Laid off from Dick's Sporting Goods.

What Dick's Sporting Goods layoffs have meant for employees

If you work at Dick's headquarters in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, where its August 2023 8-K places the company's executive offices, the August 2023 cut was aimed mainly at your building. Dick's calls the headquarters its customer support center, a name its fiscal 2025 10-K spells out, so the positions the 8-K said were eliminated mainly at the customer support center were headquarters jobs. Across fiscal 2023's whole business optimization, the 10-K counts $26.7 million in severance-related costs. No union contract sets severance there, since Dick's says its own employees aren't covered by a collective bargaining agreement. If you're offered a separation agreement there, it's worth getting in writing how the amount was worked out and whether it comes in one payment or over time, and the state's rules for a claim are at Pennsylvania unemployment benefits. And if you were in Dick's own 401(k), the 10-K describes the company match as vesting immediately; the choices for the account itself are set out in a 401(k) after a layoff.

In September 2023 a Dick's spokesperson told Retail Dive that one team at Public Lands' headquarters in Pittsburgh would support both Public Lands and Moosejaw, a move the spokesperson tied to the company's business optimization. That was the same 2023 program that cut the headquarters jobs, so in a single year it reached both the company's own offices and the chain it had just bought. Foot Locker, which Dick's bought on September 8, 2025, has its headquarters in New York City, and the 10-Q's Foot Locker note says certain other Foot Locker positions were required to relocate there when the March 2026 eliminations came. That came after Ed Stack, Dick's executive chairman, told Foot Locker's employees on the day the deal was announced in May 2025 that he hoped it would bring "only good things" and expected Foot Locker to keep running as a separate business, in a video whose transcript Dick's filed as a Form 425. Nothing in the merger agreement signed that day gives any Foot Locker employee a right to continued employment. If your Foot Locker job is one of those being moved to New York, whether declining the move still counts as an exit that qualifies for severance is worth getting answered in writing, and the state's claim rules sit at New York unemployment benefits.

In fiscal 2026 through August 1, nearly all the store closings came on the Foot Locker side. Dick's own chain opened seven stores and closed three in that stretch, its second-quarter 10-Q shows, while WSS shut nearly a third of the stores it started the year with, and Foot Locker's North American stores, Kids Foot Locker and Champs Sports all ended the period with fewer locations. If your Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports or WSS store is closing, it pays to learn early whether another store has a place for you and, if severance is offered, whether your answer changes it. Most filings in our WARN tracker for Dick's and Foot Locker units come from California and Wisconsin, whose claim rules are at California unemployment benefits and Wisconsin unemployment benefits.

Timing matters for Foot Locker staff. The severance commitment in that same agreement covered the first twelve months after the September 8, 2025 closing, a window that by our arithmetic ran to September 8, 2026, so it took in the March 2026 cuts and doesn't reach a Foot Locker job that ends after that date. Dick's own staff had no such commitment, since it covered Foot Locker employees who stayed on after the deal. If yours ends later, whether a severance plan covers you, and on what terms, is the question worth settling in writing.

A sourced history of Dick's Sporting Goods layoffs

• March 2026, Foot Locker positions eliminated and relocated

  Dick's eliminated certain positions in the Foot Locker Business on March 23 and began requiring other positions to relocate to Foot Locker's New York City headquarters, its 10-Q's Foot Locker note says.

• Fiscal 2026, Foot Locker Business store closings

  Through August 1, 2026, the Foot Locker Business closed 110 stores, Dick's second-quarter 10-Q shows, among them 44 of WSS's 143. The closings included 67 Foot Locker stores flagged in a review of unproductive assets.

• September 2023, Moosejaw stores and headquarters set to close

  After buying Moosejaw, Dick's confirmed to Retail Dive it would close 11 of the chain's 14 stores and its Michigan headquarters by February. Separate Madison Heights closing notices, from Dick's for 146 layoffs in December 2023 and Moosejaw for 55 in March 2024, appear on Michigan's WARN list.

• August 2023, business optimization cuts at the customer support center

  Dick's eliminated positions mainly at its customer support center on August 21 and expected about $20 million in severance expense, its August 2023 8-K says. Bloomberg's unnamed sources, in a report Retail Dive relayed, put the cut at 250 corporate employees.

• April 2020, furloughs at stores and headquarters

  With stores shut, Dick's said it would furlough a significant number of workers at stores, distribution centers and headquarters from April 12, keeping benefits for those enrolled, its April 2020 8-K says. Twenty-two California filings in our WARN tracker took effect that day.

What to do if you're laid off from Dick's Sporting Goods

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Dick's Sporting Goods's biggest hubs: California, Wisconsin, Texas. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Dick's Sporting Goods's hub states run: California, Wisconsin, Texas, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.