Overview
- The final two Hip shops closed this week, with the Manchester Thomas Street store shut on June 28 and the long-standing Leeds Vicar Lane outlet closed at the end of June.
- JD Sports will keep Hip as an online-only label selling through the brand’s website rather than operating physical stores.
- Reports say the Leeds Vicar Lane site is set to be taken over by Size?, a retailer within the JD Sports group, though that point has limited independent confirmation.
- The move follows wider retrenchment by JD Sports after it closed 24 UK stores earlier this year and faces falling annual earnings, a company trend it links to weaker consumer trading.
- JD has told media it is acting because of weaker profits and rising cost uncertainty from global tensions, a strategy that signals more store pruning, potential local job losses and a continued shift from high-street retail to e-commerce.