Authenticity, Excitement & Expertise
A truly global business with a deeply local mindset, INTERSPORT operates at scale worldwide, but their strength comes from being hyperlocal. Their retailers are embedded in their communities and play an active role at the heart of sport. RLI converses with Tom Foley, CEO of INTERSPORT International Corporation (IIC) to gain more understanding of the reach and nature of the business and how it continues to stay local while playing global.
The vision of INTERSPORT is to make sport accessible, relevant and inspiring for everyone, today and in the future. To connect people to the benefits of sport in meaningful ways is their mission as they work closely with their partners and communities to help individuals of all ages discover their place in sport.
Today the company operates 5,270 stores worldwide with their footprint spanning 41 countries, reaffirming their commitment to a strong physical presence and a hyperlocal strategy that serves communities where sport happens every day.
The business is seeing strong momentum across the INTERSPORT Group and this is reflected in ongoing store development and expansion. For example, in the winter season, focus naturally turns to their extensive network of over 600 mountain stores across Europe. Many markets have recently completed new openings and renovations ahead of the season, underscoring the importance of being present exactly where the heart of sport beats.
“In winter sports, this means placing stores in gondola stations, next to slopes and within or near hotels, ensuring consumers have immediate access to everything they need for a great day in the mountains,” explains Tom Foley, CEO of INTERSPORT International Corporation (IIC). “Beyond product choice, our mountain stores offer a full ecosystem of services delivered by highly qualified staff, including equipment servicing and opportunities to rent or test the latest innovations – all core elements of the INTERSPORT retail proposition.”
A similar approach underpins the INTERSPORT Football Specialist Store concept that was introduced last year. The most recent opening of this store concept took place in Greece at the end of 2025, marking the country’s second football store. The concept has also expanded into Türkiye and the Netherlands, positioning stores close to clubs, training facilities and pitches to serve local football communities and host INTERSPORT Football Experience activations.
“Another highlight is the opening of a 2,500sq m store in Beijing at the start of this year, a clear demonstration of our international growth ambitions and continued investment in markets where we see sustainable demand for the company’s sport-performance-anchored, multi-category offering,” Foley comments.
As a global organisation rooted in local entrepreneurship, the business is one of the leading sport-performance retailers worldwide. While not all their stores look the same, the experience consumers receive is constantly shaped by local relevance. The CEO highlights that whenever customers enter an INTERSPORT-bannered store, whether in the mountains, next to a football pitch, or on a busy high street – they encounter a value proposition designed around the needs of the local community. This is because their stores are tailored by local entrepreneurs who understand how sport is lived, played and experienced in their area.
A core part of the store experience is people and their stores are staffed by highly qualified teams who receive continuous training on new product drops and category developments. Many of the team members are active or former athletes themselves and just as importantly, are deeply connected to their local communities. This local insight gives them the credibility and understanding to guide consumers with advice that genuinely reflects how and where sport is practised in their area.
“While our core business happens in our extensive store network, we also ensure a smooth connection to our digital touchpoints, enabling consumers to enjoy continuity and convenience regardless of how, or where, they choose to engage with INTERSPORT.”
To enable this smooth connection between physical and online, the business has strengthened its e-commerce and social media channels in a way that supports local market needs while keeping stores at its heart. Their markets use flexible digital platforms to tailor experiences locally, while staying aligned through shared governance, global brand guidelines and a unified design system.
A key driver of this has been connecting store inventory to digital, turning local availability into a real omni-channel advantage through faster fulfilment and services like click and collect. This enables a true omni-channel approach with 360-degree activations across consumer touchpoints, supported by stronger performance marketing, social activation and shared data and insight frameworks that create cross-market synergies at scale.
The Group’s decentralised structure is a key strength in its ability to be a sustainable company. As a network built around National Organisations, each market leads its own sustainability roadmap while contributing to their group-wide ESG ambitions. This allows their countries to move at speed, pilot new ideas and implement solutions that best fit their local needs and communities.
“Ultimately, our approach reflects who we are: a global brand powered by local entrepreneurs. By combining group ambition with local engagement, we ensure our progress is both meaningful and rooted in the communities we serve,” Foley says.
The ethos of the Group is built on the three core values of authenticity, excitement and expertise and this defines how they are there for consumers every day. The company believes in portraying genuine sport by genuine enthusiasts, inspiring people through the passion and emotion that sport brings and reassuring them with specialist knowledge and trustworthy advice.
At its heart, INTERSPORT is a global brand with a local soul. They are grounded in deep community connection, local expertise and the idea that sport belongs to everyone, everywhere. They bring people together through shared passion, meeting them where they are – on the pitch, in the mountains, in their neighbourhood and helping them ‘make sport their own’.
“Looking ahead, the opportunity for INTERSPORT lies in staying agile in an increasingly complex and fast-moving environment. Like the wider retail sector, we are exposed to external factors such as geopolitical uncertainty, currency fluctuation and supply chain volatility; all of which require us to make decisions faster and with greater precision,” highlights Foley.
“For us as a business, we need to continue empowering our local organisations to act quickly and authentically, while ensuring we remain aligned as a global brand. Navigating this balance, amid economic uncertainty and rapid change, is both the greatest challenge and the key to long-term success for our company.”
