Goldman Sachs held their 13th annual global retail conference last week and two of the sporting goods industry’s top performers where on hand to provide more insight into their business.

Dick’s Sporting Goods took the opportunity to differentiate its model from the mall footwear retailers and other sporting goods chains. Mike Hines, EVP and CFO, pointed to their success with Crocs footwear as one differentiator, but also said they weren’t about chasing fashion trends. Their commitment to the core athlete and outdoor enthusiast also gives them an edge over the fashion-focused mall retailer, according to Hines, highlighting the continued success of performance footwear versus the impact of classics on their mall competition. Mr. Hines also indicated that Wal-Mart may be de-emphasizing sporting goods equipment a bit, a move that may reduce the current 10% overlap that DKS shares with WMT in the segment.

DKS will open around 27 stores in the third quarter. Hines said they have a cash-on-cash expectation of 50% measured in the second full year the store is open, and the analysis they have done has confirmed that they can open at least 800 stores nationally, which, based on their 15% unit organic growth target, would be achieved over the next eight years, excluding any acquisitions.

Hines said that Ed Stack, the company’s chairman and CEO, is in the stores three days a week and two to three weeks every month. He said that the actions of Mr. Stack tends to encourage others on the management team to get out in the field as well.

Looking to store format, Hines sees the two-story model at 10% to 20% of “any particular vintage of new store openings.” Two of the forty new stores this year will be the two-story format. He said that Dick’s is the only full-line sporting goods retailer that can go into the mall in any meaningful way, which they see as an advantage as consolidation puts more pressure on mall operators. He indicated that this consolidation has resulted in unused pads at some malls which DKS can pick up at aggressive rents because the land is already a “sunk cost” for the developer. When talking about the lifestyle center format, Hines indicated that it was a real estate phenomenon that had much more advertised promise than really came to fruition.

Under Armour said it will see its business grow more than 40% on the top-line this year and will produce a 70%+ increase in the bottom-line for the year. Men’s is expected to grow around 31% for the year across 9,000 retail doors as the company expands its real estate within its current premium distribution. One category that has provided the company with more opportunity is golf, where UARM has added a number of golf specialty retailers and green grass accounts in addition to expanding its footprint at sporting goods.

Kevin Plank, company chairman, CEO and president, said that the women’s business, which was up more than 77% in the first half across 4,500 doors, can eventually become larger than the men’s business. Plank said the company is targeting women where they shop, pointing to a five-store test at Nordstrom that started less than 18 months ago and has now expanded to 75 doors.

In footwear, the company set out to achieve a 12% to 13% market share in football cleats and feels they will end up in the 22% neighborhood by year-end, due in large part to the fact their first efforts at cleated product sold out at retail except for some broken sizes. Baseball cleats are expected to launch in November.