medium-term cost synergies, primarily from procurement and sourcing, with some benefits expected in 2026.
• Tax Rate Outlook -- Full-year effective tax rate now anticipated at approximately 27%, about 150 basis points higher than previously estimated, negatively impacting EPS guidance by about $0.25.

SUMMARY

DICK'S Sporting Goods (NYSE:DKS) delivered substantial top-line growth, primarily from the integration of the Foot Locker business, while underlying DICK'S same-store sales accelerated for a third consecutive year. Management highlighted operational discipline, noting that higher comps in the first half of the year were planned to coincide with investment cycles and elevated preopening expenses, especially around flagship House of Sport launches and marketing tied to the World Cup. The company strengthened vendor partnerships, enabling improved product allocations and exclusive offerings across both DICK'S and Foot Locker store formats. Investments in experiential retail concepts, digital engagement technologies, and media platforms continue, supporting broad-based sales and customer acquisition targets. The updated outlook for both segments points to incrementally higher comparable sales expectations and improved operating margin targets for the full year. The capital allocation strategy remains focused on store growth, supply-chain expansion, and technology investments across banners. Management reported the deleveraging in gross margin and SG&A was consistent with expectations and temporary, with margin expansion forecasted in the second half of the year as synergy and investment timing effects reverse.

• Management stated that “our inventory remains well positioned” following Foot Locker integration, and supply-chain improvements.
• The Foot Locker Fast Break remodels are completed in a few days at limited cost, which management described as “retail 101,” and these stores showed “double-digit comps in Q1.”
• GameChanger launched AI-powered coaching tools and set a new record for live-streamed games, which management said was “immediate and measurable.”
• Access to “we're finding that consumers are really resonating with newness with technical innovation. And at the same time, we've repositioned our portfolio with House of Sport and Field House and the best expression of retailers cascading through our entire business.” was called out as key drivers for both banners, supported by deeper collaboration with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Fanatics, Vuori, and Gymshark.
• SG&A deleveraging in the DICK'S segment was attributed to “investments digitally and in-store,” and supply-chain and trading card mix were cited as gross margin headwinds, offset by vertical brand expansion and media network growth.
• Operating margin pressure was guided to peak in Q2 due to the timing of planned SG&A investments, around World Cup marketing and flagship store openings, with recovery expected in the year’s second half.
• Company reiterated that collectibles and trading cards were “incremental gross margin dollars,” bringing in younger, more frequent shoppers.
• Brand relationship improvements for Foot Locker are expected to result in more favorable product allocations and exclusive styles or colors, with management observing Foot Locker buyers “see a very different brand relationships going forward.”

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Fast Break stores: Foot Locker retail locations redesigned with capital-light remodels, including a focused product selection, enhanced storytelling, and prioritized key styles; these updates are intended to improve sales performance and margin efficiency.
• House of Sport: DICK'S large-format, experiential flagship store concept featuring expanded space, premium product assortments, enhanced customer engagement features, and space for events, brand partnerships, and in-depth product experiences.
• Field House: A smaller DICK'S Sporting Goods prototype store format modeled after House of Sport, with similar experiential and assortment features but scaled for different real estate locations.
• GameChanger: DICK'S owned digital platform providing sports video streaming, scorekeeping, AI-powered coaching, and youth sports engagement tools.
• SG&A: Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses; non-production operating expenses on the income statement.
• Vertical brands: Proprietary private-label brands developed and sold by DICK'S, including DSG and CALIA, typically delivering higher gross margin rates than national brands.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Edward Stack: Thanks, Nate. Good morning, everyone. We delivered a very strong first quarter, and I want to thank our more than 100,000 teammates around the globe for their commitment and execution. Sport is one of the hottest categories in the country today. We're in the middle of a real sports moment and the intersection of sporting culture has never been stronger. You see it everywhere. From rising valuation to professional sports teams, to the level of investment from streaming platforms and networks, and the strong demand from advertisers to be a part of live sports.

Looking ahead, with major global events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics in L.A., we're entering one of the most exciting multiyear periods for sport in this country's history making it an incredibly powerful and compelling platform for consumer engagement today. This environment plays directly to our strengths and DICK'S is leading from the front across our stores, our digital capabilities and our now expanded global reach, we are connecting with athletes in more ways and with more relevance than at any point in our history. What sets us apart is our ability to create and maintain that connection across performance, lifestyle and culture throughout the DICK's ecosystem.

House of Sport and Field House are reshaping what retail can be and redefining how brands come to life. GameChanger keeps us deeply embedded in youth sports, unlocking new levels of opportunity and partnership. Golf Galaxy reinforces our leadership in a category with strong participation and rising cultural relevance. And with Foot Locker, we reach a different consumer connected deeply with sneaker culture, basketball and lifestyle and extend our influence even further. That's why the best and most exciting sports brands in the world want to partner with us, not just to sell product, but to launch ideas, tell stories and scale concepts globally during the most important moments in sports.

And that's why ethylene engagement with us continues to grow. We're investing in our business from a position of strength. We're playing offense for the long term, and it's widening the gap between us and the rest of the industry. Our vision is to build the best sports company in the world and we're just getting started. Our leadership showed up clearly with an exceptionally strong performance in our DICK'S business this quarter with comps of 6%. Our team executed at a very high level, and we're all proud of their contributions. Now turning to Foot Locker. We remain highly focused on the transformational opportunity ahead and on delivering an inflection point in sales and profitability, starting with back-to-school.

