Sports Company Says It ‘Clearly Messed Up’ by Ignoring Female Athletes
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Scott Olson/Getty Images(PHOENIX) — The CEO of a national sporting goods chain said the company “clearly messed up” after a 12-year-old girl complained that there were no girls in its basketball catalog.
“I’m sorry,” Ed Stack, the CEO of DICK’s Sporting Goods said in a letter. “We clearly messed up and I can personally guarantee that next year’s basketball catalog will prominently feature female athletes, as it should have this year.”
McKenna Peterson wrote a viral letter to Stack last week that pointed out that the only girl featured in Dick’s Sporting Good’s basketball catalog was shown sitting on the stands.
Stack sent his letter to McKenna’s father, Chris Peterson, via Twitter, and the company tweeted it out as well.
.@TheCheapSeatsTV An apology to McKenna from our CEO pic.twitter.com/pzBQEh7ozZ
— Dick’sSportingGoods (@DICKS) October 11, 2014
McKenna read Stack’s letter Saturday morning.
“I would just like to say thank you,” she told ABC News, adding that she was pleased Stack responded to her letter.
It is important that companies like DICK’s Sporting Goods take gender equality seriously, she said, “Because I think girls should be treated just as equally as boys.”
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