🏋 Dick’s Sporting Goods — Key Facts
| Stock Listing | NYSE: DKS (publicly traded) |
| Controlling Family | Stack family (dual-class voting control) |
| Executive Chairman | Edward “Ed” Stack (son of founder) |
| CEO | Lauren Hobart (since 2021) |
| Founded | 1948, Binghamton, NY by Richard “Dick” Stack |
| Revenue | ~$13B annually (850+ stores nationwide) |
Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) is a publicly traded company controlled by the Stack family through a dual-class share structure. The company was founded in 1948 by Richard “Dick” Stack in Binghamton, New York, and built into America’s largest full-line sporting goods retailer by his son Edward “Ed” Stack, who served as CEO for decades and now holds the Executive Chairman title. Current CEO is Lauren Hobart.
Who Is the Owner of Dick’s Sporting Goods?
Dick’s Sporting Goods is a publicly traded company (NYSE: DKS) with the Stack family retaining controlling influence through a dual-class voting structure. The company was built by Edward “Ed” Stack, who took over from his father Richard “Dick” Stack and transformed a small Binghamton bait-and-tackle shop into a national retail chain. Ed Stack was CEO for over 30 years before transitioning to Executive Chairman in 2021 when Lauren Hobart became CEO — the first woman to lead the company. While institutional investors like Vanguard and BlackRock hold large ownership positions on the open market, the Stack family’s share class gives them disproportionate voting control over major corporate decisions.
Dick’s Founding Story: From Bait Shop to $13B Retailer
The original Dick’s was launched in 1948 when Richard “Dick” Stack opened a bait-and-tackle shop in Binghamton, New York, with a $300 loan from his grandmother. After Dick passed the business to his son Ed, the company expanded regionally through the 1980s and nationally through the 1990s–2000s. Dick’s went public in 2002 (NYSE: DKS). The company now operates over 850 locations across the US under the Dick’s Sporting Goods banner, plus specialty formats including Public Lands and Golf Galaxy. Its revenue exceeds $13 billion annually, making it by far the largest US sporting goods specialty retailer.
Dick’s and the Gun Debate
Dick’s Sporting Goods made national headlines in February 2018, when Ed Stack announced the company would stop selling assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines and raise the minimum age for all gun sales to 21 — following the Parkland school shooting. The company later announced it would remove firearms entirely from 440 stores and eventually reduced its hunting department to a field & stream concept in remaining locations. The decision cost the company hundreds of millions in lost gun revenue but solidified Ed Stack’s reputation as one of retail’s most outspoken executives on gun policy — a remarkable stance from the CEO of a major American sporting goods chain.
