Foot Locker Retail, Inc. is an American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, and operating in 28 countries. Although established in 1974, and founded as a separate company in 1988, Foot Locker's roots date to 1879, as it is a successor corporation to the

F. W. Woolworth Company The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or simply Woolworth) was a retail company and one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. It was among the most successful American and international five-and-dime businesses, se ...

(“Woolworth's”), as many of its freestanding stores were

Kinney Shoes The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from until . Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, symbol KNN, began in March 1923. The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney whose father ran a genera ...

and Woolworth's locations. The company operates the eponymous “Foot Locker” chain of athletic footwear retail outlets (along with “Kids Foot Locker” and “Lady Foot Locker” stores), and other athletic-based divisions including Champs Sports, Footaction USA, House of Hoops, and Eastbay/Footlocker.com, which owns the rights t
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The company is also famous for its employees' uniforms at its flagship Foot Locker chain, resembling those of

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. According to the company's filings with the SEC, as of January 28, 2017, Foot Locker, Inc. had 3,363 primarily mall-based stores in the United States,

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, and Asia. Nearly 70% of its products are from

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 ...

History

In 1963, the

purchased the Kinney Shoe Corporation and operated it as a subsidiary. In the 1960s, Kinney branched into specialty shoe stores, including Stylco in 1967, Susie Casuals in 1968, and Foot Locker on September 12, 1974. The first Foot Locker opened in the

Puente Hills Mall Puente Hills Mall, located in City of Industry, California, United States, is a major regional shopping center A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

City of Industry, California City of Industry is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is almost entirely industrial, containing over 3,000 businesses employing 67,000 people, with only 264 residents as of the ...

. Woolworth also diversified its portfolio of specialty stores in the 1980s, including Afterthoughts, Northern Reflections, Rx Place, and Champs Sports. By 1989, the company was pursuing an aggressive strategy of multiple specialty store formats targeted at enclosed shopping malls. The idea was that if a particular concept failed at a given mall, the company could quickly replace it with a different concept. The company aimed for 10 stores in each of the country's major shopping malls, but this never came to pass as Woolworth never developed that many successful specialty store formats. In 1988, the F.W. Woolworth Company incorporated a separate company called the Woolworth Corporation in the state of New York. The Woolworth Corporation was responsible for the operations of the Foot Locker stores, among the other specialty chains operated by Woolworth's. One of its first moves was the acquisition of Champs Sports and to rename itself the Woolworth Athletic Group. During the 1980s and 1990s, the F.W. Woolworth Company's flagship

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

chain fell into decline, ultimately culminating in the closure of the last stores operating under the name of Woolworth's in the United States in 1997. Deciding to continue aggressive expansion into the athletic business in the following years, the company acquired Eastbay in 1997, which was the largest athletic catalog retailer in the United States, as well as subsequent purchases of regional storefront retailers Sporting Goods (purchased in 1997) and The Athletic Fitters (purchased in 1998). After 1997, Wal-Mart replaced Woolworth in the Dow Jones average. The Woolworth Corporation remained the parent company of Foot Locker, and in 1998 it changed its name to "Venator Group, Inc." By the 1990s, Foot Locker was responsible for more than 70 percent of Kinney Shoe Corp. sales, while traditional shoe retailer Kinney was in decline. Venator announced the shuttering of the remaining Kinney Shoe and Footquarters stores on September 16, 1998. On February 12, 1999, a federal jury in Austin awarded $341,000 to a former Foot Locker shoe store manager who said the company systematically discriminated against its African American employees by offering more opportunities for promotions to white managers. Foot Locker store tower city center cleveland

Foot Locker store tower city center cleveland

Foot Locker Flagship store in Tsim Sha Tsui 2018

As the "Foot Locker"

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...

had become the Woolworth/Venator company's top performing line, on November 2, 2001 Venator changed its name to Foot Locker, Inc. On November 19, 2004, Foot Locker announced that its quarterly profit rose 19 percent, helped by stronger sales. In 2004, Foot Locker acquired the Footaction USA brand and approximately 350 stores from

Footstar Footstar, Inc., was a shoe retailer that was headquartered in Mahwah, New Jersey. The company was traded under the symbol “FTAR” on the Pink Sheets. In April 2012, Footstar was merged into Xstelos Holdings, Inc. History Footstar was spun o ...

for $350 million. On April 14, 2004, Foot Locker Inc. announced that it agreed to buy about 350 Footaction stores from bankrupt Footstar Inc. for $160 million to expand in urban areas. On January 10, 2005, the company announced that Nick Grayston was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer of its Foot Locker U.S. division, succeeding Tim Finn who retired from the company. In 2007, Foot Locker joined with schoolPAX to launch the Foot Locker School Rewards Program, designed to provide charitable donations to schools who sign up and shop at Foot Locker with a custom-coded keytag or school code. Foot Locker purchased CCS, a skateboarding equipment retailer, from Alloy for $103 million in cash. In 2011, Foot Locker joined DoSomething.Org for the Foot Locker Scholar Athletes program, which honors high school athletes for demonstrating academic excellence as well as flexing their hearts on their sports team and in their communities. On June 26, 2012, Foot Locker celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first stock offering made by its predecessor, the F. W. Woolworth Company, on the New York Stock Exchange by ringing the Closing Bell for the trading day. In 2013, the company acquired the German retailer Runners Point Group. After not meeting corporate expectations, Foot Locker planned to close its CCS unit but instead sold it to Daddies Board Shop in 2014. Foot Locker has steadily risen in Fortune 500 rank, from 446 in 2011 to 363 in 2018. Foot Locker recorded a record turnover of 7.151 million dollars at the end of fiscal year 2015. In 2019, Foot Locker invested $100 million in

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, an online resale marketplace for sneakers. In 2021, Foot Locker acquired Los Angeles-based athletic retailer WSS and Tokyo-based Atmos. In 2022, Foot Locker announced it would aim to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Several Foot Locker stores were damaged in rioting and looting, with two locations destroyed by arson, during the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul in May 2020.

Stores

References

External links

*
History of Kinney Shoes
{{Authority control Retail companies of the United States Athletic shoe brands Clothing retailers of the United States Shoe companies of the United States Sporting goods retailers of the United States Skateboarding companies F. W. Woolworth Company Companies based in New York City American companies established in 1974 Retail companies established in 1974 1974 establishments in California Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Shoe brands Footwear retailers of the United States