Our excitement and confidence continue to build as we execute our plan and in Q1, we saw encouraging proof points. For the global Foot Locker business, we delivered slightly positive comps and operating income with merch margin improvement. This marks the first quarter of positive comps for the Foot Locker business since Q4 of 2024. North America performed even better with a 1.4% comp growth and within this, the U.S. Foot Locker banner comped up 6.4%. The Foot Locker banner is our largest and most critical part of the Foot Locker business, so it's where we focused first and the results we're seeing reinforce our turnaround approach. We have a clear plan, and it's working.

We're raising the low end of our full year comp sales expectations for the Foot Locker business. We now expect comp sales growth of 1.5% to 3%, up from 1% to 3% previously. A major driver of this strong execution is our store teammates. Our stripers and Blue Shirts are energized by the renewed momentum and investment in our stores. They are deeply embedded in their communities. They're the closest to the consumer because they are the consumer. Wearing the stripes in their own back there is a badge of honor and that authenticity shows up every day in how they tell the sneaker story.

Our Fast Break stores are performing exceptionally well. reinforcing our conviction in this capital-light remodel initiative. During the first quarter, we expanded fast break by approximately 90 stores, bringing the total to approximately $100 million across that expanded footprint, our Fast Break stores delivered double-digit comps in Q1 and meaningful merchandise margin improvement. By back-to-school, we plan to have approximately 250 Fast Break stores across Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker and Champs globally with further expansion ahead of the holiday season. Our Fast Break initiative is built on retail fundamentals, a more focused shoe well improved storytelling and the reintroduction of apparel with curated and complementary offerings.

These updates are fast to implement, typically completed in a few days and require limited capital. At its core, it's retail 101. And when you execute it with discipline, it works. Looking across the entire Foot Locker business, we are very excited about our assortment heading into back-to-school. This marks the first season where our team had full control over the buys, and we feel great about the product that will be in the stores. This will be supported by a bold brand relaunch designed to bring consumers back to the Foot Locker brand in a meaningful way.

Behind the scenes, we are strengthening the fundamentals of the Foot Locker business. with improvements in our supply chain, we are moving product faster and getting into the right stores. We're playing greater discipline around pricing and using real-time data to drive better decisions and sharper execution. Finally, our brand partners remain fully engaged. They want a strong growing Foot Locker, and they are leaning in with us as their largest global partner. In closing, the early results we're seeing reinforce our conviction in both the opportunity and our approach. We have the right plan, the right team, and the right partnerships in place to unlock the full potential of the Foot Locker business.

With that, Lauren will walk you through the continued momentum across the DICK'S business. Lauren, I'll turn it over to you.

Lauren Hobart: Thank you, Ed, and good morning, everyone. Building on Ed's comments, it's exciting to see sport driving sustained energy and engagement across the consumer landscape. I am so proud of how our team has turned that athlete demand into a very strong quarter of execution for the company. At DICKS, the team continues to excel at bringing our 4 strategic pillars to life, a compelling omnichannel athlete experience, a differentiated on-trend product assortment a deep engagement with the DICK'S brand and the strength of our teammates and culture. In Q1, we delivered comp sales growth of 6% in the DICK'S business with growth in average ticket and transactions.

These strong comps were on top of a 4.5% increase last year and a 5.3% increase in 2024 as we continued to gain market share. One thing that remains notable is the consistency in athlete behavior. We saw more athletes purchased from us with more frequent purchases and they spend more each trip compared to the prior year. We continue to see a healthy consumer across income demographics with no signs of trading down alongside particularly strong engagement from our younger athletes. Our consumer is really responding to newness and innovation, which is showing up throughout the DICK'S business with broad-based growth across footwear, apparel and hard lines.

Given our continued confidence in the DICK'S business, we are raising the low end of our expectations for comparable sales and now expect growth of 2.5% to 4%, up from 2% to 4% previously. At the high end of our expectations for the DICK'S business, we now expect to drive approximately 30 basis points of operating margin expansion on a non-GAAP basis. At the consolidated company level, we continue to expect full year non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $13.50 to $14.50. This continued strength reflects the progress we're making across our strategic priorities.

First, we continue to drive growth in our key categories, supported by national brand partners, new and emerging brands and our own vertical brands. One of our biggest advantages is the depth of our brand relationships. We are a critical partner to the most important brands in our industry, and that shows up in the access, allocation and marketing support we receive. Our partnerships span leading global brands like Nike, Adidas and Fanatics as well as fast-growing emerging brands such as Vuori and Gymshark. These relationships are deeply collaborative and they continue to bring the best product and innovation to our athletes.

Second, we're continuing to reposition and elevate our real estate and store portfolio through House of Sport and Field House. These concepts are redefining the athlete experience in physical retail and strengthening how our brand partners show up in our stores. In Q1, we opened one House of Sport location and 2 field house locations, and our plans are on track to open approximately 13 and 20 more, respectively, for this year. We also continue to see extremely strong interest from landlords, giving us access to some truly iconic retail locations, including Palm Beach Gardens, Cerritos and Tysons Corner. Given these new opportunities, we can be selective in the locations we choose which will drive greater long-term shareholder value.

