Major fashion brand with 4,850 stores closing two UK shops
JD is reportedly set to close its two remaining Hip Store locations, as it phases out the sub-brand's in-store offering. It will reportedly be permanently shuttering the Leeds and Manchester Hip Store branches before the end of June 2026.The Manchester branch, on Thomas Street, is set to leave the high street 28 June, three years after it took over the former Oi Polloi location there, Drapers reports. It's not known when exactly Leeds' Hip Store branch on Vicar Lane will close, though its said to be shutting imminently.Size?, a fellow JD Group-owned brand will open a store there in its place, according to the outlet.Hip Store will continue with its online platform after its bricks and mortar offering has been sunsetted.JD was approached by Drapers but declined to comment.Hip Store was founded in Leeds in the late 1980s by Everton Campbell, who was the Director of the brand until 2014 when it was bought by JD Sports Fashion plc for undisclosed sum.The retailer is known for its high-end sports wear for men and women, selling popular brands like Stone Island and Carhartt.JD is the parent company JD sports, which had some 396 stores in the UK as of October 31, 2025, in addition to a number of other core UK sub-brands like Foot Patrol and Size?.The group operates 4,850 stores globally following a number of major aquisitions in the past few decades.Its portfolio includes "complimentary concepts" that operate outside of the UK and which "sell similar brands to the JD fascia", but "do it in locations and areas not necessarily suitable for the JD fascia, extending our reach within the global sportswear market without diluting the focused proposition of the JD fascia", JD's website explains.Among them are brands like Hibbett, DTLR, Shoe Palace, Sizeer, and Courir.It also has a number of sport and outdoor brands within its stable, like Sprinter, Sport Zone, Go Outdoors, Blacks, Tiso, Ultimate Outdoors, Fishing Republic, and Naylors.
