Dick's Sporting Goods is expanding its influencer initiative.

According to Footwear News, Dick's newly reinvented Dick's Varsity Team is now welcoming both Dick's employees and members of the public with a passion for sports and social media to apply.

If chosen, the Dick's Varsity Team members will work closely with the retailer and its top brands to create original social media content and share it across their platforms.

It should also be noted that since launching as an internal program in 2023, Dick's varsity team members have created over 1,000 pieces of social media content, garnering over 38 million impressions, and have been featured in 10 campaigns for both Dick's and its national brands.

Lisa, we're going to go to you here.

How do you feel about this?

I think you alluded to it with, with LeBron sending customized messages here to people via email and social.

But what do you think of Dick's Varsity Team Influencer program and is it something that more retailers should emulate?

Well, first I have to say if I should be true to my passion, it would be Stephen Curry sending a message to the consumers.

True.

Yeah.

Putting that out.

Yes.

Making sure I make my stand for the Bay.

But anyhow, I think that the.

I actually like it a lot.

I mean, I think Dick's has done some great things lately to really engage the consumer and really put their stamp and really their ability to grow in the retail space.

I think consumers love to see.

See themselves in others and sometimes when it is the professional athlete, it may not be as convincible, but if you see yourself, you know, you can, you can be convinced like, oh, I could look like them.

I may not look like, you know, Serena Williams on the tennis court, but I may look like somebody else who's playing pickleball that I can relate to.

Right.

So I actually think that others should emulate it.

I think they're doing a great job in the, in the influencer space and really the social media space and how they're getting after it.

So, you know, my quick answer is yes, love it.

Yes, I think more could do it.

And I think the combination of real athletes and real people and spreading it across also their employee base, those are your best consumers.

And lastly, what I would say as a past chief Product Officer, this is a great start space to get consumer insights and product insights that may help drive needs, desires or creations of product that they can fuel in their private labels or with their brand partners.

Lisa, is there anybody that you would suggest that doesn't do it?

Like, are there Specific retailers or brands that you're like, this makes sense for a Dick sporting goods because of the like, you know, the involvement, the community sense that Dicks has versus like a beauty retailer or somebody else.

Off the top of my head, and using the examples, like when we talked about gross rear beauty and said it doesn't work there in our last example, I actually think it could work from an influence perspective across any category because you want to see it put into real life.

Like if you were go to go to the food space.

I mean, who doesn't love, you know, on social media the recipes that pop up, right.

And they might be sponsored by a grocer or something where go pick up the following items here and in.

In 30 minutes, have a great meal, you know, whatever.

I think it could work across many, many categories.

That's great.

Chris is enthusiastically two thumbsing up here over on the side.

So Chris, before you explode, let me go to you here and get your point of view on this.

Yeah, I'm jumping at this one.

I'm with Lisa again, man.

Lisa, I'm on, I'm on your wavelength today.

Like, the point I would say, which is why I think it's applicable to almost every retailer too, is I think the point about the employees being a part of the program is really interesting to me.

And I like that angle for two reasons.

One, it's inspiring to the team members that want to take part in it, so that's a good win from an HQ perspective.

And two, it gives them financial incentive because they can get the affiliate revenue from whatever they're helping to sell.

And so.

And actually, believe it or not, back in 2013, when I was leading home furnishings for Target, I actually wanted to do this, but it was really hard to get off the ground because if you think about it like merchants, there's a lot of things they know that the audience probably wants to hear from them, like, say, in the grocery space, like, why did I choose these products for the shelf?

What is it unique?

What's unique about them that made me put them in my assortment?

So.

So personalize the merchant.

And that's essentially what Dick's is doing here that I think any retailer can try to do as well.

Like, why did I pick that towel?

Why did I pick this bedding pattern, you know, whatever it is.

And it can be, you know, promoted on TikTok, Twitter.

Everyone can have their own handles.

The problem though is that retailers are scared to try things like this.

So, David, when you kind of made fun of us before about just get over it and jump into it.

This is something that's easy to jump into, but the retailers have to do it.

And as I'm sitting here, I'm like, I can't believe that it's taking 10 years just to get to this point when this idea has been percolating for a long time.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think, Chris, the other part of this that, you know, Lisa touched on too earlier is like, this is how product discovery is happening too.