Third, we are continuing to enhance how we serve athletes seamlessly across channels. In our stores, we're evolving the experience with a greater focus on elevated service and selling rooted in deep sport and product expertise. At the same time, we are investing in our digital experience, enhancing our site and our app. We recently announced the upcoming summer launch of Coach IDEXX, our AI-powered digital agent, representing a significant step forward in how we innovate for the athlete. Coach extends the expertise of our teammates into a personalized conversational experience, helping athletes make more confident decisions across product, training and services.

We also remain very excited about our DICK'S Media Network, a high-growth asset that allows our partners to reach athletes in very relevant ways across our houses sport locations and digital channels. And we're thrilled to have recently opened our Fort Worth distribution center, enhancing our ability to serve athletes in the fast-growing Texas market and surrounding areas. Finally, we continue to scale Game Changer as a key driver of engagement and innovation within the DICK'S ecosystem. Earlier this year, Game Changer launched the most comprehensive product update in its history , introducing 10 ADP live streaming, automated game highlight reels and a new suite of AI-powered coaching tools designed to help coaches Coach smarter.

The impact has been immediate and measurable. In Q1, approximately 50% of all games covered on the platform were streamed live, a record for the business. At scale, the reach is significant. In the last month alone, more games were streamed on game changer that have been played in the entire history of major league baseball. In closing, the consistency that we're seeing across the DICK'S business validates our strategies and the discipline of our execution. We are operating from a position of strength, and we remain confident in our ability to drive sustained growth while investing for the future. With that, I'll turn it over to Navdeep to share more detail on our financial results and our 2026 outlook.

Navdeep, over to you.

Navdeep Gupta: Thank you, Lauren, and good morning, everyone. Let's begin with a brief review of our first quarter results. Consolidated net sales increased 62.7% to $5.16 billion, driven by a $1.79 billion contribution from Foot Locker business and a 6% comp increase for the DICK'S business as we continue to gain market share. DICK's business comp reflects a 5.5% increase in average ticket and a 0.5% increase in transactions with a broad-based strength across footwear, apparel and hard lines. On a 2-year and a 3-year basis, DICK's business comped increased 10.5% and 15.8%, respectively. Pro forma comps for the Foot Locker business accelerated increasing 0.6% for the quarter, driven by a 1.4% increase in North America.

Notably, as Ed highlighted, the U.S. Foot Locker banner delivered a 6.4% comp growth reflecting strong underlying performance as we focus on driving improvements in this important part of the Foot Locker business. From a margin perspective, consolidated non-GAAP gross profit was $1.73 billion or 33.42% of net sales, down 328 basis points from last year. The year-over-year decline was primarily driven by mix impact from the Foot Locker business. Turning to our expenses. On a non-GAAP basis, consolidated SG&A expenses increased 68.4% or $541 million to $1.33 billion, and deleveraged 88 basis points compared to last year's non-GAAP results. $480 million of this consolidated increase was driven by Foot Locker business.

As expected, for the DICK'S business, SG&A deleveraged 31 basis points, driven by investments digitally and in-store. Consolidated non-GAAP operating income was $378.4 million or 7.33% of net sales compared to $360.4 million or 11.35% of net sales last year. For the DICK'S business, operating income was $361 million or 10.69% of net sales. And for the Foot Locker business, we delivered operating income of $17.5 million or 0.98% of net sales. Moving down the P&L. Consolidated non-GAAP income tax expense was $106.2 million or a rate of 28.8%.

Our effective tax rate for the quarter was shaped by a mix of our earnings in foreign jurisdictions, including the effect of purchase accounting adjustments, particularly in Europe, where losses do not currently generate a tax benefit due to valuation allowances. In total, we delivered consolidated non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $2.90 for the quarter, which includes the dilutive impact of the 9.6 million shares issued in connection with the Foot Locker acquisition. This compares to our non-GAAP earnings per diluted share of $3.37 last year. On a GAAP basis, our earnings per diluted share were $3.54. This includes $174 million of pretax litigation and other settlements partially offset by $97 million of pretax footlocker acquisition-related costs.

For additional details, you can refer to the non-GAAP reconciliation tables of our press release that we issued this morning. Now looking to our balance sheet. We ended the quarter with approximately $1 billion of cash and cash equivalents and no borrowings on our $2 billion unsecured credit facility. Inventory was $5.42 billion, reflecting the addition of the Foot Locker business, while the DICK'S business inventory was up just 3%. Importantly, we believe in our inventory remains well positioned to support our growth plans across both DICK'S and Footlocker businesses. Turning to capital allocation. Net capital expenditures were $289 million, and we paid $114 million in quarterly dividends.

We also repurchased 719,000 shares of our stock for $141 million at an average price of $196.38. Before I move to our outlook, I would like to provide a brief update on the expectations surrounding the Foot Locker acquisition. First, as part of a cleanout of the garage actions and broader merger and integration work, we previously estimated and continue to expect total pretax charges of between $500 million and $750 million. During 2025, we recognized $390 million of these charges. The remaining pretax charges will be incurred over 2026 and the medium term as we complete this work. We now expect approximately $200 million of these remaining charges in 2026 compared to our original expectation of $150 million.

These charges have been excluded from today's non-GAAP EPS outlook. Second, we remain confident in achieving previously announced $100 million to $125 million of cost synergies over the medium term primarily from procurement and direct sourcing efficiencies. A portion of these synergy benefits are expected in 2026, which have been reflected in our outlook. Now moving to our outlook for full year 2026. Our guidance continues to reflect the strength of the DICK'S business and the turnaround efforts underway at Foot Locker, all within the context of the dynamic geopolitical and macroeconomic environment. Based on our confidence in DICK'S and Foot Locker, we are raising the low end of our comp sales guidance for both businesses.

