The US sneaker market continues to grow and one British retailer wants a much bigger slice of that pie.
JD Sports Fashion currently has nearly 400 stores bearing its name in North America, and plans to reach 800 by opening new stores and continuing the conversion of stores from the Finish Line chain that it purchased a few years ago. The company also owns several other sportswear chains in the United States under different banners. In total, JD’s various chains bring in nearly $6 billion a year in the United States, making it one of the largest sporting equipment retailers in the country.
But that’s only a small part of the opportunity that JD CEO Regis Schultz sees for the Manchester, England-based retailer. The $24 billion sneaker market now accounts for about 60 percent of the U.S. footwear market, double what it did a decade ago, with running shoes replacing Oxfords in many offices. And Schultz sees no end to the running shoe boom.
“As soon as you start wearing sneakers, you don’t go back to formal shoes,” he told me in an onstage interview at the National Retail Federation conference earlier this month in New York.
Since the start of the decade, JD has also strengthened its presence in different regions of the United States through acquisitions. In 2024, he bought Hibbitta large, Southern-focused sports retailer with stores in smaller retail markets. It also bought a West Coast chain focused on the Hispanic market called Shoe Palace, as well as a more urban chain called DLTR.
“We see a lot more potential in the United States,” Schultz said. “We’ve invested in our stores and they have a lot of energy and drama.”
The group’s most recent results, published a week after the NRF interview, confirm this focus on the United States. During the November and December vacation period, comparable sales in North America increased by 1.5%, while it decreased in the UK and mainland Europe.
“JD brand awareness continues to grow in the United States,” Schultz said in a statement released with the financial results, “and, leveraging this momentum, we have decided to increase our marketing initiatives in North America.”
JD appears to be thriving even as its competitors struggle, which could give cause for optimism, but also caution. The difficulties of recent years Foot lockerduring which the company lost market share and closed hundreds of stores, created opportunities for JD to intervene. But Foot Locker, purchased by Dick’s Sporting Goods last year, is now part of a much larger and extremely well-run retailer – and it’s a better-known brand in the US, so there’s no guarantee that this market share will remain JD’s.
To succeed in this competitive market, Schultz has invested in stores and further trained its employees in purchasing and merchandising the products it sells. “You have to have a point of view,” he said, emphasizing that store buyers need to think outside the box to become trendsetters. “Our big warning sign is that buyers used to be very lazy.”
Schultz recalled Nike CEO Elliott Hill calls it shortly after Hill’s return to the company in 2024. “You know the consumer better than we know them,” Hill recalled saying. “Please give us your ideas.” Nike represents more than 40% of JD’s turnover.
For now, Schultz sees JD’s path in the United States as running shoes from major brands such as Nike, Hoka, New Balance, Adidas and On Running, with some clothes.
“I’ve learned throughout my career that less is more,” Schultz said. “If you try to do too many things, you end up doing nothing. »
