Footwear Insight

24 • Footwear Insight ~ May/June 2019 footwearinsight.com After years of testing it, why was now the time to shutter the SIX:02 concept? "We had a couple of false starts with SIX:02. First it was far more workout-led and really athletic, then we shifted probably too far to fashion, and then we sort of found a little bit of runway in an active-lifestyle. What we learned is that she's got very discerning taste and she moves very quickly, so you've got to be willing to move with her." What did you learn about the women's business from SIX:02? "When we opened up our [flagships], we put a SIX:02 in each of those and gave her a space that was dedicated for her, we had associates who were committed to serving her and the assortment was different then she could find other places, and she loved it. She could walk out of that store with two SIX:02 bags in her hands and if you asked her where she shopped, she would tell you, Foot Locker. Right? So it was more about the experience than it was about the brand over the door. You'll see us start to repurpose some space and make a lot of those experiences for her — I mean, certainly in the Power Stores you can see some really unique dedicated spaces for her. And a lot of that really was driven by the learnings from SIX:02. The core founda- tion of the women's business for us will be in sneakers, and we'll be able, through Foot Locker, Champs, Footaction and EastBay in the U.S., to attack the apparel side of it from a different angle in each of those banners." You've made two strategic investments in kid-focused brands, Rockets of Awesome and Super Heroic, in the past few months. What drew you to those labels? "Rachel [Blumenthal, the founder of Rockets of Awesome] and her team have figured out how to make both [parents and kids] feel like they win. And Jayson's sense of urgency around getting kids active is just an incredibly noble cause. Every business has to have a purpose, and [with Super Heroic], Jayson's is aligned so well with our being active in the community. Kids is important: It's a customer acquisition opportunity for life." Is customer acquisition or customer relevance what drove the investment into GOAT? "It's a really unique opportunity for us to extend sneaker culture, to extend the reach of sneakers. There's a lot of people that play in the secondary market. How we manifest that across sneaker culture and youth cul- ture, we'll figure that out over time, but we felt it was just really the right time for us to enter the secondary market a bit, and we entered, in my opinion, with the best." Are there any concerns, as a primary, full- price retailer, of aligning with a reselling business? Where are there synergies? "There is tension between the primary and secondary markets, and one of the things we're going to be really clear with is that we're not going to violate that line. It's not like we're going to take products out of the primary market to try and push them into the secondary market. This is about creating convenience for the customer. If we simply used Foot Locker as a pickup and dropoff spot or maybe there's a Flight Cub space inside one of our Power Stores. The ideas are endless, quite honestly." You've been vocal in the past that you don't see brick-and-mortar retail going anywhere. Are you still bullish on stores? "I don't believe there is a retail apocalypse. We're in a lot of malls, and handicapping risk against the mall's livelihood, these things occupy us. You just have to be really agile with the consumer these days and be confident in where you're going — and we are." l Q&A "You just have to be really agile with the consumer these days and be confident in where you're going — and we are."

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