‘Absolutely a focus area for investment’: How Foot Locker is courting basketball fans
Foot Locker is hoping to score a win with shoppers by teaming up with one of the biggest teams in the NBA.
On Tuesday, the company announced it had formed a multi-year partnership with the Chicago Bulls. The two will host a pre-game event before the Bulls play the Orlando Magic on Oct. 30 that involves “photo opportunities, skills and drills activities and giveaways,” per a press release. Foot Locker’s president and CEO, Mary Dillon, will present the game ball, and Foot Locker employees will be named as honorary team captains.
Beyond that, Foot Locker will sponsor a three-on-three youth tournament called “Bulls Fest,” host players and influencers at a Bulls-themed experience at its State Street store in Chicago, install Foot Locker signage in the athletes’ tunnel walk at United Center and hold a “Suite Night” at the stadium to celebrate the Jordan 4 RM sneaker. Foot Locker held a youth tournament similar to “Bulls Fest” in September.
Foot Locker chose to work with the Bulls because Chicago was an inspiration for Nike’s Jordan Brand and is “a critical market in sneaker culture,” Foot Locker’s chief customer officer Kim Waldmann told Modern Retail in an interview. Foot Locker carried the original Air Jordan 1 in the 1980s, and “it’s a huge part of our legacy,” Waldmann said. But the partnership is also indicative of Foot Locker’s bigger emphasis on basketball.
In the last year, Foot Locker launched a partnership with the NBA as a whole, introduced a basketball concept called “Home Court” into stores and paired up with Nike and Jordan Brand on “The Clinic,” a series of basketball clinics and community events. Foot Locker also hosted two events at the WNBA All-Star Game in July. Foot Locker plans to operate 100 “Home Court” experiences globally by 2026, the company confirmed to Modern Retail.
Foot Locker isn’t new to selling basketball shoes, but they’re becoming a bigger part of the company’s plan to bounce back from slowing sales. In March 2023, Foot Locker announced a strategy called “Lace Up” to invest in its core banners, close 400 underperforming stores and open more store formats like “House of Play,” which are large in size and cater to toddlers and kids. One element of this plan, per Foot Locker’s PowerPoint presentation at the time, was to “expand sneaker culture,” an area that incorporates basketball shoes. After several quarters, in August 2024, Foot Locker reported that it had “returned to topline growth,” with sales up 1.9% year over year.
With the WNBA playoffs underway and the NBA season set to start on Oct. 22, Waldmann shared more about Foot Locker’s plans to court basketball fans. Here are some highlights from the conversation, lightly edited for clarity.
Why Foot Locker is focusing more on basketball
“Basketball is a key part of our overall ‘Lace Up’ strategy in that we want to continue to expand sneaker culture and reach a broader set of consumers… Customer centricity is the forefront of what we do, and we see that our customer is not only more likely to play the game but also more likely to be inspired by the fashion of the game than the marketplace at large. Foot Locker has a very young, diverse customer that is increasingly connected to basketball culture, and so it’s important for us to continue to be a part of that.
It’s also a reinforcement of our brand DNA. Basketball has been at the heart of what we do for the last 50 years, and so continuing that legacy into the next 50 years through partnerships like this, through our in-store experiences like our ‘Home Court’ basketball destination and through continuing to invest in community and bringing local hoopers together with athletes and our Foot Locker family Stripers is going to be incredibly important…
Basketball is a growing business. It’s absolutely a focus area for investment for us. But I would really characterize [these efforts] as a ramp-up from what has historically been a position of strength, as well.”
How Foot Locker is encouraging basketball fans to pick its stores over direct brands
“We have an overall basketball portfolio, and that’s going to involve some franchises that are exclusive to us. I’d point to the AE 1 with Adidas, which we launched in partnership with them as an exclusive franchise… We’re going to have those exclusive moments, and then we’re going to have moments where we can uniquely storytell and bring to life product that is more widely available. The [Nike] Ja Morant 1 is a great example of that.
We also have a huge fleet of stores, and I think that is a key differentiator when we partner with partners like Nike. We can connect them directly with young basketball consumers on the ground in a way that nobody else can.”
How Foot Locker is continuing its work with the WNBA
“We continue to be inspired by the rise of the women’s game. And not just players as players, but really players as influencers and style icons in their own right, when you think about Caitlin Clark [of the Indiana Fever] or Angel Reese [of the Chicago Sky] and how they’re able to influence women’s style and sneaker culture. And so we’re excited about continuing to get behind that, continuing to bring best-in-class go-to-market against shoes like A’ja Wilson’s [of the Las Vegas Aces] upcoming signature shoe launch. I think you’ll see a lot more from us in that realm.”