JD Sports confirms final store closures for fashion brand as it quits the high street
JD Sports is closing the final stores of one of its fashion brands, bringing an end to its presence on the British high street.
The move means the retailer will operate exclusively online after shutting its last two physical locations this week.
JD Sports-owned Hip is closing its Manchester store at 63 Thomas Street today, while its Leeds branch on Vicar Lane is expected to shut before the end of June.
Following the closures, Hip will trade solely through its online store, ending nearly four decades of bricks-and-mortar retail.
The Leeds site at 49-51 Vicar Lane will be taken over by Size?, another retailer within the JD Sports group.
Hip was founded in Leeds in 1987 by Everton Campbell as an independent menswear retailer.
JD Sports Fashion acquired the business in 2014 after the company spent a year looking for investment, although the value of the deal was never disclosed.
The brand expanded into womenswear in 2022 and sells luxury and premium sportswear alongside streetwear labels including Carhartt, Salomon and Stone Island.
The Manchester branch has occupied the former Oi Polloi site on Thomas Street since June 2023, while the Leeds store remained at its long-standing Vicar Lane location.
The closures form part of a wider contraction for JD Sports, which shut 24 UK stores earlier this year amid financial pressures.
The company, which operates more than 4,000 outlets globally, recently reported declining annual earnings and has outlined a strategy to reduce its physical retail footprint in favour of "fewer, bigger and better" shops.
JD Sports has expressed concerns that Middle East tensions could drive up costs and dampen consumer appetite, though the company noted there had been no "direct exposure" but rather "heightened uncertainty".
Speaking to Manchester Evening News in May, JD said: "Over time, the potential future impacts of heightened uncertainty may contribute to direct cost pressures, including energy and fuel costs across our store and logistics networks."