Dicks Sporting Goods is launching its own in-house entertainment studio to get closer to sports fans with original unscripted series to fuel their own athletic passions.

Cookie Jar A Dream Studios, a new content and production studio to lean into unscripted sports themed series, follows the retailer using Hollywood production partners and filmmakers to tell stories through the lens of sport, starting in 2014.

Dicksbelieves thatsports have the power to change lives. And weve seen through our workhow truethat is for so many who have excelled, triumphed against the odds, and been defeated in sport.There are so many incredibleand inspiringhumanstoriesthat deserve to be told, and wecould not be more excited to showcase how individuals, teams and communities are shaping sport, bringing people together and unifying and building communities for thousands. said Mark Rooks, VP of Creative, Entertainment Sponsorships at Dicks Sporting Goods. Interest in sports-themed programming around athletes at the top of their game has grown with Netflix series like Formula One: Drive to Survive and ESPNs 30 for 30 documentary series. Retailers that traditionally advertised their wares on live games now look to original scripted and unscripted series in the hope consumers may embrace new brands or productsthrough TVcontent they view in the streaming era.

Over the last decade, Dicks Sporting Goods has produced five feature-length movies and ten short or episodic documentaries. The first feature doc was We Could Be King, which earned an Emmy Award for outstanding sports documentary.

A secondSportsEmmycame with The Turnaround, a documentary about Philadelphia Phillies superfan Jon McCann, who inspired a 2023 standing ovation for Phillies shortstop Trea Turner that turned the teams season round.

Upcoming projects from Cookie Jar A Dream Studiosinclude Big Dreams: The Little League World Series 2024, an ESPN documentary to bow Aug. 12 and centered on the iconic American youth sporting event. The film is produced in partnership with Imagine Entertainment and MLB Studios.

Big Dreamsis a great example of the kind ofprojectsCookie Jar A Dream Studiosaimsto produce. Being able to sharebig sports momentswithfans is something thatdrivesour team, and we look atthe upcoming years withgreatexcitementasweknow there will beso manyunforgettablestoriesdeserving ofthespotlight, Rebecca Covington,senior director,creative productionat Dicks Sporting Goods said in a statement.

The nameof the studio, Cookie Jar A Dream,is inspired by the company founder Dick Stack in 1948 and aged 18-year-old borrowed $300 in savings from his grandmothers cookie jar to open a bait-and-tackle shop in Binghamton, New York.