Foot Locker - FootAction

Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE&_160;FL) is an American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in New York City, and operating in approximately 20 countries worldwide. Formerly known as Venator Group, Inc., it is the successor corporation to the F.W. Woolworth Company (“Woolworth’s”). Foot Locker, Inc. operates the eponymous “Foot Locker” chain of athletic footwear retail outlets (along with “Kids Foot Locker” and “Lady Foot Locker” stores), Champs Sports, Footaction USA, and Eastbay/Footlocker.com Eastbay/Footlocker.com own the rights to Final Score, ESPN Shop, AFL Store, and The United States Olympic Shop. The chain is known for its employees uniforms resembling those of referees.

According to the company's filings with the SEC, as of January 28, 2006, Foot Locker, Inc. had 3,921 primarily mall-based stores in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand).

In 1963, Woolworth purchased the Kinney Shoe Corporation and operated it as a subsidiary. In the 1960s, Kinney branched into specialty shoe stores, including Stylco in 1967, Susie Casuals in 1968, and Foot Locker in 1974.

Woolworth also diversified its portfolio of specialty stores in the 1980s, including Afterthoughts, Northern Reflections, and Champs Sports. By 1989, the company was pursuing an aggressive strategy of multiple specialty store formats targeted at enclosed shopping malls. The idea was that if a particular concept failed at a given mall, the company could quickly replace it with a different concept. The company aimed for 10 stores in each of the country's major shopping malls, but this never came to pass as Woolworth never developed that many successful specialty store formats.