[EXCLUSIVE] Outdoors Oriented Public Lands to Shutter in Kennesaw, Reopen as New Dick's Concept Store

Dick's Sporting Goods is pulling the plug on its short-lived Public Lands concept store in Kennesaw.  Located in Town Center Commons (667 Ernest W. Barrett Parkway), the store was the sixth to open when it debuted October 2022 in place of Field & Stream, another Dick's banner.  

Today there are eight Public Lands stores, but at least five are expected to close in the coming weeks.  

Public Lands stores in Framingham, Massachusetts, Woodbury, Minnesota, and Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania will remain open, while those in Kennesaw, Melville, NY, Columbus, Ohio, Medford, Oregon, and Charlottesville, Virginia are all expected to close in January with the Kennesaw store indicating that they will close as of January 9. 

(ToNeTo Atlanta reported on December 30 that rival outdoor retailer REI is closing their Buford store near the Mall of Georgia on January 9, too.)  

The three remaining Public Lands stores are all freestanding or otherwise not adjacent to an existing Dick's, unlike the five stores that will be converted into another Dick's-owned banner.  It's highly unlikely that Dick's, a company with more than 700 stores and a market cap of nearly $19 billion, will continue to operate the three Public Lands stores long-term.  

In Kennesaw and at the other four stores, Dick's plans to incorporate the Public Lands floor space into the existing and adjacent Dick's to create a new "House of Sport," a new large format store that Dick's has seen better traction with. The Public Lands stores will be renovated in phases with grand reopenings under the "House of Sport" banner expected to follow late this upcoming summer/early fall, according to employees at the stores.   

The large format store, first introduced in Victor, New York in April 2021, typically features several experiential elements such as a rock-climbing wall, a batting cage with HitTrax™ technology, golf hitting bays with TrackMan™ simulators, "House of Cleats" that will seasonally rotate product and even an outdoor turf field and track.  The 17,000 square foot turf field & track, a feature at the Victor store and other "House of Sport" stores, will not likely be a feature that some or all of the new stores - given their outdoor space limitations - will offer.  

Interestingly, several of the "experiential" features introduced in the new concept store - especially the rock-climbing wall - were offerings pioneered by Galyan's, a rival sporting goods retailer that Dick's acquired in 2004.  Galyan's had Atlanta area stores in Buckhead, Buford, and Kennesaw that operate as Dick's stores today - all of which had in-store rock-climbing walls that were later removed.  

In addition to the full-price, large-format Dick's store, the Pittsburgh-based company also operates a "Going, Going, Gone!" outlet store in the Kennesaw area at 50 Ernest W. Barrett Parkway in Towne Center Prado.  

While a larger Dick's store is surely appealing to some area residents, many are likely most excited that Atlanta's first Portillo's is expected to open next year a stone's throw away at 790 Cobb Place Boulevard.  

Have you ever been to a Dick's House of Sport store?  Did you ever shop Public Lands?  Where do you do most of your shopping for sporting goods?

Please share your thoughts below.