Foot Locker To Refresh 300 Stores, Open 80 Reimagined Concept Locations in 2025

Foot Locker is making a serious investment in terms of a turnaround effort, as reported by Retail Dive, with the company set to refresh 300 stores and open 80 reimagined concept locations over the course of 2025.

During a March 5 earnings call delivering mixed results, CEO Mary Dillon outlined a plan to intensify efforts surrounding its "reimagined" store concept. This news comes as Foot Locker reported total sales volume ticking downward by 5.8% year-over-year while comparable sales trended upward by 2.6%, according to a company press release. Gross margin improved by 300 basis points as compared to last year, and net income from continuing operations rested at $55, a sizable improvement over the year prior's net loss totaling $389 million.

Foot Locker also indicated it had completed 160 store refreshes during the quarter. By the end of 2025, the company will have renovated 800 stores over a two-and-a-half year time frame.

"As we reflect on 2024, I'm proud of the progress we've made with our Lace Up Plan in what's proven to be a dynamic consumer and category backdrop. During the year, we achieved some important financial milestones, including a return to positive enterprise comp sales growth, gross margin expansion, and positive free cash flow, all of which we expect to continue into 2025. Similarly, through our continued execution of the Lace Up Plan, we made significant progress in 2024, and we'll look to build upon these efforts in 2025," Dillon said during the earnings call.

"First, in stores, we're upgrading our customers' experience through both our new Reimagine concept and extensive Store Refresh program, both of which remain an important part of our plans looking ahead, which I'll speak to in a few minutes. We now have eight Reimagined doors open across North America, Europe, and Asia. The response to our Reimagined doors has been extremely positive from our customers, our brand partners, and our landlords, and we're accelerating our focus on Reimagined as part of our efforts in 2025," she continued.

Foot Locker Plans To Close 400 Mall Stores, Exit Markets as Part of Refocusing Strategy

As Retail Dive senior editor Cara Salpini detailed, a large portion of Foot Locker's turnaround gameplan is centered around a tightening of operations, refocusing on key markets where performance and outperformance is possible.

Part of that strategy: shutter less-than-desirable mall locations.

The company plans to close about 400 mall-based Foot Locker locations, with the goal being a "tighter, stronger store base, with reduced exposure to lower-tier malls," according to Dillon.

Foot Locker currently boasts 20 points more penetration in A and B malls than it did in 2019 — as CFO Mike Baughn mentioned during the call — when it first kicked off the process of exiting underperforming malls.

A second prong of the retailer's strategy is aimed at the continued exit from international markets. A separate August 2024 Retail Dive report outlined that Foot Locker had plans to completely wind down operations in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and South Korea by mid-2025.

Tariff Exposure: Foot Locker Sees Challenges, but Exposure Is Modest

Concerning the topic that nearly everyone has top of mind at this point in time — that of President Donald Trump's imposed tariffs — Foot Locker execs gestured toward challenges ahead but emphasized that they were not insurmountable.

Baughn indicated that Foot Locker did source some of its products from China but also that these products represented only single-digit percentages of the company's overall inventory. Dillon, on the other hand, zeroed in on macroeconomic concerns shared by members of their core customer demographic regarding the ongoing tariffs.

“Our customers are young — by definition they’re more limited in their discretionary budgets,” Dillon said.

“This is for sure a category that they prioritize in their lives, but we’re watching as they’re thinking about overall cost of living, plus some uncertainty about tariffs," she added.