Beginning with the DICK'S business, we now expect full year comp sales growth in the range of 2.5% to 4% compared to our prior growth expectation of 2% to 4%. From a pacing standpoint, we continue to expect higher comps in the first half, driven in large part by the timing of the World Cup. We continue to expect preopening expenses to be approximately $90 million for the full year for the DICK'S business. From an operating margin, we now expect the high end of our expectation for the DICK'S business to be approximately 11.4%, which is above our prior expectation of approximately 11.2%.

From a pacing standpoint, we continue to expect operating margins for the DICK'S business to decline in the first half and expand in the second half due to the timing of the planned investments and synergy savings. The most significant pressure is expected in Q2, driven primarily by the timing of planned SG&A investments, including marketing tied to the World Cup, and the timing of preopening expenses to support a higher number of House of Sport openings in this year's second quarter compared to the last year. Now turning to Foot Locker business. We now expect full year pro forma comp sales growth in the range of 1.5% to 3% compared to our prior growth expectation of 1% to 3%.

We now expect operating income for the Foot Locker business to be in the range of $110 million to $150 million compared to our prior expectation of $100 million to $150 million. From a pacing standpoint, we continue to expect comp sales and operating income performance to be back half weighted. At the consolidated company level, we continue to expect full year non-GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $13.50 to $14.50. Our earnings guidance is now based on approximately 90.5 million average diluted shares outstanding, which includes the dilutive impact of 9.6 million shares issued in connection with the Foot Locker acquisition.

We now anticipate a consolidated company effective tax rate of approximately 27% for the full year. This is approximately 150 basis points higher than our original expectation as the dynamics we saw in Q1 are expected to persist, albeit to a lesser degree. This increase in tax rate unfavorably impacts our non-GAAP EPS guidance by approximately $0.25 for the full year and is included in our updated outlook. Finally, from a capital allocation standpoint, investing in our business to grow our leadership position and drive profitable organic growth across both DICK'S and Foot Locker business remains our top priority.

We now expect net capital expenditures of approximately $1.4 billion for the full year, split roughly 70-30 across DICK'S and Foot Locker businesses. For the DICK'S business, our investment will be focused on store growth, relocations and improvement in our existing stores as well as ongoing investments in technology and supply chain. For the Foot Locker business, our investments will be focused on reenergizing our store fleet, including our Fast Break initiative. In closing, we are pleased with the strength in the DICK'S business and confident in the path to improved performance at the Foot Locker business. This concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you for your interest in DICK'S Sporting Goods. Operator, you may now open the line for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley.

Simeon Gutman: Good morning, everyone, good quarter. So I know we're going to spend some time on Foot Locker this morning, but I want to start with the DICK'S business. A 6% comp is a very strong start to the year. Can you talk about the key drivers of the performance? How much reflects underlying momentum versus any onetime benefits in the quarter? And then how you're thinking about comps from here?

Lauren Hobart: Thanks, Simeon. Yes, we are really proud of the quarter and the results we just put out the DICK'S comp increased 6%. This was definitely not a result of a onetime factor. We saw broad-based strength across the entire portfolio. We saw strength in footwear and apparel, and hardlines. Within hardlines feeling really terrific about team sports and licensed and trading cards and golf. There was tremendous growth across the whole portfolio. And really, this is due to the fact that our long-term strategies are working. We've been leaning into differentiated products. elevated product, we're finding that consumers are really resonating with newness with technical innovation.

And at the same time, we've repositioned our portfolio with House of Sport and Field House and the best expression of retailers cascading through our entire business. Our entire team is completely focused on elevating the athlete experience in our stores and through our digital ecosystem, and that is a big factor of our results. The other thing I would point to is, as Ed mentioned in his prepared remarks, sport is one of the hottest categories in the country today, and we sit right at the intersection of sport and culture. We're feeling that excitement in North America going into the World Cup.

It's going to continue for many years going into LA '28 and we happen to just be in a fantastic lane. But for many quarters now, we have seen our consumer hold up really, really well. We haven't seen trade down again this quarter. We didn't see trade down from best to better or better to good. We saw growth again this quarter of all income demographics and we added 1.5 million new athletes to our database. So really, really pleased with the quarter that we just had and the momentum that signals in our business.

Simeon Gutman: And my follow-up is on profit and flow-through. So the 6% comps, we would have expected a little stronger flow through. For us, strong comps typically means more full-price selling, so good for gross and then nice SG&A leverage. So can you talk about what's unique either to Q1? It may be unique to 2026, given World Cup and the timing of House of Sport. And is it more or less a whole year where we don't get what this operating leverage of the business throws off and we'll see more strength as we go into next year?

Lauren Hobart: Okay. Simeon, it's a really, really good question. I'm glad you asked it. Our business is performing exactly as we had expected it to and as we guided. So in the first half, we said we were going to have higher comps than the second half. And we also were going and making significant investments in our business, which we did. We invested in World Cup, and we'll continue to do that in Q2. So for the first half, we did expect stronger comps, lower flow through. But when you look at the full year guidance, we just took our high end of our guidance up 20 basis points. So we guided to 10.

