There’s a new competitor for team dealers in town — and they are tied in with an old, very big competitor. In a partnership that should make a lot of team dealers — and vendors – sit up and take notice, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Sideline Swap, an organization described as “the world's largest online marketplace for new and used sporting goods,” have expanded a relatively minor partnership to offer a series of 50 trade-in events in seven states through the end of 2022. Dick’s and SidelineSwap had previously held only 10 trade-in events at four Dick’s locations — this takes that concept to a whole different klevel.

At these trade-in events, athletes can exchange their used sports gear and receive Dick’s gift cards to use towards their next purchase. Athletes also have the option to donate all or a portion of their trade-in value to select local sports organizations. Items that do not qualify for trade-in can be donated or recycled responsibly.

Dick’s athletes who attended the pilot trade-in events earlier this year received $78 in gift cards, on average, for their used gear and 100 percent of them surveyed said they would be interested in reselling their used sports gear at least once per year. 

Specific Dick’s locations – in Pennsylvania, California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio – and dates for upcoming events can be found on https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/s/sports-trade-in. The partnership will expand to additional markets in 2023.

According to Brendan Candon, CEO of SidelineSwap, "In a recent survey conducted by BBMG¹, 62 percent of consumers surveyed said that brands could do more to help them participate in re-commerce, so it's great to see Dick’s giving more of their athletes a quick and easy way to participate in the circular economy."

"We love that gear finds a second life on SidelineSwap's resale marketplace and that more equipment stays on playing fields and out of landfills," adds Peter Land, chief sustainability and communications officer at Dick’s Sporting Goods. "Expanding our partnership with SidelineSwap to include more locations makes so much sense."

To date, SidelineSwap has helped more than one million athletes trade in and resell their used gear and is part of the larger global resale movement. U.S. households are sitting on 23.6 billion unused items worth $580 billion, and used sports gear accounts for approximately $20 billion of these unused items.