How JD Sports is leading from the front as it opens its biggest store in the world

JD Sports is opening the doors to its largest store globally on June 7 in Manchester’s beloved Trafford Centre. With an anticipated annual footfall total of almost 4 million, the revamped store spans a 92-metre frontage and 41,000 sq ft of retail space, marking a new blueprint for the company’s ongoing expansion. 

In an exclusive tour of the new store, chief executive Régis Schultz tells Retail Week the vast scale of the new store happened “a little bit by accident”.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this big, but our property and buying teams loved the idea because it gave them the ability to test new concepts,” he says. “It’s a fantastic playground to test everything, put every brand we want in here and give back to the community where we started from.”

With four dedicated zones, including core sport, outdoor, fashion and street, and activation stations such as a dedicated Crep Protect trainer cleaning zone and a sneaker customisation zone in partnership with MattB Customs, this might not only be the biggest but arguably the best JD Sports store yet.

With giants Adidas and Nike, Liverpool-founded Montirex and fashion favourites Levi’s and Calvin Klein in-store, it’s not just Gen Z that are loving JD Sports. Its newest store showcases that it offers something for everyone across function and style.

So, how does JD continue winning over the next generation and what’s next in its global expansion journey as it opens its biggest-ever store? 

Going global

As a global leader and the largest sport fashion retailer across the UK, US, Europe and Australia, JD has taken the world by storm. While its growth is impressive, having a presence in 49 countries, it’s not something Schultz says was a given. He’s keen for the business not to forget its roots.

“We lead the industry and there are not a lot of UK retailers that are leaders of their market globally, we are the only one,” he says.

“JD is what JD is today thanks to the Manchester and Liverpool supporters. Our trends as a business come from Liverpool, Marseille, Napoli and Rotterdam rather than London, Paris or Milan. We are a different type of fashion and while the two different worlds blur, we have a great story.”

He says there is scope for between five and 10 new stores in the UK, but that the main focus is on expanding into bigger and better spaces to win over younger shoppers.

“On TikTok, young shoppers have the world in their pocket, so they want to see the world in stores”

Régis Schultz, JD Sports

”Our research shows that the younger generation, Gen Alpha, prefer stores, while Gen Z still shop quite heavily online,” he added. “It’s the way younger generations want to interact with each other as they are not monobrand, they want things quickly and they change sizes, which is what retail is all about.

“On TikTok, they have the world in their pocket, so they want to see the world in stores.”

It’s this newness and on-trend aspect of the JD Sports proposition that is proving a hit, not only in the UK.

With a presence across Europe and the US as well as in up-and-coming regions for the business, including Asia and the Middle East, Schultz says there is still plenty of opportunity. But it’s without a doubt that the US remains its largest territory.

“If you want to be successful, you have to be successful in the biggest market – that’s the rule of the game,” he says. “I think we bring something unique to the US, we bring something new and fresh, so we are winning without any notoriety.

He says the business has “only just scratched the surface” in terms of apparel in the US and that with a target of around 800 stores, JD is only at the start of its American dream. And while this may appear to be a cause for concern, considering the group recently warned of the “uncertainty” around proposed changes to tariffs, Schultz is optimistic.

“If there are no more young people or those people don’t have jobs, that’s a bad time for JD”

Régis Schultz, JD Sports

“Inflation has been very high in the US and now [due to the tariffs] the US consumer is going to be impacted, but every year they come back,” he says. “If there is something new, they will find the money, so I’m not concerned.

“For the coming six months, we are concerned because we don’t know what we don’t know, but tariffs should create employment in the US and I need people who have jobs to buy my shoes.

”If you look at the big picture, the key things I’m looking at are population, average age of the population and employment. These are my key drivers because if there are no more young people or those people don’t have jobs, that’s a bad time for JD.”

Looking ahead, Schultz is most excited about the introduction of “overdue” automation in its European warehouse, as well as its US warehouse becoming multi-fascia, which will allow JD to deliver a better service at a cheaper price, building on its market-leading proposition.

With former Olympic sprinter and world record holder Usain Bolt heading to Manchester for the Trafford Centre store’s opening, there’s no risk of a lack of excitement for JD customers either.