We're now guiding to 30 basis points of improvement at the high end of the range, 11.4%. We're absolutely expecting leverage for the full year. Just as we've been planning, it's going to come in the second half, and that's just due to the timing of investments. So again, we feel terrific about the business and really good about the leverage for this year and the operating profit will flow through.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Brian Nagel with Oppenheimer.

Brian Nagel: So my first question, I do want to focus on Foot Locker. So in your commentary and lately, you've expressed a lot of confidence in the turnaround that we saw some encouraging signs here in the first quarter, particularly in the United States. So can you just kind of maybe talk more about where the turnaround is today? A focus again on the with the progress you're seeing with the Fast Break refresh and just your overall positioning and health of that inventory within the Foot Locker channel.

Edward Stack: Sure. Thanks, Brian. We're right on schedule with what we plan to do with Foot Locker. We've through last year, we've cleaned out the garage from an inventory standpoint. So our inventory is in terrific shape. We've repaired vendor relationships with key brands that we're somewhat disenchanted with Foot Locker. We've repaired those vendor relationships, and they're now fully supportive of Foot Locker and really want Foot Locker to be a stable, growing retailer as part of their portfolio. So we've repaired those relationships. We've rebuilt the management teams, and we've remerchandised the stores of what we're doing with Fast Break. From a Fast Break standpoint, which of those early stores that we reconceptualized what the wall would look like.

As you've heard me say before, the Foot Locker footwear wall was really run-on sentence. It was just filled with a bunch of shoes, and it was nothing important. What we did is we took all those shoes off the wall, we reduced roughly 30% of the SKU choices and focus on key styles, key colors and key stories that when the consumer came in, they knew what was important. In those Fast Break stores, as we've talked about, have done extremely well, but they comped double digits in the first quarter. So we're really excited about that. As I said, the inventory is in good shape.

We've augmented some of the assortment that would in the first quarter that helped the business. And remember, we've always said that the inflection point here was going to begin in back-to-school which is the first time that the team bought the entire assortment. So we feel that inflection point in back-to-school is going to happen. And we will have bought the product, and that's the first time we'll be back marketing and doing the relaunch of the Foot Locker brand and a big marketing effort, which we are really pretty excited about. And as you said, we did focus our attention on the biggest part of the business, which is the U.S. Foot Locker locations.

And those stores comped at over a 6% comp in the first quarter. So our plan -- we're right on schedule with our plan. Our plan is working, and we continue to be really excited about the Foot Locker business going forward.

Brian Nagel: I appreciate all that. So I guess as my follow-up, I just want to follow up on the Fast Break. I've spent my associates and I've spent a lot of time looking at the Foot Locker stores that you've refreshed, the Fast Break stores. And make sure I understand this. So -- and they do look much cleaner, much better organized. But that's -- there's no new product. The product we're seeing in those stores is still legacy products sort of say. You haven't introduced new products. So what's driving those sales is just having a much cleaner, better organized existing product?

Edward Stack: For right now, yes. And when you've been into the fast brake stores, you've seen, although it's not perfect yet, you've seen an increase in the apparel business in the apparel presentation that we've got there. Foot Locker previously, I won't say they exited the apparel business, but they significantly scaled back the apparel business. So we brought apparel back in, and we've done the best we could cobbling together because we didn't buy this assortment. We did talk to brands, and they got us some additional allocation of product that -- so that we'd be in better stock.

But as I've said, the first time that we were able to buy the product and build that assortment is for the back-to-school season, and that's where you'll see that inflection point.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Kate McShane with Goldman Sachs.

Katharine McShane: It looks like your capital expenditure outlook came down a little bit for fiscal year '26. And we wondered if you could explain what the change was there? Is there any breakdown you can give Foot Locker and DICK'S and is there a way to think about CapEx from the Fast Break investment, but also by banner for Foot Locker?

Navdeep Gupta: This is Navdeep. So 2-part question there. Let me start with the outlook that we have provided for the CapEx, we actually gave a little bit of a detailed outlook on between the banners. And right now, we expect net CapEx for the DICK'S banner to be about $1 billion for 2026 and place to be about $400 million. As you can imagine, a majority is at $400 million of the capital investment in Foot Locker will be associated with the investments that we are making in our stores, including the Fast Break stores.

But as Ed called out, the Fast Break stores are capital-light but at the same time, when you think about the magnitude of investments in terms of the number of stores we'll be investing in, that is a significant portion of the CapEx investment for market for $26 million. In terms of where the efficiencies came the efficiency or the decrease in our CapEx outlook by about $100 million came predominantly in the tax business, as part of what Lauren talked about, like the confidence that we have on our operating margin expansion on a full year basis.

The team has been working on productivity initiatives for last several years, and it's -- what you're seeing is the manifestation of that work showing up both in the operating margin leverage expectation on the full year as well as the capital efficiency of $100 million of reduction in CapEx outlook for DICK'S for full year.

Katharine McShane: Okay. And just as a follow-up question with the strength in the Foot Locker U.S. business, can you maybe talk through what you're seeing with the Foot Locker Europe stores currently?

Edward Stack: Yes. Europe, the European business is, as we expected, is a little bit behind where the U.S. business is. We are just in the process of implementing the Fast Break strategy into Europe. We've got a couple of stores done there. And the results are pretty promising. We're making some other changes there from a management standpoint. But all in all, the European business is about where we anticipated it to be, but it's definitely a bit behind the U.S. business. And we expect that to be that way through the end of the year. but we do expect that we'll catch up.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Adrienne Yih with Barclays.

