citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message academy sports outdoors type private industry retail founded houston texas u.s. 1938 headquarters unincorporated harris county near katy texas u.s. key people max & arthur gochman founder 1 2 j.k. symancyk ceo & president products discount stores revenue us 2.70 billion 2011 net income us 65.0 million 2005 owner kohlberg kravis roberts number of employees 17 000 2011 website www.academy.com academy sports outdoors is a sports goods discount store chain . academy carries an extensive line of name brand equipment and clothing and shoes for competitive sports physical fitness training and outdoor recreational activities such as camping hunting fishing and boating . academy s company headquarters are located in katy texas a suburb of houston where it also owns a large warehouse used for effective inventory control and distribution . for 74 years it was a privately held company owned by the gochman family until its may 2011 acquisition by the long time wall street investment firm kohlberg kravis roberts . 3 academy operates 200 stores throughout alabama arkansas florida georgia indiana kansas kentucky louisiana mississippi missouri north carolina oklahoma south carolina tennessee and texas . academy sports and outdoors has its corporate offices and product distribution center in unincorporated western harris county texas united states near katy . 4 contents 1 history 2 business 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit academy sports & outdoors came into existence in 1938 when arthur gochman and his business partner purchased southern sales a san antonio based army navy surplus chain comprising six stores that were by that year no longer making any profit . at the time gochman was a practicing attorney in san antonio . he had not been formally educated as a businessman but he had learned much about the surplus retail business from his father max gochman who had owned a surplus goods outlet in san antonio and in 1935 still owned and operated a small chain of stores in austin . 1970s gochman bought out his partner in 1973 and changed the company s business name from southern sales to academy corp. the academy name was borrowed from his father s stores . it came from a now defunct san antonio catholic school named st. henry s academy . max gochman had opened his first store across the street from the school in the 1930s selling pre world war ii surplus goods . later when he moved to austin he used the name for his four army navy surplus stores . because many university of texas students and graduates lived in the houston area and were familiar with the austin stores max gochman permitted his son to use the name knowing that it would help his son s business . for the first few years of academy s operation arthur gochman s involvement was in large part passive . he continued to practice law in san antonio until 1978 when he gave up his practice and moved to houston to assume active control of the company and complete the overhaul of its basic merchandising policies . 1980s gochman made streamlining the chain s image his first priority . he closed two of the original stores and completely discontinued the sale of military surplus goods responding to market changes reflecting new tastes and lifestyles . academy already had begun refurbishing its image in the late 1970s when prompted by the increasing popularity of athletic shoes and leisure wear it had begun selling sporting goods and clothing . in the 1980s the company s management completed the academy changeover into a chain of outlets offering a wide and competitively priced range of brand name top quality sporting goods and clothing creating the company image that it has since retained . under gochman s tutelage the company began its continuing growth cycle . at first it widened its in state operating area in part as the result of family loss . max gochman died in 1985 and arthur gochman took over his father s four austin stores refurbishing them in academy s new image as sporting goods megastores . the austin market was both reliable and profitable and it helped academy s gradual transition from giant killer to a retail giant in its own right . it also brought the number of stores in the chain from eight in 1980 to 12 in 1985 . in the 1980s through surveys of his customers gochman realized that the great majority of them were men . to encourage women to shop in academy outlets he introduced lines of women s casual clothing and aerobic wear . within a few years women accounted for 50 percent of the chain s shoppers . starting in 1986 academy also adopted an edlp everyday low price sales philosophy rejecting the widely used deep discounting of select items to attract customers . that policy assures academy shoppers that they will pay low prices across the entire line of merchandise and not be penalized by the higher markups many stores put on nonsale items to offset the deep discount prices on their specials . academy retained much of a regional identity offering the company s home base texas customers several lines not carried by other sporting goods outlets . an important example is western footwear . by 1990 the company was selling more cowboy boots than any other chain in the united states . in that year alone its sale of women s western style boots increased by a full 70 percent over the previous year . by the end of the 1980s academy had become a popular texas chain . among other things its outlets sold more state fishing licenses than its chief competitor oshman s sporting goods or any other group of stores in the state . but its success in texas also raised new possibilities . in the mid 1980s the company began an impressive sales record with yearly increases in revenue matched with stable margins and excellent cash flow . the health and stability of the company encouraged its expansion both in texas and starting in the 1990s beyond . 