Sporting goods retailers – particularly those that carry footwear and apparel – are making their stores more interactive at a time when many people still prefer to shop in person. According to a recent Gartner survey, 58% of U.S. consumers prefer to buy clothing, shoes and accessories in-store, compared to 39% online. Although many companies offer these products at deep discounts online, retailers like Foot Locker and Dick’s Sporting Goods are pouring money into large-scale store remodels or experiential store concepts to differentiate themselves.

“I think experience-based commerce is really the only way to compete because you’re competing against everyone from Temu to Amazon to direct competitors,” Brad Jashinsky, principal analyst at Gartner, told Modern Retail.

Retailers already implementing these strategies are already reporting success. In May, Lauren Hobart, CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, said the company’s House of Sports stores — of which there are 14, according to its website — are bringing in more customers. “The athletes are coming, they’re making bigger sales and spending more time (at the House of Sport),” she said on a recent conference call. The company reported comparable sales growth of 3% year over year.

Foot Locker’s first “Store of the Future” in New Jersey is now one of the company’s top locations in North America. Foot Locker has seen “more customer traffic, higher sales and larger shopping baskets” there compared to the rest of the chain, CEO Mary Dillon said in May.

Foot Locker’s redesigned New York store includes a basketball concept called “Home Court,” an area of ​​the store developed with Nike and Jordan but still featuring other brands. There are also checkout areas throughout the store (instead of a traditional checkout zone), a circular fitting area called “Kick It Club,” and a station where customers can purchase pins, laces, and other customizable accessories for their shoes. Women’s items, a larger focus of Foot Locker, take up about a quarter of the store.

Bryon Milburn, senior vice president and chief merchandising officer at Foot Locker, told Modern Retail that the company is designing its “Store of the Future” locations to “appeal to a broad range of shoppers” and solidify Foot Locker’s position in sneakers and basketball. “We plan to continue to expand this concept globally, adapting it to different markets while maintaining the core elements that make it successful,” he said.

Foot Locker’s broader “Store of the Future” concept will next be rolled out in Melbourne and Delhi. Foot Locker also opened a “Store of the Future” in Paris this year. All of these moves are part of the company’s “Lace Up” plan, which it unveiled in March 2023 and which includes opening new store formats, moving off-mall and closing more than 400 underperforming locations. Foot Locker has already remodeled 13 stores in the first quarter of the year, in addition to 100 in the second half of 2023.

To this point, more brands are generally investing in remodeling their stores to attract more customers—and keep them there longer. Banana Republic, for example, remodeled its Los Angeles store last week, adding a styling area and in-house tailoring service, while mattress brand Casper updated its Cosa Mesa, California, store in February, adding a “snooze bar” and pillow lab.

These measures are important, said Gartner’s Jashinsky, because retailers tend to achieve a much higher average basket size in-store than online. “I think a big part of it is really well thought out store design and wayfinding through the store,” he said. “Maybe you went in there to buy shoes, but then you also buy a shirt or, in Dick’s case, a new baseball bat. There’s definitely an art and a science to this store design.”