Adrienne Yih-Tennant: Ed and Lauren, I guess my question starts with kind of what macro backdrop do you kind of envision for the rest of the year and the guidance? And then secondarily, Lauren, I really like to comment on the intersection of sports and culture, right? Sport and lifestyle and you have the 2 brands to go after both of those. So can you talk about kind of level of innovation, competition and maybe kind of focus on some of the footwear fashion trends so performance versus lifestyle versus maybe nonathletic, just the ebbs and flows at kind of subsector trends.

Lauren Hobart: Great. Thanks, Adrienne. We looked at the guidance, the macro, we've balanced all of the confidence that we have in our business and momentum that I talked about in my first answer with some caution appropriate level of caution about the macroeconomic environment, geopolitical environment, and that is why we've left the top end of our comp range same both Optics and Foot Locker. But overall, our strategies are working. The things that we can control are working, and we're feeling really good about them. In terms of the intersection of sports and culture, we see a lot of innovation within footwear, in particular, we're really pleased with things like performance running, which is doing really, really well.

Even basketball, women's basketball is doing really well, some of the lifestyle footwear is doing very well at point to retro in particular, and some of the other brands are doing really terrific and training and recovery. So we're seeing -- footwear is a very strong business for us. We drove growth in the past quarter. We'll continue to drive growth into the future, and we're feeling very bullish.

Adrienne Yih-Tennant: Great. And my follow-up, Ed, you mentioned the brand relationships kind of porting over that strength to Foot Locker. Can you kind of give us specific examples of what that means? Is it faster turns, obviously, access to exclusive, really kind of what are the muscle that you're porting over from to DICK'S to Foot Locker?

Edward Stack: Sure. I think there's a number of things. The fact that Foot Locker will now have a different allocation of product that they didn't have before access to certain products that they didn't have before. And the confidence of these brands that Foot Locker is a viable go-forward business that can help them grow, which a number of them had lost and we've talked about this and they talk to me about this that they have really lost confidence in Foot Locker that they didn't think Foot Locker was really going to be able to, kind of present their product in the way that they wanted it presented to protect their brands.

And with the relationship that they have -- we have between DICK'S and Foot Locker, these brands, all these relationships have been repaired. And what we've got from an allocation standpoint, what we've got from an exclusive standpoint on either styles and/or colors going forward. Stories that we'll be able to tell around different athletes and around different aspects what's going on in sport or sneaker culture is very different. And you'll see a lot of that start to come delay to an even greater degree in Q1 of next year as we're beginning to build those assortments now. But it's an entirely different relationship with the brands.

And if you talk to the group in Foot Locker, the buyers, the [ Stripers, ] et cetera, they'll see a very different brand relationships going forward -- in the past and going forward.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Bob Derbal with BTIG.

Unknown Analyst: I was wondering if you could expand a bit more on the core DICK'S Sporting Goods segment, the gross margin performance and the decline that we saw this quarter.

Navdeep Gupta: About the DICK'S gross margin line about 35 basis points on a year-over-year basis, 2 big drivers on that and both in line with our expectation. The first is the headwind that we saw in supply chain expenses. One, as you can anticipate that the higher fuel cost that was a headwind on a year-over-year basis. as well as we opened our 6 distribution center in Q1. And it was in the tail end of Q1.

Really excited to have had that new infrastructure available to be able to service the apple in a much more efficient way as well as serve our stores, however, that dead a little bit of a headwind on a year-over-year basis when you open FX infrastructure. Outside of that, we saw a little bit of a mix headwind driven by the fact, like Lauren talked about the exciting new business and a tremendous amount of growth opportunity we see in the trading card business, it's bringing a new customer, it's allowing us to go kind of take the market around the collectibles as well as trading cuts.

However, that does come with a slightly lower gross margin, and that was a mix impact that you saw. I'll turn is by saying, if you look at our outlook that we have shared for the full year, we expect our gross margin to expand now with the updated outlook that we have provided.

Unknown Analyst: Great. And then if I could just ask 1 more question. On the basketball business, can you talk about maybe what you're seeing at the DICK'S segment versus what you're seeing at the Foot Locker stores in basketball?

Edward Stack: Sure. Basketball business is coming back. Basketball had -- it slowed down a little bit. The basketball business is coming back in a really big fashion and really built around women's basketball business, whether that [indiscernible] Asia, that group of ethics have had a real impact. And boys and girls, young men and women are buying that product. And we're pretty excited about it around the DICK'S business. We're very excited about it around the Foot Locker business. So basketball has really been -- is going to be quite good, and we're pretty excited about it across both banners.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Michael Lasser with UBS.

Michael Lasser: On the outlook for the DICK'S core business. You mentioned that you expect the gross margin to improve over the course of the year. Presumably, collectible will remain a source of pressure. So what do you expect outside of the supply chain drag becoming less of an impact? What do you expect the offset will be from this collectible pressure and any other driver that you're considering over the course of the next few quarters.

Navdeep Gupta: I would say that there are puts and takes with the gross margin outlook. And like you call out like fuel pressure we have contemplated at least that Russia persisting into the near future. We have talked about the sixth DICK'S opening for this year as well as the occupancy headwind as we look to continue to invest in repositioning our portfolio and the mix trade headwind that you called out from trading cards is also contemplating it. However, the offset impact has continued to be pretty consistent with what has been driving our gross margin expansion. The first report was the access and allocation that Ed just talked about.

