Foot Locker is making sure everyone knows it’s the place to shop for basketball.
In a new year-round brand platform and campaign, the Dick’s Sporting Goods-owned sneaker retailer is telling consumers “Hoops Lives Here” with the aim to highlight how basketball shows up in everyday lives.
At the center of the campaign is a 30-second spot featuring NBA and WNBA stars Payton Pritchard, who is signed with Converse; Paolo Banchero, who works with Jordan Brand; and Nike athletes Chet Holmgren and Jewell Loyd.
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The retailer noted that the creative “playfully imagines” each athlete living inside a Foot Locker store as if it were their home: from Pritchard eating takeout and watching TV, to Banchero making a smoothie at the register, Holmgren getting ready for a tunnel walk, and Loyd winding down in bed on the sales floor.
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The debut spot marks the launch of a 360-degree campaign spanning broadcast, social, digital, out-of-home and in-store, bringing the “Hoops Lives Here” platform to life wherever basketball fans engage with the game and culture, Foot Locker added.
“Basketball is more than a sport, it’s a culture, identity, and a way of life,” Brett O’Brien, chief marketing officer at Foot Locker, said in a statement. “With ‘Hoops Lives Here’, we wanted to capture the emotional connection of living and breathing the game in a way that only Foot Locker can. From the brands we partner with to the Stripers who create unmatched in-store experiences, this campaign reflects Foot Locker’s deep connection to the basketball community and our role in helping shape the culture on and off the court.”
“Hoops Lives Here” will roll out as a year-round platform across NBA broadcasts, social platforms including Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and Snapchat, e-commerce, digital out-of-home and in-store experiences. The campaign will also feature athlete-led storytelling and limited-time gift-with-purchase moments in key markets nationwide, while supplies last.
This news comes two months after Dick’s Sporting Goods executive chairman Edward Stack said that he sees long-term opportunity for growth of the Foot Locker banner.
“We’ve moved quickly to test and learn in North America through what we call our Fast Break initiative. This is the evolution of the 11-store pilot we discussed last quarter,” Stack said in the company’s fourth quarter conference call in March, adding that while it is still early stages, the company is “encouraged” by what it is seeing.
“During Q4, our Fast Break stores drove very strong positive comps, actually meaningfully exceeding the Dick’s business while also delivering strong gross margin improvement,” he said.
For 2026, Foot Locker is expected to deliver growth and comp sales of between 1 percent and 3 percent, and operating income in the range of $100 million to $150 million.