Foot Locker spent 30 years building its Hong Kong business — then shut all stores in a day

Foot Locker announced on March 22, 2023, that it would close all six of its Hong Kong stores and both Macau stores as part of a global restructuring plan. The closures included a four-storey flagship in Tsim Sha Tsui that had been a landmark on the Kowloon shopping strip for years. The company had operated in Hong Kong for approximately 30 years.

The closures were part of a broader plan to shut approximately 420 underperforming Foot Locker and Champs Sports stores worldwide by 2026. CEO Mary Dillon, who took the helm in 2022, was restructuring the company to focus on core banners and regions, simplifying the business model after years of declining mall foot traffic and the shift to online sneaker shopping.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Foot Locker did not exit entirely. The company converted its self-operated stores in Singapore and Malaysia to a licensed model, allowing local partners to operate them. But Hong Kong and Macau were deemed too small and too competitive to license — the stores were simply shut down. The HK/Macau exit was a final recognition that the sneaker retail model that had worked in Hong Kong since the 1990s could not survive the post-pandemic market.