How Foot Locker’s supply chain is lacing up for the future

ORLANDO, Fla. — Foot Locker’s investments in inventory accuracy, vendor relationships and cross-functional partnerships across its supply chain are key drivers of its multi-year transformation plan, executives said at the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s LINK 2025 conference last month. 

The sneaker retailer advanced its “Lace Up” plan last year by opening six Foot Locker reimagined store concepts, among other initiatives, EVP and COO Elliott Rodgers said. The reimagined stores aim to create an immersive brand experience while enhancing digital capabilities, including the company’s new mobile app.  

Although the Lace Up strategy is a company-wide effort, changes within Foot Locker’s supply chain played a major role in progressing the initiative in 2024, according to Chief Supply Chain Officer Kristin Bauer. 

Keeping an eye on inventory

Inventory is the lifeblood of omnichannel retail, Rodgers said. Therefore, improving inventory accuracy is essential to support Foot Locker’s goal of becoming a best-in-class omnichannel retailer, one of the four pillars of the Lace Up strategy.

“Because there’s so many different elements of the organization that touch inventory, you have to have some type of unifying vision for what you’re trying to accomplish,” Rodgers said. “If the unifying vision is a near real-time view of inventory that’s available for sale at the item and location level, then it becomes clear what the organization is trying to solve for.”

Given its exposure to fluctuating sneaker trends, Foot Locker deals with trapped and aging inventory at a higher rate than some other retailers, forcing it to rethink how it approaches this critical part of the business.