Lids has promoted Britten Maughan to president. Maughan has served as SVP of marketing and partnerships since joining the Ames Watson-owned retailer in 2019. In that role, he has overseen all aspects of product, marketing, merchandising, partnerships, and distribution. The former VP of buying and marketing for Fanzz and Walmart executive introduced data analytics at Lids to help drive merchandising and allocation decision making. Additionally, he has worked to improve the chain’s product assortment that has fueled increased margins, higher in-stocks, traffic, and stronger sales.

With Maughan’s promotion, Tom Ripley, Chairman & CEO of Lids, will transition to Executive Chairman where he will focus on growth initiatives with a specific focus on international expansion. Lids, which sells 30+ million hats annually, has nearly 2,000 brick-and-mortar locations in North America. In April, the retailer struck a partnership with Designer Brands to install shop-in-shop concept areas featuring headwear and licensed jerseys in 45 total DSW or The Shoe Company locations.

In other retail news:

‍Canadian Shoe Outlet, which launched in 2019 by taking over former Payless locations in Ontario, is closing all 15 of its stores, citing Holiday 2020 and 2020 and 2021 Summer closures due to COVID protocols as the primary reason for its demise.

‍Foot Locker completed its $750 million acquisition of specialty retailer WSS from Riata Capital Group. The WSS chain, which has a strong Latino customer base, will maintain its name, and will be led by COO Anthony Aversa, who will report to Rick Mina, SVP/GM of WSS. Aversa was previously VP, Customer Experience for Foot Locker North America.