City Gear is an American company that operates over 130 stores in the central region of the US. City Gear was founded in 1978 under the name Shelmar Retail Partners LLC. It was created in and still operates out of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. City Gear is owned by

Hibbett Sports Hibbett Sports, Inc. is an American publicly traded holding company for Hibbett Sporting Goods, a full line sporting goods retailer headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. As of January 29, 2022, the company operated approximately 1,096 retail st ...

and its current CEO is Mike Longo. The store sells lifestyle clothing and footwear from brands such as:

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine give ...

, Jordan, Levi's, and Grindhouse.

Acquisitions

City Gear has been very active in the last several years in the M+A market. In 2011, they acquired the Deveroes chain of 14 stores with locations in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Dayton, and Columbus. Within twelve months, City Gear acquired a 16 store chain with operations principally in Atlanta and a smaller 3 store chain with operations in Kansas City.

Endorsements

City Gear has several endorsement deals. Recently, they struck a deal with a summer basketball league called The Deveroes Summer League in Cincinnati. They also have endorsement deals with several NBA teams. They endorse the teams in the cities that have stores in them, which include the

Memphis Grizzlies The Memphis Grizzlies (referred to locally as the Grizz) are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference ...

, Houston Rockets, New Orleans Pelicans, and the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

. As a part of this endorsement, City Gear acquired the Cincinnati-based company Deveroes. Deveroes is a store chain with similar products to City Gear, and its acquisition by City Gear allows them to branch out into the mid-west.

Labor controversy

There has been one major labor controversy for City Gear. Several of the managers of their stores have made the claim that they were not being paid for their overtime. On December 11, 2012, a collective action lawsuit was filed against City Gear for $25 million. The claim being made against is that City Gear “violated the wage-and-hour provisions of the FLSA by depriving Plaintiffs, as well as others similarly situated to Plaintiffs, of their lawful overtime wages.” The CEO of City Gear made the claim that the complaints were "just not accurate". The managers of the stores say that they were "converted to hourly employees if they fail to log 45 hours during the work week, hours for which they are allegedly denied overtime pay."

References

{{Reflist

External links

CityGear.comInsideview.com
Retail companies of the United States Companies based in Memphis, Tennessee