Sports-mad Australians with a passion for hats have inspired US apparel business Lids to expand its local bricks-and-mortar footprint, as it aims to cash in on the rising popularity of NBA and NFL in the country.
Lids, which sells more than 30 million caps per year globally, has a strong following among sports fans for its range of officially licensed hats and clothing for sporting codes, including the national basketball, football and hockey leagues in the United States.
Lids is upbeat about bricks-and-mortar retail in Australia.
It’s the place to snap up a Boston Celtics cap, a New York Yankees jersey or an LA Lakers satin jacket. The brand’s owner, Lawrence Berger, says it was the sporting leagues that Lids works with that urged the retailer to bring its brand down under.
“They kept saying to us, you’ve got to go to Australia, it’s just a wonderful market. It’s a sports-crazy market, and there’s a hat culture there,” he said.
Berger is a partner at Ames Watson, an investment vehicle founded with Thomas Ripley that was inspired by legendary investor Warren Buffet’s fund Berkshire Hathaway.
The firm bought Lids from footwear retailer Genesco in 2019 for $US101 million ($148 million) and decided to reinvent the business, including making the sports caps and jackets it sold more fashion-focused, so they could be more easily worn outside the stadium.
The COVID-19 pandemic helped the group accelerate its growth, with the rise of the athleisure trend – athletic clothing typically worn as everyday wear – making it more acceptable for people to don a sporting hat in a wider setting.
“Every time I used to meet with my lawyer, he used to wear a suit. Now it’s totally appropriate for him to be wearing a hoodie and a hat to that meeting. People are trying to express themselves, they are more fashion oriented, and sports is growing, growing, growing,” Berger said.
As the group was building momentum across the US, Australian sports fans were also taking notice. “We started to get lots of requests. We would get emails from people saying, ‘are you opening in Australia?’” Berger said.
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