That continues to be the key driver of us continuing to have confidence in the gross margin and the merch margin expansion. The work that our pricing team is doing the work that our vertical brand teams are doing. And again, vertical brands carry 700 to 900 basis points of higher management rate. So as we penetrate more there, those brands are doing fantastic for us. That's the driver.

And then outside of that, like Lauren talked this morning about our excitement for the DICK'S Media Network, which is continuing to have a strong growth as well as the growth that we are seeing in our game changer business will be the drivers that would be offsetting some of the headwinds that I just mentioned.

Lauren Hobart: And Michael, if I can just add to that. I want to just say the Collectibles business, the Trading Card business, are such exciting incremental opportunities. So while they do have a lower margin than our overall mix, I think they give them as a pressure or any sort of negative thing is the wrong way to look at it. It's incremental gross margin dollars, bringing people in more frequently, appealing to a younger audience, totally incremental from the rest of our store and driving trips. So we're thrilled about that business. And to best point, the math will work so that we can grow the gross margin for the full year.

Michael Lasser: Lauren, obviously, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you if you wanted to quantify the contribution from collectibles and trading cards in the first quarter, but I assume...

Lauren Hobart: We do not probably won't.

Michael Lasser: Okay. And my follow-up question is on the economics of the house of port location. This is now more in focus over time as you add more of these flagship stores, how have the economics change are you continuing to see the same-store sales growth in the second, third and fourth year of these locations, consistent with the overall chain average? And do you think the return on investment, both tangible and maybe intangible because you do get some intangible benefits from your key stakeholders like landlords and vendors will the tangible benefits or the tangible return be sustained as you scale this concept to what could be 75 or more locations over time.

Lauren Hobart: Yes. Great question. House of Sport is everything you just said. It has a tangible benefit. It has an intangible benefit from a financial standpoint. We're thrilled with the results, and we do see comp store growth in years 3 and years 4 even. So we've been able to confirm that. So they open fully and then continue to grow and are driving strong sales and profitability and ROI. So really terrific financial results. But some of the intangibles that you mentioned are really important, and that's everything from the consumer, the athlete who is coming and spending more time in our stores significantly -- spending significantly higher than an average typical fixed athlete, our national brand partners.

So this has been an incredible onramp for new and emerging brands. You've heard us say this quarter, we just added Vuori to our mix of brands, last quarter, Gymshark. That's all been enabled because of the House of Sport, where people can really bring a brand to like head-to-toe color story, and it's a fantastic way for us all to get to know each other. So that's going to have tangible returns in the future that will impact the whole business. And then lastly, you mentioned the landlord community. Every time we open on these House of Sport, we're seeing incredible impact in the center or the mall. We're driving traffic.

We're revitalizing different areas of real estate throughout the country. And so that's giving us access to bigger, better, really more premium locations, which we are working really closely to curate and move forward. So I think it's a win-win. The last thing I'll say is House of Sport it's translating not just to the House of Sport, but our Field House concept, which is our prototype is really a mini version of a House of Sport. It's got many of the same elements just a little smaller. And so that's a very tangible return as well.

And as we look to the rest of the portfolio, where the whole chain is benefiting from things like product access and experiential selling and elevated curated experience across the board. So really, really strong House of Sport overall.

Navdeep Gupta: Yes, Michael, I'll just build on what Lauren said, which was a pretty comprehensive response. Another opportunity that we are now investing into in House of Sport is the DICK'S Media network. The way we can bring a brand alive and through the DICK'S Media network have that curated experience and engagement that we have with is what the brands are really excited about. Our digital team, our marketing team have done a fantastic job, not just creating that moment or to create that interaction, but be able to create that in a way that is measurable and quantifiable that we can report the metrics back to the brands.

And that's what the brands are really excited about as we think about the DICK'S Media network.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Paul Lejuez with Citi.

Paul Lejuez: Lauren, I think you said you didn't see a trade down between good, better and best. Can you talk about the performance of those 3 good, better, best in terms of what is driving the comp from each of those different segments might be how each of your customer segments are holding up? And then second, curious to get your updated thoughts on putting some leverage on the balance sheet, progress more aggressive with share repo?

Lauren Hobart: Great. Well, I'll start with your first question. I did say we did not see trade down between good, better and best. And I won't get into specifics about all the 3, but I do think it's important to know that we are serving different occasions and different athletes. And within our portfolio, we have everything from opening price points, a, our DSG brand, which is really tremendously attractive pricing, but high function, high fashion, all the way up to, if you look at technical apparel or on the equipment side, really performance driving equipment cleats, everything.

So every single one of those categories is doing well, and they all play a role in a balanced portfolio, and they're all being reacted to by different consumer groups, and that's what's driving the comp in each of those segments. I'll turn it to Navdeep to talk about the balance sheet.

Navdeep Gupta: Yes. Paul, this is build on your question on the balance sheet itself. We continue to have a very strong balance sheet. As you saw in Q1, we bought $140 million our shares already in Q1 and still finish the quarter with $1 billion of cash on the balance sheet. So we have plenty of flexibility. And from a share repurchase perspective, I would say we'll continue to be opportunistic and that's the approach that we have taken and we'll continue to take that approach into the balance of this year.

Paul Lejuez: Just one quick follow-up. The private label business, you mentioned brand you talk about how private label generally performed versus the rest of the chain?

