Dick's launches House of Sport ad featuring J.J. Watt amid concept expansion
Dick’s Sporting Goods has tapped a former NFL star to star in ads showcasing its House of Sport experiential store store.
The former defensive end and current CBS studio analyst J.J. Watt stars in a new digital ad spot for the sporting goods retailer in which Watt hires his own film crew under the fake name of "Jim Jim Watkins,” creating a home video to convince his wife that their family should move into House of Sport, which he describes as "an athlete's paradise." The ad, titled "J.J. 's House" was produced by OBB Branded, a division of OBB Media.
House of Sport is an approximately 100,000+ sq.-ft. store that provides customers with an assortment of products along with in-store experiences including a climbing wall, multiple golf bays with TrackMam simulators, and HitTrax multi-sport cages that can be used for baseball, softball and soccer. Each experience gives customers the opportunity to try products, and the Trackman and HitTrax technology helps them to measure and track their performance.
There are currently 12 House of Sport locations across the country, with eight additional locations planned to open throughout 2024, including at the Prudential Center in Boston, in addition to 10 Golf Galaxy Performance Center locations and 16 next-generation Dick's stores this year.
Other future House of Sport locations include Pittsburgh, Miami and Tampa. Dick’s anticipates opening 75 to 100 House of Sport stores by 2027.
"J.J.'s passion for sport and his commitment to the community make him the perfect fit for Dick's House of Sport," said Mark Rooks, VP of creative, sponsorships and entertainment at Dick’s. "We're still working out whether he and his family can actually live in the store, but we hear he has a little more work to do on that anyway. Hopefully this video helps him make his case!”
The ad spot starring Watt comes following a previous Dick’s ad campaign, called "Click On Dicks," starrings actors Will Arnett and Kathryn Hahn. Arnett portrays a character caught in the rush of forgetting to pick up soccer cleats for his daughter and Hahn plays a character hysterically searching for the best gear for her nephew's basketball tryouts.
Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Dick’s operates more than 850 Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy, Public Lands, Going Going Gone! and Warehouse Sale stores across the country.