Like people are starting on their, in their social platforms, they're starting with search based queries on a new product that they're looking at like these, these, this content that's out there really helps, I think the consumer get a sense of like, I can go in and talk to this person.

If I want to continue the conversation at my local Dick Sporting Goods, I don't have to just see the content here, but that person might be working when I go to, you know, select my bike or pick out my shoes.

So I think that that's another thing here that, you know, Nordstrom's this for a long time, but is really unique to Dick's in this sense where they are really invested in the community.

They're doing events in the community.

And so I think that there's really this connection that can happen too that can help influence purchases and allow employees to get recognized for the work they're doing online and offline versus just what they're selling in the store when people come in.

Yep.

The other point I'd make too and is I think it gives, it gives, it gives, gives power back to the merchant as like the art of retail.

Right.

Like they can promote themselves as the artist of why the products are on the shelves.

Right.

Especially in this day of AI and like the story we led with Amazon, Amazon just using algorithms to put products in their store.

But this gives the avenue for the buyer to reassert their authority as the retail minds that drive the industry.

Which I think is really cool.

Yeah, absolutely.

David Brown, close us out with your thoughts.

I thought I was going to be aligned with everybody and this one is a no.

But you guys are.

I guess I'm on, just on a completely different wavelength today.

Oh my God.

Why?

Well, I mean like, hey, you said what, they had a thousand content creations in two years.

Like, you know, to me that's like almost like, like, who cares, right?

Yeah, yeah, that did seem pretty low.

Yeah, that's, it's shockingly low.

And I wonder if that is.

Maybe I'm just the wrong demographic.

But I wonder if maybe that's just.

Do you want to be associated with Dicks or do you want to be associated as an influencer with an actual brand?

Right.

And you know, whether it's Adidas or Night or anything, Nike or whoever like that.

I, I asked my 11 year old daughter who, you know, creates videos for, you know, for YouTube and, and her various other socials all based around her scheme, which is kind of her passion.

And yeah, she looked at me and she's like, why would I do that for Dex?

What about Shields?

And so, you know, kind of back to the last one.

But I, you know, does it make sense to do this?

Absolutely.

I'm, I'm supportive of that.

I just, I, I question the, the Dicks thing, but maybe I just don't know them well enough.

You know, if, if, if this was a headline for REI or, or something like that, I would have been, you know, all in.

I, I just don't see people getting excited to be an intermediary for.

Intermediary for Dicks.

I mean, I think that maybe David, just to kind of play a little devil's advocate to use is like, I think Dick's has had such an unbelievable growth trajectory over the last, I'd say five, six years.

It is a very kind of, I'll call it east coast, middle of the country centric retailer.

And I kind of get what you're saying, but if you think about it, they're like a house of brands.

Yes, they have private label, but really their brands are super front and center.

So, you know, I think based on their consumer base, they're going to introduce branded products to them.

So I just think that they've done a lot of really positive things and have great momentum over the last, like I said, five or six years.

But again, they're not, they're not West Coast.

Like when I lived on the west coast, they didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I grew up with them.

So I hear what your point is.

Yeah.

The other thing I'd say too, and then we can move on, is, you know, I think, I think everyone has an influencer program, right?

Like every retailer now has an influencer program.

That's not, that's also not what's special here.

The specialty to me, the special sauce, again, is going back to the employee activation because there's a lot of pride in employees that would gladly share things on behalf of Dick's or gladly share things on behalf of Patagonia or REI too.

So, yeah, that would be the last point.

I go ahead the.

The employee side and I think it's great.

Are you okay?

I think every retailer should do that.

I just.

Oh, really?

Okay.

Especially kind of the younger generation that's coming up kind of wants to own their own, you know, content and be associated directly with their brands.

And with you, Lisa, it's a house of brands.

But like, if my daughter's going to post a video or something like that, you know, based on Atomic skis, she's going to tag Atomic.

She's not going to tag start house where she bought the skis.

Right.

And that type of thing.

Because then, you know, she feels like she's losing control.

Right.

So.

Got it.

So that's a good clarification.

So you're saying that you do think every retailer should emulate the employee side of this?

No, I think absolutely.

Okay.

But you're skeptical of the long term differentiation of just, you know, the influencer program being what's.

What truly drives influencers to promote a brand versus a retailer, especially where there's.

An intermediary between the things like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

That makes sense.

That's a good clarification.