Dick’s Sporting Goods partners with Out&Back for resale pilot
Dick’s Sporting Goods is diving into resale.
The nation’s largest sporting goods retailer is launching an in-store buy-back pilot with Out&Back, an online platform that buys and sells new and used outdoor and adventure gear. The program will allow customers to bring select outdoor gear (including hard and soft-goods) into participating Dick’s Sporting Goods stores (on Fridays through Saturdays) and receive a cash payment from Out&Back.
The pilot will initially take place in two key outdoor markets: Denver and Pittsburgh. It will launch at the company’s Public Lands store in Cranbury, Pa., on April 29, and at select Dick’s Sporting Goods stores in Pittsburgh and Denver in the coming weeks. (Public Lands is the outdoor-focused format that Dick’s launched last year.)
The amount of the payment that customers receive for their goods will depend on the condition of the merchandise. The returned will be sold on the Out&Back website.
As part of all gear buybacks, Out&Back and Dick’s will donate 1% of the value of offers given to sellers to 1% For The Planet, a charitable non-profit dedicated to funding diverse environmental organizations.
"We launched Out&Back because we knew there was an unmet need for reselling outdoor and adventure-based gear," said Barruch Ben-Zekry, founder and CEO of Out&Back. "When listening to our consumers' needs, it became clear that an all-in-one platform inclusive of equipment and accessories was the obvious next step for us. Since launching in 2019, we've seen 43% growth in the soft-goods category and predict through our partnership with Dick’s and Public Lands we will see equal demand for hard-goods in the outdoor and adventure space."
"Working with Out&Back to give people an opportunity to explore the outdoors and reduce our environmental footprint at the same time is a win-win," said Peter Land, chief sustainability officer at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Out&Back Outdoor was founded in Denver in late 2019. It provides a place where customers can compare new and used products in the same shopping experience, in addition to selling unwanted gear in less than a minute for instant cash offers and free shipping.
REI sees growth in used gear business
Leading outdoor retailer REI, which initially launched its online “recommerce” (resale) business in 2018, is also actively involved in resale. In October 2019, the retailer piloted a used gear buy-back program with 5,000 members that offered the members REI gift cards when they trade in gently-used outdoor items for resale.
REI members can trade in their own used gear through the co-op's online, member-only trade-in program. Members can send in good-condition used gear in exchange for REI gift card credit. The company offers up to 50% of the resale value for most items.
REI credits demand for renting or purchasing used over new gear from millennial customers as contributing to nearly 100% year-over-year growth in its online business. The company also frames its growing used gear business as part of a broader commitment to sustainability.