Foot Locker history: from Kinney to Dick’s (1894-2026)

Foot Locker is an American chain of athletic footwear stores, owned since September 8, 2025 by Dick’s Sporting Goods. It descends from Kinney, a shoe store opened in 1894 in Waverly, New York; the first Foot Locker opened in California in 1974. Dick’s announced the purchase on May 15, 2025, based on $24 per share, or about $2.4 billion in equity value. On August 1, 2026, the business had 2,478 stores, 266 of them licensed.

At a glance

• Origin: Kinney, a shoe store opened in 1894 in Waverly, New York, by George R. Kinney.
• First Foot Locker: 1974, in City of Industry, California, within Kinney, a Woolworth subsidiary since 1963.
• Company: Foot Locker, Inc. since November 2001 (Woolworth had become Venator Group in 1998).
• Owner: Dick’s Sporting Goods, acquisition announced on May 15, 2025 and completed on September 8, 2025.
• Stores: 2,478 on August 1, 2026, 266 of them licensed; 2,410 in 26 countries on February 1, 2025.
• Sales: $7,971M in 2024 (last independent year); 2026 outlook lowered to $7.4 to $7.5 billion on August 25, 2026.

Foot Locker in 10 dates

From the origins to 1974: Kinney, then Woolworth

George R. Kinney opened his first shoe store in Waverly, New York, in 1894. The company grew into a chain: during the Brown Shoe case, the US Supreme Court noted more than 400 stores in more than 270 cities.

Brown Shoe Company bought Kinney on May 1, 1956. The federal government had challenged the merger as early as November 1955, under the Clayton antitrust act. On June 25, 1962, the Supreme Court confirmed that Brown had to divest Kinney. Woolworth bought Kinney in 1963, for $45 million according to Encyclopedia.com.

Kinney opened the first Foot Locker store in 1974, in City of Industry, near Los Angeles. Lady Foot Locker followed in 1982.

Who owns Foot Locker? The successive owners

Period	Owner	Key points
1894-1956	Kinney	Shoe store chain.
1956-1963	Brown Shoe Company	Merger of May 1, 1956, challenged by the government. Divestiture ordered on June 25, 1962.
1963-2001	F. W. Woolworth Co.	Buys Kinney in 1963, launches Foot Locker in 1974, becomes Venator Group on June 12, 1998.
2001-2025	Foot Locker, Inc.	Name adopted after the shareholder vote of November 1, 2001. Listed in New York.
Since September 8, 2025	Dick’s Sporting Goods	Wholly owned subsidiary, delisted.

In July 1997, Woolworth announced the closing of its US variety stores. About 100 of them were converted to Foot Locker or other specialty formats, according to Encyclopedia.com.

Expansion: acquisitions, stores and countries

Foot Locker grew partly through acquisitions: 349 Footaction stores in 2004 ($224M, plus $5M in costs), Runners Point Group in Germany (agreement of May 8, 2013, €72M), WSS (completed in September 2021, $750M), then atmos (closed November 1, 2021). In March 2023, the “Lace Up” plan called for closing about 400 underperforming stores by 2026, according to Modern Retail.

Date	Stores	Countries
February 2, 2013	3,335	23
February 1, 2025	2,410 (+ 224 licensed)	26
May 3, 2025	2,363 (+ 236 licensed)	20
August 1, 2026	2,212 (+ 266 licensed)	not disclosed

The drop from 26 to 20 countries comes from withdrawals in 2025. Foot Locker closed all its stores in South Korea, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and sold its Greece and Romania business to a license partner in April 2025. The Dick’s quarterly releases we read give no country count. The last official figure is 20 countries, in the closing press release of September 8, 2025.

The Dick’s Sporting Goods acquisition: price, dates, terms

Date	Step
May 15, 2025	Merger agreement signed. At the shareholder’s choice: $24.00 in cash or 0.1168 Dick’s share per Foot Locker share. Equity value of about $2.4 billion, enterprise value of about $2.5 billion.
August 22, 2025	Foot Locker shareholders approve the merger.
August 25, 2025	End of the US antitrust review period.
September 8, 2025	Closing. Foot Locker becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Dick’s and asks to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

According to Foot Locker’s filing, about 85.8% of shares were exchanged for Dick’s shares, about 1.2% for cash, and about 12.9% made no valid election (of which about 4.5% were held by Dick’s itself). In its accounts, Dick’s records a total consideration of about $2.5 billion, on a preliminary basis, including $223.0M in cash, 9.6 million Dick’s shares worth $2.1 billion and $111.6M for its existing stake.

