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As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Foot Locker. Inc has acquired Japanese sneaker and streetwear retailer ATMOS and Los Angeles athletic retailer WSS in cash deals combining over $1.1B in cash as the mall retailer looks to expand its global operations.
The deals, of which $750 million was paid to WSS and $350 million was paid to ATMOS, look to bolster the well-known mall retailer’s demographic reach. With WSS, Foot Locker has gained a new reach with Latino customers while the acquisition of the Japanese retailer has expanded the New York-based brand’s Asia-Pacific market penetration.
Such recent acquisitions demonstrate Foot Locker’s focus towards “strategic imperatives that we have to spread our business and find new customers and new consumer markets,” as iterated by the CEO Richard Johnson.
All brick-and-mortar stores will retain their operating names, with more likely on the way. WSS currently has 93 stores across the West Coast and Southwest U.S., mainly tailoring to the working class. Meanwhile ATMOS, has select stores across the U.S. and 49 stores in Japan. 60% of ATMOS sales consisted of online purchases.
“We absolutely believe that there are underserved markets in the U.S. that we’ll be able to expand WSS into,” Mr. Johnson said. “Atmos is mostly a digitally-led business, but we believe every great city has a sneaker market that could be the location of an Atmos store in the future.”
-Richard Johnson discussing the recent acquisitions
Foot Locker Inc. will look to continue their e-commerce expansion and brick-and-mortar operations.
