Undercover competitor: Modell’s CEO allegedly masquerades as Dick’ssporting goods executive, taking corporate espionage to a new level
Dick’s Sporting Goods has sued Modell’s Sporting Goods and its prominent fourth-generation CEO, Mitchell Modell, claiming Modell brazenly visited a Dick’s retail location and impersonated a Dick’s executive to unlawfully gain a competitive advantage.
Building off his 2012 acting performance on the CBS show “Undercover Boss,” where he transformed into his alter ego, rank and file Modell’s employee “Joey Glick”—complete with a shaved head, fake mustache and exaggerated New York accent—Mitchell Modell allegedly appeared at a Dick’s store in Princeton, New Jersey in February and identified himself to the store manager as “Joseph” (perhaps a derivation of Joey Glick?), a Dick’s Senior Vice President. According to the suit, Modell told store management that he was there to meet with Edward Stack, Dick’s Chairman and CEO, and while waiting for this supposed appointment, Modell requested and received access to the store’s private back-room and obtained Dick’s confidential and proprietary information and trade secrets.
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