Academy Sports + Outdoors Plans 80-100 New Stores

Academy Sports + Outdoors (Katy, Texas) says it plans to open 80-100 new stores in the coming five years. The company disclosed that blueprint for growth in a news release about the opening of its two newest stores – a 60,000-square-foot locale in Barboursville, W. Va., and a 50,000-square-foot one in Pinellas Park, Fla.

Those openings, which both take place this weekend, bring the chain’s total new stores this year to nine. Founded in 1938 as a family business in Texas, Academy currently has 268 stores across 18 states.

The chain offers an assortment of athletic, casual and work shoes, sports and outdoors equipment, and clothing from national brands such as Nike, adidas, The North Face, Columbia, Wrangler, Timberland, Carhartt, Yeti, Huk, Costa and Coleman. It also sells several lines private-label goods, including Magellan Outdoors, Freely, R.O.W., BCG, H2O Xpress, Mosaic and O’Rageous.