Academy Sports and Outdoors, Inc.

What brands does Academy Sports own?

Academy owns about 19 private-label brands, including BCG for athletic apparel and footwear, Magellan Outdoors, Freely, R.O.W, Game Winner for hunting, H2OX for fishing, and Mosaic. These house brands account for roughly 22 percent of merchandise sales.

Is Academy Sports publicly traded?

Yes. Academy Sports and Outdoors trades on Nasdaq under the ticker ASO. The company went public in October 2020 after being owned by KKR since 2011.

Who founded Academy Sports?

Max Gochman founded the business in 1938 as a San Antonio tire shop that became a military surplus store. His son Arthur Gochman expanded it into sporting goods and led the company for decades before its sale to KKR in 2011.

Where is Academy Sports headquartered?

Academy Sports and Outdoors is headquartered in Katy, Texas, a suburb of Houston. It operates three distribution centers in Katy, Jeffersonville, Georgia, and Cookeville, Tennessee.

How many Academy stores are there?

As of fiscal 2025, Academy operates 322 stores across 21 states, primarily in the Southern and Midwestern United States, with continued expansion planned.

What does BCG stand for at Academy?

BCG stands for Body Comfort Gear. It is Academy's opening price point private label for athletic apparel and footwear, sold exclusively at Academy stores and online.

Academy began as a San Antonio tire shop founded by Max Gochman in 1938. A year later the company expanded into selling military surplus goods, and when Max's son Arthur Gochman returned from service he joined and eventually bought out his partner's stake, converting the business into Academy Military Surplus.

Under Arthur Gochman, the company added sporting goods and recreation categories through the postwar decades, evolving from surplus retail into a broad-line sporting goods chain. The Gochman family controlled the business until 2011, when private equity firm KKR acquired Academy in a leveraged buyout.

KKR's ownership period modernized the company: new leadership, systems investment, and disciplined expansion across the Southern states. By the time of its 2020 IPO, Academy had grown into a national-scale chain with a fortified private-label program.

The October 2020 offering on Nasdaq raised capital and began KKR's exit, completed through subsequent secondary sales. Post-IPO, Academy accelerated store openings, launched new private labels including the women's Freely line in 2021, and expanded distribution capacity with a third distribution center in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Through fiscal 2025 the company continued opening stores in contiguous states, pushing past 320 locations with a stated trajectory toward 350 and beyond. Leadership transitioned in 2023, when Steven Lawrence became CEO. The company has focused on private-label penetration, omnichannel growth, and value positioning as consumer spending softened in the mid-2020s.

Academy publishes corporate responsibility commitments covering responsible sourcing for private-label production, with targets including 35 percent recycled material in private-label apparel. The company supports community investment through youth sports programs and disaster relief in its operating states.