Our new Marketplace Crash Course is here to help. Sign-up for free, learn at your own pace.
Foot Locker’s plan to avoid the fate of American malls
A pair of Nike Huarache sneakers.
Pablo Cuadra/Getty Images
If you’ve visited a shopping mall in this country, surely you’ve seen a Foot Locker. It was an icon of sneaker sales for years, with thousands of stores nationwide. But then sneakers became more than just something to wear to the gym.
They’ve evolved into “a marker of identity, status and a form of self-expression to young people,” according to Elizabeth Segran, senior staff writer for Fast Company, who recently wrote about Foot Locker. The young people she’s talking about, often called “sneaker heads,” collect rare and vintage sneakers, fueling an underground sneaker market.
Foot Locker has a new plan to attract that customer and insulate itself from the decline of the American mall in general. Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal spoke with Segran about her reporting on the company’s latest strategy.
Click the audio player above to hear the interview.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.