Academy Sports & Outdoors, The Sports Authority, Inc. and Dick Sporting Goods are amongst the leading Sports Equipment Stores in the USA

The 10 leading sports equipment stores in the USA are discussed here.

Academy Sports & Outdoors

This specialty company is known to be among America’s largest and most popular sporting goods sellers. With more than a hundred chains operated all over the southeastern region of the country, Academy Sports + Outdoors shops furnish the sports aficionados with a heavy collection of gears, clothing, as well as accessories at comparatively inexpensive rates.

The Sports Authority, Inc.

This popular chain offers everything from class sports footwear, apparels and sports accessories, at competitive rates. The company also provides an all-encompassing gamut of sports paraphernalia from aquatic sports equipment, hiking and camping gears, football supplies, cycling stuff to ball games kit. In 1987, Sports Authority, Inc. opened its first shop in Florida. Now, the company runs more than 400 stores scattered in the country.

Dick’s Sporting Goods

Is one of the most advanced sporting goods chain in the United States that presents a sizeable choice of quality sports equipment, sports clothing, and sports accessories. The company sprang from the simple aspiration of a young man Dick Stack to sell fishing gears in the late 1940s. Today, Dick Sporting Goods has more than three hundred shops spread throughout thirty states across the United States.

Sport Chalet

Sport Chalet started out fifty years ago as a shop selling only scuba and ski equipment. At present, it has rocketed to be one of USA’s top sports vendor that provides high-end sporting merchandise such as fitness, bowling, fishing, basketball, airsoft, golf, snowboarding equipments, and a lot more. Sport Chalet also provides copious services such as sports expert advice, repairs and rentals. Stores are located throughout Arizona, Nevada, and Southern California.

Modell’s Sporting Goods

The company is one of the leading provider of an extensive line of sporting equipments such as paintball, soccer, skateboarding, running equipments plus so many more. It also supplies athletic footwear, and costumes. Brand names for football jerseys like The Champion and Schutt DNA football helmets are sold in Modell’s stores. Modell’s Sporting Goods is the oldest family owned specialty business of sporting merchandise in the United States. The company runs almost a hundred shops all over Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia.

Hibbett Sporting Goods, Inc.

It is established in 1945 and is currently based in Birmingham, Alabama. The company equips sports fanatics with its wide multiplicity of reasonably priced apparel and equipment for sports such as basketball, boxing, football, and weight lifting. It also offers famous brand names of sporting goods like Dickies, Nautilus, NBA, Nike, Oakley, and Ecko. Near to 500 Hibbert Sporting Goods, Inc. stores are located in more than twenty American states.

Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI)

REI is one of the United Sates’ biggest buyer cooperatives that serves as a source of a broad line of camp and outdoor sports gears and clothing. REI has 77 retail stores and a comprehensive web site, as well. Dog gears, tents, car racks, backpacks, sleeping bags and watches are some of the products that REI sells in its different stores nationwide.

Football America

Maryland-based Football America has been providing the United States with the handpicked football equipment and supplies for almost three decades now. It offers a full selection of hard-wearing, high performance football costumes, helmets, cleats, shoulder pads, plus more.

ATS Sports

ATS Sports is USA’s and the globe’s biggest resource of tennis related tackles such as stringing machines, grips, court equipment racquet strings, umpire chairs, benches, as well as tennis accessories. The company is headquartered at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sports & Recreation, Inc.

Is the tenth biggest sporting goods franchise in the US and is based in Tampa, Florida. It is a supplier of well-liked trade name sports equipment as well as footwear. As Sports & Recreation, Inc expanded its stores and locations, it also came up with a number of different names for its stores. The stores were adorned with banners that were aimed to build up the hometown persona of the company. Local area names where a Sports & Recreation, Inc shop is situated were taken on as the name of the store, itself. Thus, the stores run under names like Tampa Sports and Jacksonville Sports Unlimited.

This view is shared by both end-users, and the developers of software. Companies who think nothing of financing a vehicle or a new computer system will stress over how they will pay for expensive new business software. And the producers of software see no need for offering a software leasing or a software financing option.

But times are changing.

Third party equipment finance companies – companies who offer small and medium size businesses equipment financing and working capital – have responded to a need for software financing and software leasing. Thus, they are starting to include software amongst the equipment they finance or lease. There is one big overriding reason for this shift:

The High Cost of Buying Software

The simple fact is this: Software can be very, very expensive. Oftentimes more expensive than the hardware that runs it.

Now, keep in mind that when we are talking about software in this way, we are generally talking about “vertical software”. Vertical software is software that is written for a specific, narrow industry (this can include industry-specific point-of-sale software, ERP systems, specialized databases, etc). It is not software that’s available on the shelf at your local office supply store (the software you see there, even the business programs and operating systems, are “horizontal software” – they can be used across a variety of industries, and are relatively affordable.)

A good, clear example of vertical software is an auto parts store – they use software that’s specifically written for the auto parts industry. Another example is your local jewelry retailer – they likely use a point-of-sale system specifically made for the jewelry industry.

To understand how software financing and software leasing can positively affect a business, it is important to understand the advantages of vertical software first.

For most businesses, Vertical Software usually means far more efficient business processes. In the case of an auto parts store, for example, the software will already anticipate the thousands of automobile makes and models. And will almost certainly be updated every year. The jewelry store’s software will differentiate the subtle differences between two diamonds by any number of categories. And so on.

In fact, these “vertical” software programs are so effective, and become so crucial to day-to-day operations, that businesses often need this type of software to remain competitive. In many cases, it’s not an option to do without.

However, since the software is so narrowly focused, it usually comes with a hefty price tag. The developer will sell relatively few copies as opposed to a word processing program (which will sell in the millions), so they must get a premium for their work. Vertical software can sometimes reach five figures for a single license.

This brings an obvious problem: “Businesses need the software, but it’s very costly to buy outright.”

And that’s where software leasing and software financing come in – business don’t have to “buy” it upfront.

The Advantage of Software Leasing and Software Financing

The advantage of financing or leasing software is clear:

Software leasing and software financing take the huge up-front cost of new software out of the equation. Like most other business equipment, software is now beginning to be seen as a tangible asset (this was not always the case.) This means software can largely be treated as any other equipment purchase in the case of financing or leasing. A business can finance that new ERP system instead of having to budget a huge cash outlay.

This can be very beneficial to the bottom line, as software generally pays for itself over time. In fact, since “vertical” software almost always reduces the cost of doing day-to-day business, leasing or financing said software can actually create a positive cash flow right away.

But Who Offers Software Financing or Software Leasing, and how does it Work?

It’s true that software developers have been very slow to embrace the business model of software financing or software leasing. They would prefer to be paid up front for their software.

Likewise, banks, being part of an “older” industry, are also largely reluctant to finance software.

However, third party equipment finance companies who specialize in small and medium sized business equipment financing often offer attractive software lease and software financing packages. What happens is the equipment finance company pays the developer in full, and then provides the software to the end user under a finance or lease agreement, often at very attractive rates. In all actuality, it’s fundamentally the same as financing or leasing most other equipment.

Of course, like any other financing, the agreements can (and will) vary from traditional fixed rate financing to a “software lease” with a buyout at the end, etc. And the rates and terms also vary – your individual equipment finance company will have more details.

All in all, software financing and software leasing have definitely entered the business consciousness, and because it is so friendly to the bottom line, it is a business model that is here to stay.