Dick’s keeps the Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, WSS and atmos banners. Ed Stack, its executive chairman, leads the global Foot Locker businesses. Ann Freeman, a former Nike executive, is president of Foot Locker North America. Dick’s announces $100 to $125M of cost synergies in the medium term.

Foot Locker in October 2026: results and outlook

The last year published by Foot Locker on its own, fiscal 2024 (ended February 1, 2025), shows $7,971M in sales, versus $8,154M a year earlier, with comparable sales up 1.4% and net income of $12M. In the first quarter of 2025, sales fell 4.6% to $1,788M and the net loss reached $363M, mostly because of non-cash impairments and a tax charge.

Since the acquisition, Dick’s reports figures for its “Foot Locker Business” segment. Comparable sales there are “pro forma,” as if Dick’s had owned Foot Locker throughout the compared period. Its fiscal year ends in late January: fiscal 2025 ended on January 31, 2026.

Period	Sales	Pro forma comparable sales	Segment result
September 8, 2025 to January 31, 2026	$3,106.2M	-3.3% for the year	loss of $52.2M
Q1 2026 (ended May 2, 2026)	$1,787.1M	+0.6%	profit of $17.5M
Q2 2026 (ended August 1, 2026)	$1,736.9M	-3.6%	loss of $31.9M
26 weeks ended August 1, 2026	$3,524.0M	-1.6%	loss of $14.4M

The 2026 outlook changed within five months.

Published	Expected sales	Pro forma comparable sales	Segment result
March 12, 2026	$7.6 to $7.7 billion	+1.0% to +3.0%	+$100 to +$150M
May 27, 2026	$7.6 to $7.7 billion	+1.5% to +3.0%	+$110 to +$150M
August 25, 2026	$7.4 to $7.5 billion	-2.0% to 0.0%	-$80 to -$40M

Dick’s explains the August revision by Foot Locker’s reliance on legacy styles and product launches, which were fewer in the second quarter and weaker than expected, in a market that has become more promotional.

Dick’s announced strategy for Foot Locker

• Review of unproductive assets: inventory, store closures, assets to adjust. Expected pre-tax charges go up to $750M, of which $515.8M were recorded by August 1, 2026.
• Closures: 104 directly operated stores closed between the start of fiscal 2026 and August 1, of which 67 were identified by the review.
• Fast Break: a “capital light” store remodel program, tested in 11 stores and which Dick’s planned to scale in 2026.
• Organization: in March 2026, certain Foot Locker positions were eliminated and employees were moved to New York.
• Goal: in March 2026, a return of Foot Locker to sales and profit growth in 2026. In August, the outlook was lowered, with confidence maintained in the long-term potential.

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Sources

• Dick’s, résultats du T2 2026 (communiqué du 25 août 2026)
• Dick’s, formulaire 10-Q du T2 2026
• Dick’s, résultats du T1 2026 (communiqué du 27 mai 2026)
• Dick’s, résultats de l’exercice 2025 (communiqué du 12 mars 2026)
• Dick’s, clôture du rachat (communiqué du 8 septembre 2025)
• Dick’s, annonce du rachat (communiqué du 15 mai 2025)
• Foot Locker, formulaire 8-K de clôture de la fusion (8 septembre 2025)
• Foot Locker et Dick’s, communiqué commun (26 août 2025)
• Foot Locker, résultats de l’exercice 2024 (communiqué du 5 mars 2025)
• Foot Locker, résultats du T1 2025 (communiqué du 29 mai 2025)
• Foot Locker, formulaire 8-K du 1er novembre 2001 (changement de nom)
• Foot Locker, formulaire 10-Q 2004 (achat de Footaction)
• Foot Locker, communiqué du 8 mai 2013 (Runners Point Group)
• Foot Locker, formulaire 8-K du 1er novembre 2021 (atmos)
• Retail Restaurant FB, Foot Locker finalise le rachat de WSS (20 septembre 2021)
• Modern Retail, Foot Locker et le plan Lace Up (20 mars 2023)
• Cour suprême des États-Unis, Brown Shoe Co. v. United States (25 juin 1962)
• Encyclopedia.com, Kinney Shoe Corp.
• Encyclopedia.com, Foot Locker

Updated October 23, 2026. Figures in US dollars: Dick’s press releases of March 12, May 27 and August 25, 2026, and Foot Locker press releases of March 5 and May 29, 2025.