Walmart is offloading outdoor brand Moosejaw six years after acquiring it as DTC brands prove tricky to integrate into large companies

• Dick's Sporting Goods is buying Moosejaw from Walmart for an undisclosed price, the company said.
• Walmart previously bought Moosejaw in 2017 for $51 million to bolster its outdoor offerings.

Walmart is selling off a direct-to-consumer brand it purchased six years ago — following a pattern of large retailers struggling to integrate smaller companies.

Dick's Sporting Goods is buying outdoor retailer Moosejaw from Walmart, the company announced Wednesday. The company did not specify a purchase price. The deal is expected to close in March.

Based out of Michigan and founded by Robert Wolfe in 1992, Moosejaw sells a variety of outdoor recreation apparel and gear. The company is known for its irreverent style and marketing stunts. Even under Walmart's ownership, the company never got approval from Walmart for its marketing, CEO Eoin Comerford told Insider in a 2020 interview. "If we need someone to approve our brand voice, then it's over," he said.

The company operates an independent website and has 13 brick-and-mortar stores, according to its website, with the majority in Michigan. One store opened in Walmart's headquarter town of Bentonville, Arkansas, in 2021.

"We admire what Moosejaw has accomplished over the past 30 years as leaders in the outdoor industry and look forward to the opportunity to share insights and learn from one another," Todd Spaletto, senior vice president for Dick's, said in a statement Wednesday. "We believe there's potential to grow the Moosejaw business and provide compelling experiences and an expanded product assortment to its millions of loyal customers."

Walmart purchased Moosejaw in 2017 for about $51 million to bolster its outdoor and e-commerce offerings. That same year, the retail giant purchased another direct-to-consumer company, the apparel brand Bonobos.

Moose Jaw isn't the first digital brand that Walmart has acquired and gotten rid of: In 2019, it sold the women's apparel brand ModCloth two years after buying it for an undisclosed price.

Integrating direct-to-consumer brands is often a challenge for big companies.

Coca-Cola, for instance, once had a division dedicated to acquiring and growing upstart beverage brands such as Honest Tea and Zico coconut water. But many of the brands got lost in Coke's vast management structure, employees told Insider in 2021. Coke ultimately sold or shut down many of the smaller brands it acquired.

Even Dollar Shave Club, which Unilever acquired for $1 billion in 2016, has not lived up to parent company Unilever's expectations.