Lids Sports Group has acquired Jersey City Canada, a licensed sports apparel, headwear and novelty company operating 28 retail stores across four Canadian Provinces. In addition, the acquisition includes 9 headwear only CAPZ stores, and 2 websites operating under www.jerseycity.ca and www.CFLshop.ca. Partnering with the CFL, Lids Sports Group will become the online provider of the Canadian Football League officially licensed merchandise. With this acquisition, Lids Sports Group will now operate more than 150 locations across Canada, an increase of roughly 35 percent.
“The addition of Jersey City stores and the official relationship with the CFL will position our company as an even more significant force in the Canadian market for licensed sportswear,” says Ken Kocher, president of Lids Sports Group. “With this acquisition, we will expand our presence in Canada with increased operations and retail expertise, as well as reaffirm our commitment to best serve customers by delivering quality sports merchandise.”
Lids currently operates over 1,300 headwear specialty retail stores, sports fan retail stores and team-specific professional sports and university athletics retail stores across North America and Canada.
The Lids Sports Group, operating within Hat World Inc., is comprised of the Lids retail headwear stores, the Locker Room by Lids specialty fan retail chain, the Lids Clubhouse retail stores, the Lids Team Sports wholesale team sports business, and the Internet businesses www.lids.com, www.lidsclubhouse.com, www.lidsteamsports.com and www.lids.ca. Operating out of Indianapolis, Indiana, the retail businesses make up more than 1,050 mall-based, airport, street level and factory outlet locations nationwide, and in Canada and Puerto Rico. Lids retail stores offer officially licensed and branded headwear of collegiate teams, major professional sports teams, as well as other specialty fashion categories in the latest styles and colors. Locker Room by Lids is a mall-based retailer of sports headwear, apparel, accessories, and novelties which also operates under the Sports Fan-Attic and Sports Avenue retail concepts. Most Lids and Locker Room by Lids stores also offer custom embroidery capability. Lids Clubhouse operates team-specific professional sports and university athletics retail stores and e-commerce sites. Lids Team Sports is a full-service team uniform and apparel dealer, custom screen printer, embroidery and sporting goods distributor. Hat World Inc. is a subsidiary of Genesco Inc.
