In a time of seemingly unrelenting mass shootings, American corporations, especially retailers, have struggled to respond. In September, 145 CEOs signed a letter to the U.S. Senate demanding tougher background checks and better red-flag laws to deny guns to potentially dangerous individuals. Ed Stack of Dick's Sporting Goods was one of those CEOs. But Stack was already far ahead of his peers. After 17 students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, Stack led the company to decide to permanently remove assault rifles from its 850 stores, which include Dick's, Field & Stream, and Golf Galaxy. It has also stopped selling guns of any sort to anyone under 21 years of age. These policies would cost Dick's some $250 million in sales as some outraged customers boycotted the store. But Stack, a gun owner, never looked back. Sales have since rebounded, and the company is on the way to revenue of about $9 billion this year. In his book, It's How We Play the Game, Stack takes readers through the days following Parkland, and subsequent decisions to back away from parts of the gun business as Dick's business evolved.
It's How We Play the Game is also a tale about the mom-and-pop tackle shop started by Dick Stack in Binghamton, New York, which his son Ed transformed into a dominant, publicly traded retailer. The hard-drinking, no-nonsense pop was scarred by early failure and was notoriously tough on his son. Ed was raised in the store, and by the time he became an adult, he wanted nothing to do with sporting goods or his overbearing old man. Fate would intervene.
So tell me Dick's creation story.