A slew of retailers from big-box names to specialty chains have sounded the revenue alarm on President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but Dick’s Sporting Goods appears to be singing a different tune.
In an interview with CNBC, CEO Edward Stack expressed optimism in consumer spending ahead of the holiday season — a sentiment seemingly unlike those of several other retailers, who have bemoaned the need to raise prices for shoppers to offset supply chain costs.
“The consumer is in pretty good shape,” Stack said today. “Things that we’ve seen from the people that we do business with — Nike, Adidas, Calloway — and [their] product cycle going forward, we’re pretty enthusiastic.”
The Coraopolis, Penn.-based company has been riding high since its second-quarter financial report in late August, when it posted earnings per share of $1.26 — compared with the previous year’s $1.20 a share and better than forecasts of $1.21.
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The positive numbers led Dick’s to lift its full-year outlook, now expecting earnings per share in the range of $3.30 to $3.45, up from the previous view of $3.20 to $3.40.
The release came just 10 days before Trump’s additional 15% in duties on the first round of the fourth tranche — or $112 billion worth of Chinese imports — took effect on Sept. 1. As retailers approach the second round on a remaining $160 billion worth of products, which hits American firms in mid-December, Stack said that he hasn’t seen any “meaningful” impact of the protracted U.S.-China trade war on the sporting goods retailer’s business.
“When we took our guidance up, we indicated that anything that we thought would be impacted by tariffs was included in that guidance,” he said during the CNBC segment.
Over the past year and a half, the Trump administration has initiated four “tranches,” or “portions,” of tariffs on Chinese goods. The U.S. leader postponed levies on $250 billion worth of Chinese products — representing the combined first three tranches — as a “measure of goodwill” to China. The 5% duty increase, originally scheduled to take effect on Oct. 1, will now be imposed next week on Oct. 15.
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