Foot Locker makes $100 million investment in Goat

By

Robin Driver

Published
Feb 8, 2019

NYC-based sports and footwear retailer Foot Locker, Inc. announced on Thursday that it is making a strategic minority investment of $100 million in sneaker resale platform Goat Group, opening the door to synergies based on the companies’ respective strengths in physical and digital retail.

 
The hope is that the partnership will ultimately allow the two companies to offer their customers exclusive experiences by leveraging Goat’s digital capabilities and Foot Locker’s extensive global brick-and-mortar footprint, which currently consists of 3,220 stores in 27 countries around the world.
 
“At Foot Locker we are constantly looking at new ways to elevate our customer experience and bring sneaker and youth culture to people around the world,” explained Foot Locker chairman and CEO Richard Johnson in a press release. “We are excited to leverage Goat Group's technology to further innovate the sneaker buying experience and utilize their best-in-class online marketplace to help meet the ever-growing global demand for the latest product.”

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Certainly, moving forward, it could be interesting to see how Goat’s digital expertise might be put to use as Foot Locker continues to roll out its new Power Store concept, opening locations pitched as community-focused retail hubs offering state-of-the-art immersive consumer experiences.
 
Founded in 2015, Goat merged with sneaker consignment service Flight Club in February 2018 and has raised a total of $197.6 million in funding to date. With this latest investment, the footwear marketplace is also looking to accelerate its global expansion, develop its omnichannel model and drive technological innovation.
 
As part of the partnership, Foot Locker’s SVP for strategy and store development Scott Martin will be joining Goat Group's Board of Directors.
 
The deal is the latest in a series of investments made by Foot Locker in digital-first businesses over the past few months, including women’s luxe athleisure brand Carbon38, children’s lifestyle label Super Heroic and footwear design academy Pensole.
 
The move also follows the company’s recent realignment of its organizational operating model in order to facilitate accelerated international growth as the retailer pushes forward with ambitious expansion plans, particularly in Asia. 

Having seen a pattern of positive results over the last few quarters, Foot Locker recently topped profit and sales estimates in Q3 2018, reporting revenues of $1.87 billion and net income of $130 million.