US sportswear giant Lids has closed its store in Plymouth’s Drake Circus Shopping Centre after less than three years. The store, in the Upper Mall, opened in May 2022 and was the chain’s first in the South West after the brand expanded into the UK in late 2021.
But it has not been open since before Christmas and now signs have appeared saying: “Sorry – we’re closed”. The unit is listed as available to let on a leading retail property website. It comes after reports that Lids, which specialised in US sports hats and tops, is pulling out of the UK entirely.
A spokesperson for British Land-owned Drake Circus Shopping Centre was unable to comment but believed the chain is leaving the UK market. PlymouthLive has contacted Lids but has yet to receive a response.
Signs in the Plymouth store tell customers to contact Lids Customer Care for returns or exchanges. An email response to PlymouthLive from Lids Customer Care team said customers “may experience a delay” in receiving a response.
It said: “We are getting back to customers as fast as we can. A customer care representative will get back to you within four business days.”
Lids Inc was founded in 1993 and has more than 2,000 outlets in the States and Canada. In 2021 it was on a global surge and opened stores in London in December that year, swiftly followed by outlets in Brighton, Gateshead, Warrington and Milton Keynes.
The Lids store is now closed at Drake Circus Shopping Centre
(Image: Submitted)
The Plymouth store opened just months later and sold an extensive range of licensed and branded merchandise including jerseys, accessories and headwear. The word “lid” is slang for a hat and the Plymouth store had about 1,000 of them in stock.
In addition to offering officially licensed merchandise from major US league teams from the MLB (baseball), NBA (basketball) and NFL (American football), the store also stocked products from fashion brands including Nike, Adidas and New Era.
The store featured Lids’ signature Custom Zone, which allowed consumers the opportunity to custom embroider a hat or piece of apparel of their choice in-store, including from the retailer’s options of player numbers and autographs. But shortly before Christmas, reports were carried in the UK’s retail trade press saying Lids was in negotiations with landlords to exit leases and planned to close all UK stores.
Lids is majority owned by Fanatics, the global digital sports platform that consists of several businesses, including licensed sports merchandise, trading cards and collectibles, sports betting and iGaming, special events, and live commerce. It has US headquarters in Florida and New York and a British division based in Manchester.
Fanatics usually sells from outlets in sports stadiums but last year there were reports it was looking to open its first UK high street store in London’s West End. Fanatics has a deal with the Football Association and holds the e-commerce rights for the official England online store and for physical stores during England matches.
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