Key takeaways:
- Foot Locker and Nike, Inc. are opening The Crenshaw Rec by Foot Locker on Aug. 22 at 3222 W Slauson Ave. in South Los Angeles, developed in partnership with Nike, Jordan Brand and Converse.
- The store is designed as both a retail destination and community hub, featuring an open gym, creative workspaces, hyper-local product collections and year-round programming.
- The opening comes as Foot Locker’s new parent company, Dick’s Sporting Goods, pushes a major back-to-school campaign and expands its capital-light Fast Break store remodel program.
Foot Locker and Nike, Inc. are opening a store that’s meant to function as much as a community center as a place to buy sneakers in South Los Angeles.
The Crenshaw Rec by Foot Locker opens this month at 3222 W Slauson Ave. in the Crenshaw neighborhood, developed alongside Nike, Jordan Brand and Converse. The retailers describe it as a “first-of-its-kind retail destination” built in partnership with local community leaders.
The store is located in the Dorset Village shopping center, a site with its own history in the neighborhood. The late rapper and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle sold mixtapes out of that same parking lot, and his estate’s brand, The Marathon, is among the contributors to the project.
Details about the Crenshaw Rec by Foot Locker
The physical space includes an equipment room, an open gym, creative workspaces and a dedicated resource center. Foot Locker says the resource center will host year-round programming.
Product-wise, the store will carry exclusive merchandise unavailable at other Foot Locker locations, such as a Crenshaw High School x Nike Team Shop collection and a capsule line designed by Gavin Mathieu of Los Angeles-based Supervsn Studios. Local businesses will also be featured through ongoing pop-ups, and the store will offer neighborhood hiring through what the company is calling the Crenshaw Striper Program.
To mark the opening, Foot Locker will host a Community Swap Meet and a three-on-three basketball tournament on Aug. 22, open to the public from 10 a.m. to store close.
“The Crenshaw Rec by Foot Locker reflects our commitment to investing in the communities that have shaped our brand and continue to move sneaker culture forward,” said Brett O’Brien, SVP and CMO at Foot Locker, in a statement. “Together with Nike, Inc. and respected voices across Crenshaw, we’re proud to create a destination that honors the neighborhood’s rich legacy while inspiring the next generation through sport, culture and community.”
The involvement of The Marathon Brand, co-founded by Nipsey Hussle’s brother Samiel Asghedom, gives the project a direct connection to the neighborhood’s history. For Asghedom, the location carries personal weight.
“The family is honored for The Marathon Brand to have the opportunity to partner with Nike, Inc. for the launch of The Crenshaw Rec by Foot Locker,” Asghedom said in a statement. “This location is extremely important because we were raised in this shopping center. The restaurants, the record stores, the supermarkets, everything in the shopping center has played a role in shaping our childhood.”
Foot Locker’s Transformation Under Dick’s Sporting Goods
Dick’s Sporting Goods acquired Foot Locker in the second half of 2025, and the new parent company has been working quickly to stabilize a business that had been struggling with negative comparable sales.
At the heart of that effort is the Fast Break program, a capital-light store remodel initiative focused on simplifying visual merchandising. The strategy involves reducing the total number of SKUs by roughly 30% and decluttering footwear walls so key styles get more prominent placement. Stores that have gone through the Fast Break process reportedly delivered double-digit comparable sales in the first quarter of 2026, though those gains were achieved using existing legacy inventory rather than new product.
By back-to-school, Dick’s plans to have approximately 250 Fast Break stores operating across the Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker and Champs banners globally.
The back-to-school window is significant for another reason: it will be the first season where Foot Locker’s current merchandising team has full control over product buys. Dick’s has paired that merchandising reset with a significant marketing campaign designed to reintroduce the Foot Locker brand to consumers.
Nike, too, is under pressure to return to growth, and the company has been working to grow its wholesale presence since pulling back to expand DTC.
In its Q4 and full year fiscal 2026 results, which Nike reported in July, full-year revenue was flat. Net income in Q4 increased, but almost entirely because of a one-time tariff recovery.
Nike projects revenue to decline in the low- to mid-single digits through the first two quarters of fiscal 2027. CFO Matt Friend cited a more cautious consumer and softer sell-through trends on the July earnings call.
“The operating environment became more challenging as we progressed through the quarter,” Friend said. “After a stronger start in March, especially in North America, by mid-April, we began to see a deceleration in retail sales trends. Our consumer is under pressure around the world, and we can particularly see it having a larger impact on Sportswear, which declined double digits in the quarter with a similar decline in retail sales.”