1990s and beyond by 1990 academy had grown to 18 stores . it also began a period of more rapid expansion jumping to 34 stores by 1995 the year after it first moved into two adjoining states . it opened its first store outside texas in edmond oklahoma in june 1994 then added a store in lafayette louisiana the following november thus ending the company s exclusive texas identity . academy s roots remain in texas though and the epicenter of the company s business always has been the greater houston area . almost half of its stores are located there as are the company headquarters and its distribution facility . as it has expanded beyond its home base academy has sought hot market locales places that from market analysis offered the promise of high volume sales . the result has been that it has never had to close one of its new stores all of which have been profitable since their first day of operation . in 1995 david gochman the founder s son joined academy on a full time basis . by that time his father then 65 had built academy into a 350 million retail chain and was ready to turn control of the business over to his 30 year old son . david gochman initially served as vice president of store operations and general counsel but in the following year he succeeded his father as academy s chairman president and ceo . 5 in 1999 it had 35 stores in texas three in oklahoma two in alabama three in louisiana and one in florida . the majority of these were superstores ranging from 35 000 to 100 000 square feet in size . in 2011 academy sports outdoors was acquired by the investment firm kohlberg kravis roberts & co. the corporate headquarters located in katy will be doing an expansion of its facilities with a completion date of 2015 . 6 not in citation given business edit academy stores have six departments team sports including the golf shop and fitness camping including patio furniture and cooking supplies hunting and fishing including firearm sales boating and truck and trailer accessories apparel footwear front end cash registers including hunting and fishing license sales at select registers academy sports and outdoors e commerce site launched summer of 2011 . 7 the web site is a product of ibm ecommerce portal that includes wcs and sterling . see also edit companies portal houston portal cabela s bass pro shops dick s sporting goods gander mountain rei scheels all sports sportsman s warehouse references edit turner allan . arthur gochman of academy sports dies at 79 . houston chronicle . retrieved 17 april 2014 . academy sports & outdoors history . funding universe . retrieved 17 april 2014 . kkr buys academy sports contact academy sports & outdoors . academy sports and outdoors . accessed september 5 2008 . http www.fundinguniverse.com company histories academy sports outdoors history company history . academy . retrieved 8 january 2013 . http www.prnewswire.com news releases academy sports outdoors becomes a multi channel retailer with the launch of its ecommerce website 123337843.html external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to academy sports outdoors . official website eaton collin . kkr to buy big stake in texas based sporting goods chain academy . the dallas morning news . may 31 2011 . forbes.com article 2007 v t e kohlberg kravis roberts founders jerome kohlberg jr. henry kravis george r. roberts selected current investments academy sports outdoors alliance boots aricent group avago biomet bharti enterprises capsugel cicc caf coffee day colonial pipeline del monte foods dollar general eastman kodak el paso corp. energy future holdings first data harman international industries hospital corporation of america kion group laureate education legg mason legrand magma fincorp maxeda nielsen holdings northgate information solutions nxp semiconductors oriental brewery pets at home prosiebensat .1 media sealy corporation seven west media sungard tdc a s toys r us us foods visma wild yageo zhone technologies category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title academy sports % 2b outdoors & oldid 725611735 categories sporting goods retailers of the united statescompanies based in harris county texasprivately held companies based in texaseconomy of the southeastern united statesonline retailers of the united statescompanies established in 1938surplus storeskohlberg kravis roberts companies1938 establishments in texashidden categories articles needing additional references from december 2008all articles needing additional referencesall articles with failed verificationarticles with failed verification from october 2013commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main 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