Foot Locker Invests $100M in Digital Startup

New York-based Foot Locker has invested $100 million in digital startup brand Goat Group (Culver City, Calif.), a platform that resells sneakers. Goat is the largest secondary marketplace for authentic sneakers.

Though Goat had previously been seen as a threat to traditional footwear retailers, Foot Locker said it made the investment because it realized its consumers shopped with both brands, so they are intending to “[bridge] the primary and secondary markets,” said Goat Group CEO Eddy Lu to CNBC.

Operating more than 3000 brick-and-mortar stores worldwide, Foot Locker has a market cap of $6.4 billion. The brand seeks to reach younger shoppers by expanding its technology and customer experience.