Finish Line Completes Merger With JD Sports

Becoming an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of JD Sports, Finish Line has completed its merger with the European retailer. As a result of the merger, Finish Line and JD Sports will create a multi-channel, multi-brand retailer “with expanded global scope,” according to Finish Line in an announcement.

“We are delighted to announce that we have today completed the acquisition of Finish Line,” Peter Cowgill, executive chairman of JD Sports, said in the announcement. “This marks a momentous step in JD Sports’ global expansion and represents an exciting opportunity to bring our market leading, multi-brand retail proposition to the world’s largest athleisure market, both online and in stores.”

In the deal, Barnes & Thornburg served as Finish Line’s legal counsel and PJ SOLOMON served as lead financial advisor. In addition, Faegre Baker Daniels was Finish Line’s special committee of the Board of Directors’ legal counsel in connection with the merger.

The news comes as the company has redesigned three of its flagship stores in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City and more than 80 revamped smaller stores across the country, which the company refers to as its “store of now.”

In an effort to provide a dynamic, web-like experience, the company has redesigned its storefronts to feature pop-up shop-style displays — which can be changed and modified at a moment’s notice to give the storefront a fresh look and new feel, said Michael Grimes, Finish Line’s senior vice president of brand and consumer experience, in a December report.

“We’ve had people ask us if we’re going to update our website to match the new stores when we’re done but, really, we’ve been doing the reverse of that with our store design,” Grimes had said. “We call it dynamic retail. It gives us the ability to change our displays or other elements of our store, in the same way we can make instant changes and updates to our digital environment, to display new offers or content on the homepage.”