Academy Sports + Outdoors will debut its new store in The Woodlands Friday, complete with a digital golf hitting bay and an archery lane.
The new Academy spans more than 87,000 square feet at the Pinecroft Center off Lake Woodlands Drive. The store will employ about 150 people, according to John Hay, vice president of real estate and construction for Academy. A typical new Academy is about 70,000 square feet.
“We are implementing our most current store prototype in a slightly larger store than average,” Hays said. “In terms of renovations, we had to remove the wall between the former Service Merchandise and Linens & Things as well as relocate and construct a new front entrance. We completely renovated the interior with our store prototype.”
Nick Wolda, president of The Woodlands Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the new store continues to indicate the shopping demand in The Woodlands.
“We’re pleased Academy is opening one of their ... stores in The Woodlands,” Wolda said. “This is a huge boost to the Pinecroft Center. With this opening, I believe you will see much more interest in other space in this area. Jason’s Deli, for instance, recently completed a fantastic remodel of its location in the same area.”
While Academy has a location on Interstate 45 near Rayford Road, this will be the first Academy in The Woodlands. Hays said the store is a little different than the company’s traditional locations.
“This location will feature our new archery lane along with an updated digital golf bay – features that some of our other Houston-area locations don’t currently offer,” he said. “Of course, the store will also offer all the services Academy Sports + Outdoors customers have come to expect from us over the years, including racquetball and tennis racquet stringing, sale of hunting and fishing licenses, bore sighting and scope mounting, line winding/spooling and propane exchange.”
The archery lane, Hays said, will give customers both complimentary and custom services, including measuring a customer’s draw length and weight, speed for projection on cross or compound bows and the opportunity to test other bows and arrows. The digital golf bay will analyze a golfer swing, ball speed, club head speed, side and back spin.
“Customers can also take multiple swings and record their average stats,” Hays said. “There is also an optimizer function that shows customers how to enhance their drive by changing their swing based on those stats.”
Hays said the larger store concept is not specifically designed to compete with other sports and outdoor chains. He said Academy targets the active family.
“We are much more than a sporting goods store offering a wide selection of sports and leisure products, footwear, apparel and much more, including team sports, camping, hunting, fishing, boating, marine, patio, BBQ and other seasonal products,” he said.
Although the store will open to the public Friday, Academy will celebrate the opening of the new store in a three-day grand opening event May 13-15.
For more information about Academy, visit www.academy.com.
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