Foot Locker Ended A Four-Decades Old High School Cross Country Race. Here’s Why.

Three months ago, a major shakeup in the sports retail space likely meant the end for a four-decades old grassroots marketing event in the world of high school cross country.

When Dick’s Sporting Goods, the country’s largest sporting goods retailer, entered into a $2.4 billion acquisition agreement on May 15 to acquire Foot Locker, one of the nation’s leading specialty retail chains, it immediately strengthened two iconic brands hoping to boost overall value and create a blueprint for the future. Foot Locker’s stock price immediately jumped 11 points, while Dick’s shot up from $190.88 to $212.42.

But the billion-dollar merger also did something else.

It set in motion a careful examination of the balance sheet, and by Thursday, about three months after the move, led to the end of Foot Locker Nationals, a four-decades old high school cross country series which culled the nation’s best high school distance runners for one day in December in San Diego, California.

Behind The Decision To End Foot Locker Nationals

In a statement on Thursday, Foot Locker announced the conclusion of the series, which began in 1979 as the Kinney Cross Country Championships. Over 45 years, the series highlighted the very best in the niche market of high school cross country and played host to two 5,000 meter races at Balboa Park, which highlighted future Olympians like Cathy O’Brien, Bob Kennedy, Dathan Ritzenhein, Cole Hocker and Grant Fisher.

In many ways, Foot Locker pioneered the advent of national high school championships, debuting long before high school football’s Navy All-American Bowl in 2000 and high school basketball’s Chipotle Nationals, which began in 2009.

But in recent years, and especially so after the pandemic, Foot Locker Nationals struggled to survive.

Competing directly with Nike’s grassroots product, Nike Cross Nationals, which took the idea of a national high school cross country race in 2007 and built a fully-fledged championship featuring not only runners but teams, Foot Locker Nationals began to lose its footing.

Where It Went Wrong For Foot Locker Nationals

Interest waned, as did sponsors. In 2021, the series changed its title sponsor to its subsidiary brand, Eastbay, and then two years later acquired HOKA as its title sponsor. That partnership lasted through 2024.

Following the merger in May, the expense of a standalone event also likely made a difference. Naturally, the logistics of a national cross country race were complex and often expensive.

Every year, regional cross country meets held in North Carolina, New York, Wisconsin and California by local organizers qualified 20 athletes – the top 10 finishers in both the boys’ and girls’ races – for the final championship in San Diego, California.

But that bill, which included quick-turn airfare and five-star lodging at the Hotel del Coronado (though for the last several years, atheltes stayed at The Lodge in Torrey Pines), was always footed by Foot Locker.

The production of the race also required months of planning and timing companies, along with the physical makeup of the visual product, which live streamed over YouTube for free.

Nike Cross Nationals, which gained momentum after the pandemic, was no different. Its event in Portland has been an even bigger outlay, with nearly 500 runners and coaches and staff arriving on Nike’s campus every December.

The long-term allure of these championships was always the brand awareness and sweat equity they built within the local communities – and business categories – of running. But whereas Nike could target consumers directly toward its products, Foot Locker’s event lacked a long-term strategy toward retail consumers – its core audience – and did not net a reasonable return on investment.

In time, the race lost its cache. Nike held its final race a week before Foot Locker, undercutting the stakes of its competitor. Foot Locker’s regional races failed to yield top talent, leading to diluted national championships that were often seen as second fiddle to other competitors.

By Thursday, Foot Locker announced it was exiting the high school cross country business all together.