Dick's launches online community feature for outdoor enthusiasts on web store

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. and PITTSBURGH, Oct. 16 — Taking a cue from legendary baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean who once said, “It ain’t braggin’ if you actually done it,” Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS), working in conjunction with the Marketing and Design Services Group of GSI Commerce Inc. (Nasdaq: GSIC), is now offering outdoor enthusiasts the chance to show off the results of their hunting and fishing adventures with the launch of community bragging boards on Dick’s Sporting Goods’ newly redesigned online store.

“The new hunting and fishing bragging boards provide extra value to our outdoor customers and to visitors to our online store,” said Jeffrey R. Hennion, senior vice president & chief marketing officer for Dick’s Sporting Goods, the nation’s largest sporting goods retailer. “Much like we did for golfers by providing them with an innovative handicap tracker and professional golfing tips, the bragging boards connect outdoor enthusiasts to our brand. It also helps Dick’s Sporting Goods maintain a connection to our key consumer groups even when such a connection doesn’t necessarily result in an immediate product purchase.”

The new bragging boards appear in the Lodge, a “store-within-the-online-store” shopping and informational hub. The Lodge parallels Dick’s Sporting Goods in-store experience and caters to specialized interests of hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities. Submitting photographs and descriptions of memorable catches and hunts to the bragging boards is easy. Visitors to the online store simply click on the “start bragging now” button located at the top of each bragging board. The visitor is asked to enter descriptive information regarding the outdoor experience and to attach a jpg or gif image to validate the hunting or fishing claim.

Other hubs at Dick’s Sporting Goods’ online store include the Golf Shop, and the Perfect Season, which is devoted to the team sports of football, basketball, baseball and soccer. The online hubs provide interactive shopping experiences for customers and provide online communities where people of similar interests frequent even when they are not making a purchase. Each hub is stylized with photography and designed with a look and feel specific to that area of focus.

“The addition of the bragging boards within the Lodge is the latest feature we’ve developed and launched in conjunction with Dick’s Sporting Goods to enhance the destination value of their online store for their key customer groups,” said Jeff McCall, vice president of partner services for GSI Commerce’s Marketing and Design Services Group, which provided the design and e-commerce expertise for the online store’s redesign project.

The bragging boards are the most recent features added to the radically redesigned and highly enhanced online store, which was unveiled in July. The addition of the bragging boards are part of an ongoing effort by Dick’s Sporting Goods and the Marketing and Design Services Group of GSI Commerce to enhance the Web experience by combining value-added content with the power of a community of people who share similar interests and pursuits. The redesigned online store intends to drive the authentic look and feel of the Dick’s Sporting Goods brand across channels, address the needs of the retailer’s key customer groups and deliver a rich online shopping experience.

About GSI Commerce

GSI Commerce is a leading provider of e-commerce solutions that enable retailers, branded manufacturers, entertainment companies and professional sports organizations to operate e-commerce businesses. We provide solutions for our partners through our integrated e-commerce platform, which is comprised of three components: technology, logistics and customer care and marketing services. We provide e-commerce solutions for approximately 60 partners.

About Dick’s Sporting Goods

Pittsburgh-based Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. is an authentic full-line sporting goods retailer offering a broad assortment of brand name sporting goods equipment, apparel, and footwear in a specialty store environment. As of April 29, 2006, the company operated 263 stores in 34 states primarily throughout the eastern half of the U.S.