Lauren Hobart: Yes. We're thrilled with our vertical brand business. We're thrilled with the DSG brand, the CALIA brand, the first brand. [indiscernible] doing amazingly well. The brands are doing very well versus the rest of the chain and also continuing to expand gross margin. So a vertical brand, on average, is 700 to 900 basis points higher margin -- gross margin than the average DICK'S margin. And that continues -- the team is doing a fantastic job continuing to leverage that. So overall, our vertical brands are a key mix. They're also filling white space opportunities in the portfolio, and we're thrilled with how they're doing.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Christopher Horvers with JPMorgan.

Christopher Horvers: So my first question is, you've been very optimistic about the DICK'S business, but we're also coming off a period where there was plenty of tax stimulus that affected all levels of the consumer income spectrum. So my question is, I was curious if you thought the first quarter benefited from tax stimulus such 2-, 3-year trend that you referenced is not sustainable as we look forward outside of just being prudent.

Navdeep Gupta: Yes. First, I would say we were very happy with the overall performance that we saw across both the banners not just DICK'S and the Foot Locker business as well. If you look at it, the outlook that we have provided continues to kind of indicate that level of confidence around the core strategies, and we are balancing that against the macroeconomic and the geopolitical landscape. I don't know if I would call out that we saw any significant benefit from the stimulus checks as they were puts and takes even if you look at it within Q1 with the similar spec and higher gas prices.

And even in those economic conditions, we delivered being answered as a really strong results across all the banners.

Christopher Horvers: Understood. And then on the Foot Locker side of the business, a 2-part question. Can you talk about same-store sales from an AUR and transaction perspective, one would think that it was basically AUR, but you also have all the clearance that you took in the back half and you're going to be remerchandising, and getting better just overall in-stocks in the stores such that transactions could also accelerate. And then on the gross margin side of it, in the Foot Locker gross margin, was there any remnant clearance in there? And presumably, we didn't have any of the buying synergies in there yet.

Edward Stack: Yes. I think on the gross margin piece, there was certainly still some clearance. There's always going to be clearance in a retail business. There's products that you think you're going to sell,don't sell its output all part of the normal aspect of the business. So we were very pleased with what we did with Foot Locker from a -- we haven't guided right now, and we're not going to report this until it becomes comp in the fourth quarter, the transactions and the traffic piece of this. But we are right on schedule with what we're doing with Foot Locker.

We're really excited about it, and we're looking forward to that back-to-school time period, we have that inflection point where we've been -- had the ability to buy the product and also lay out the relaunch marketing campaign that we've got with Foot Locker that we're pretty excited about.

Christopher Horvers: And then there's no buying synergies in that gross margin yet?

Edward Stack: No, no.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Cristina Fernandez with Telsey Advisory Group.

Cristina Fernandez: I have 2 questions on Foot Locker. Ed, you mentioned earlier that you were planning on doing more than 250 stores on the fast conversions after back-to-school. How many can you think you can do for the year with the double-digit comps? Would you look to accelerate that? And the second question is on the changes on the merchandising plan for back-to-school in the half on the back half. Can you talk about what categories will be -- the changes will be more pronounced for the consumer, whether it's like basketball, cash flow running or any more details you can share?

Edward Stack: Sure. So the Fast Break stores will have 250 of them for back-to-school. We will continue that program through holiday. We'll have some -- we'll have more done for holiday. We're not going to guide to those right now. We're trying to decide how much we want to disrupt the holiday business with this, but there will be more of those that will be done at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter. So we will continue with this. We're very pleased with how the Fast Break stores are doing.

As it relates to the merchandising plans for the back-to-school season, the categories that we're focusing on, you'll see a better assortment of women's product. You'll see a better assortment of what's going on from a basketball standpoint and not only performance run, but also the retrorun category will be -- will we'll see better product and more storytelling around that. And then one of the things you'll see is you'll see better apparel product in there and a better apparel assortment around stories associated with tying back to the shoe.

So it will be around footwear, apparel and some around some key accessory items that Foot Locker had run out of in the past that we will be in stock in and we think will certainly help us get the business going forward as we look at this inflection point in back-to-school.

Operator: Our final question comes from the line of Joseph Civello with Truist Securities.

Joseph Civello: I was wondering, is there anything you could fuss out in your data that suggest that you might be getting incremental comp lift from the usage of GLP-1s, anything like the categories or the sizing or something like that?

Lauren Hobart: Yes, we don't have specific data on that, but for the long time now, we've been seeing people leaning in. This goes back many years post-COVID leaning into a healthier active lifestyle, outdoor-living team sports, golf. So in general, our consumer is doing really well and leading into this, but we don't have any specific correlation to GLP-1s.

Joseph Civello: Got it. And then maybe just one follow-up. Can you give any color on the promotional environment, maybe like how it impacts both the DICK'S and the Foot Locker side of the business?

Lauren Hobart: Yes. In Q1, we didn't -- that wasn't a major factor. And we always on both the Dick's and the Foot Locker side, we'll manage through any promotional environment we do what's best for the consumer and best for our business, and we're very surgical about it. We've got advanced pricing capabilities where we can really be curated in how we lean into a promotional environment. But nothing on the horizon network are [indiscernible]

Operator: We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Lauren Hobart, President and CEO, for closing remarks.

Lauren Hobart: Thank you, everybody, for your interest in DICK'S and thank you to our 100,000 teammates and associates around the country and around the world. We have the best team in sports, and we're very grateful for everything you do. Thank you all.

Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

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