Warren Warns Dick’s Sporting Goods’ Acquisition of Foot Locker Could Raise Back-To-School Prices for Families, Threaten Workers and Small Businesses
Deal could lead to higher prices while more than half of parents “plan to sacrifice necessities, such as groceries,” because of rising prices for back-to-school shopping, including sneakers
“The combination of Dick’s Sporting Goods and Foot Locker would decrease competition in the retail athletic footwear markets, cut jobs, raise prices, and leave Americans to foot the bill.”
Washington, D.C. — Following Dick’s Sporting Goods’ (Dick’s) renewing its attempt to buy Foot Locker, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, sounding the alarm about the deal’s potential to create a sporting goods giant, potentially leading to higher prices for consumers and urging the regulators to block the deal if they find it violates antitrust laws.
“The combination of Dick’s Sporting Goods and Foot Locker would decrease competition in the retail athletic footwear markets, cut jobs, raise prices, and leave Americans to foot the bill. This is particularly concerning given that more than half of parents ‘plan to sacrifice necessities, such as groceries,’ because of rising prices for back-to-school shopping, including sneakers,” said Senator Warren.
In May 2025, Dick’s Sporting Goods announced its intention to acquire Foot Locker for $2.4 billion, which would combine the U.S.’s largest sporting goods retailer with one of the largest athletic shoe retailers in the country. The new giant would allow Dick’s to control more than 15 percent of the U.S. sporting goods market and could create a duopoly with the current largest athletic footwear retailer, JD Sports.
“The size of the deal and each company’s significant presence in the athletic footwear market suggests this deal merits significant scrutiny from antitrust agencies…If competitors Dick’s and Foot Locker combined, the resulting elimination of competition could lead to higher prices for consumers and other negative effects… Higher prices on athletic footwear could lead to further economic hardship for parents,” said Senator Warren.
Families are already struggling amid rising prices for clothes and shoes: 39 percent of parents say “they can’t afford back-to-school shopping this year,” and 44 percent “plan to take on debt to cover the cost of school supplies.”
The deal also poses a threat to workers. Due to the overlap in Dick’s and Foot Locker stores, Foot Locker has already announced that some stores would likely close as a result of the acquisition. The resulting job losses could put additional strain on local communities, which are already facing historic rates of retail store closures.
The proposed deal could also hurt small businesses. The new company would have significantly increased power to extract favorable conditions with manufacturers, putting independent retailers at a disadvantage and giving Dick’s and Foot Locker an incentive to engage in anticompetitive conduct to restrict suppliers from dealing with independent retailers.
Senator Warren highlighted the benefit of preserving competition as exemplified by a federal judge’s blocking Kroger and Albertsons’ proposed merger and recent comments by the new CEO of Albertsons, who said the company now planned to improve to keep prices low “to attract more shoppers’ in order to compete with rival companies. “This is a striking example of the benefits of competition for consumers, and should give antitrust agencies the confidence to continue vigorously enforcing antitrust law,” said Senator Warren.
This megadeal also comes as consumers face increased athletic shoe costs from President Trump’s chaotic tariff policy. As a result of the Administration’s erratic trade policy — and the uncertainty it has created — economists project that shoe prices are slated to rise by 44 percent.
“This deal could raise prices for families already facing higher sneaker costs from President Trump’s tariffs and threaten workers and small businesses. The FTC and DOJ should carefully scrutinize this merger and block it if it illegally harms competition in violation of federal law,” concluded Senator Warren.
###
Next Article Previous Article