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BPS Direct, LLC
Bass Pro Shops is a giant outdoor retailer that sells fishing gear, hunting equipment, camping supplies, and boats, and it now owns the Cabela's chain too.
Bass Pro Shops is the big-box store for people who love the outdoors — the place you go to buy a fishing rod, a duck call, a tent, or a boat, and where the store itself feels like a tourist attraction with fish tanks and mounted animals and a giant fake mountain. If you hunt, fish, or camp in America, it's hard to avoid: about 200 stores across the U.S. and Canada, plus the catalog and website, serve millions of customers a year.
The founder is Johnny Morris, who started selling fishing tackle out of his father's liquor store in Springfield, Missouri, back in 1972 because the local tackle shops kept closing and he figured fishermen needed somewhere to shop. That turned into a retail empire built on making the store an experience, not just a shelf. The biggest turning point was 2017, when Bass Pro bought rival Cabela's for roughly $4 billion, folding the two best-known names in outdoor retail into one private company. Both chains sell similar gear to similar people, so the deal mostly bought scale: one back office, more buying power, and fewer competitors. It's still privately held, so there's no stock to trade and no quarterly earnings calls — the family and its backers keep the numbers to themselves. The money comes from selling hard goods: rods, reels, guns, ammo, bows, camping gear, clothing, and increasingly boats, since Bass Pro owns boat brands like Tracker, Nitro, and Ranger and sells them through its stores. The boat business matters because boats are expensive and high-margin, and a guy who buys a boat also buys a lot of accessories. Customers pick Bass Pro over a plain sporting goods store or Amazon because of selection, expertise, and the whole show — you can see the boat, sit in it, and talk to someone who actually fishes. Cabela's has its own loyal following and credit card program. The weak spot is that hunting and fishing are seasonal and tied to discretionary spending; when money gets tight, boats and gear get put off. Also, the outdoor retail space has gotten crowded with online sellers and cheaper rivals.
The company plows its cash back into the stores and the experience — remodeling, new locations, and the boat business — rather than dividends or buybacks, which makes sense for a private firm. Cabela's integration took years and cost real money, but it gave Bass Pro a national footprint and a second brand that reaches slightly different customers. The interesting question is whether the big-destination-store model keeps working as more shopping moves online. Bass Pro's answer has been to make the store a place to spend a Saturday, not just a place to buy a lure — and so far, that's kept people walking through the door.
Saved answer · last researched 10 Nov 2026