With an aim of re-energizing a slowing brand, Champs Sports, a division of Foot Locker, has initiated a fresh brand agenda known as ‘Sport For Life’. This concept is intended to illustrate how sports can assist patrons in maneuvering through life’s milestones, as affirmed in a communication shared with Retail Dive.
Included in the brand’s transition are collaborations with high-profile athletes such as Micah Parsons, the linebacker from Dallas Cowboys, Francisco Lindor, the shortstop for New York Mets, and Jaylen Waddle, the wide receiver from Miami Dolphins. These strategic collaborations signal a new direction for the brand as it seeks to redefine its identity.
The unveiling of this novel brand scheme occurs during a period of expansive change for Champs Sports. The changes span varied aspects, including an overhaul of retail branding, revamping merchandise display, and making story-driven customer experiences a central part of its in-store strategy.
Champs Sports stores are undergoing significant shifts, adhering to previously unveiled plans to shutter as many as 125 stores by 2026. Concurrently, the brand strategy includes broadening its merchandise scope, focusing on localized sports products and introducing experience-driven activities. Among the interactive initiatives is the setting up of a running club that will meet on a monthly basis.
Champs is striving to position its brand as an entity that resonates with the resilience and community spirit fostered by sports. The larger narrative is to appeal to consumers for whom sports encapsulate not only a leisure activity but also an all-encompassing lifestyle that extends beyond the confines of the playing field.
In the words of Tony Aversa, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Champs Sports, ‘Our latest platform is an expression of the spirit that motivates our primary customer demographic – the sports-style devotees. Sport permeates life, embodying much more than just a casual pastime. It represents relentless drive, the pursuit of objectives, and the mutual admiration for a culture rooted in sports. Our aim, as a brand, is to enable our patrons to embrace this sport-influenced lifestyle by providing them with the necessary tools to thrive within life’s playing field.’
This significant metamorphosis of Champs’ brand strategy is taking place within a context of operational restructuring for Foot Locker. This comes amidst declining income figures, with the parent company seeing notable losses in revenue across recent fiscal readings.
Foot Locker concluded its latest fiscal year with a 6.8% contraction in overall sales, resulting in a net loss positioned at $330 million. The repositioning strategy for Champs, too, had its bearings on Foot Locker’s comp metrics, generating a downward pressure on comps in the preceding quarters.
CEO Mary Dillon has been steering Foot Locker through a panoply of major changes, encompassing numerous store closures. Over the course of the next few years, an estimated 400 mall-based Foot Locker stores are scheduled to cease operations, as part of this extensive restructuring.
Additional closures include the discontinuation of the Atmos stores in North America and the shuttering of the Sidestep chain in Europe, a chain that boasts around 80 stores. Foot Locker is in the process of divesting itself from several existing assets in order to concentrate on this large-scale operational overhaul.
Foot Locker undertook a merger of the Champs Sports and Eastbay brands a few years back, a move followed by the eventual closure of the Eastbay website. Such consolidation efforts are part of the broad strategic shifts taking place within the organization.
Mary Dillon, the incumbent CEO of Foot Locker and former CEO at Ulta, assumed her role in September 2022. Her reign has been marked by a succession of bold moves which include ceasing the company’s expansion plans into Japan and conducting a comprehensive revision of the executive team.
The shakeup of the executive team represents a strategy of bringing fresh perspectives and potentially disruptive ideas to the table. Such bold direction could pave the way for the company’s recovery and help it to regain its footing in the competitive retail landscape.
These major strategic decisions and operational changes paint a picture of a brand in transition. Champs Sports and its parent company, Foot Locker, are indicating readiness to acknowledge their existing challenges, and to take decisive actions towards positive change.
The ‘Sport For Life’ platform, the athlete partnerships, and the revamp of the store experience all point to a new direction for the company, a direction which is firmly rooted in aligning closely with the values and lifestyle of the active, sport-loving consumer.
While these transformational strategies come with their associated risks, they embody the ‘sport for life’ ethos they are promoting – demonstrating resilience, embracing change, and staying committed to the pursuit of long-term goals.