Bass Pro Shops competitors include Cabela's, IceBreaker, DICK'S Sporting Goods, Gander Mountain and Academy Sports & Outdoors.

On October 3, 2016, Bass Pro Shops announced an agreement to acquire Cabela's for $5.5 billion.

As brands compete, we tend to benefit with better products and pricing. Retail is a tough business, and it seems that competition was the driving force behind this merger.

In the same year, Bass Pro Shops struck a deal to acquire Cabela's for about $4.5 billion. In 2022, Bass Pro Shops announced a new Bass Pro fishing resort would be built in Marathon, Florida, on Valhalla Island.

Bass Pro Shops ranked as the No. 3 Most Reputable Retailer in North America in 2019 by Reputation.com, measuring the most reputable brands in the world for overall customer experience. In 2018, the National Retail Federation named Bass Pro Shops as the No. 2 “Hottest Retailer in America.”

Around 17% of sports and outdoor online shop users in the United States say they are likely to use Bass Pro Shops again. Set in relation to the 21% usage share of the brand, this means that 81% of their customers show loyalty to the brand.

The company had been under pressure to pursue strategic alternatives from Elliott Associates L. P., an activist investor with an 11.1% stake in the company at the time. The merging companies have similar roots. They were founded a decade apart as family businesses.

Great Outdoors Group, LLCBass Pro Shops / Parent organization

(John L) Morris Johnny (John L) Morris, founder and CEO of Bass Pro Shops, got his start in 1972 by selling fishing tackle out of the back of his father's store. Since then, Johnny has earned a reputation as one of the most visionary and influential retailers of the last 50 years.

Be Inspired. Visit any Bass Pro Shops or Cabela's location, and you'll know it's a place unlike any other. It's so much more than a store. It's an immersive, interactive experience tailored to your region's unique natural landscape and habitats.

Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's offer to ship to several other countries. Unfortunately, we do not offer to ship to all international locations and some merchandise may be restricted from being shipped internationally. For information on international shipping rates, click HERE.

In 1961, according to company lore, Cabela bought forty-five dollars' worth of hand-tied lures to sell at his family's furniture store, in Nebraska. Customers weren't interested, so Cabela bought an ad in the magazine Sports Afield, offering five flies in exchange for twenty-five cents in postage.