JD Sports Fashion plc, more commonly known as JD Sports or JD, is a British sports fashion retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England with shops throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

The letters JD in JD Sports stand for the initials of the founders of the company, John & David. In 1981, the company was established by John Wardle and David Makin, trading from a single shop in Bury, Greater Manchester. In 1983, the company opened a store in the Arndale Centre in Manchester.

In December 2001 it acquired 209 further stores with the acquisition of First Sport from Blacks Leisure Group.

In October 2005 it bought 70 stores from the administrators of Allsports, who entered administration in September 2005.

In May 2005, Pentland Group bought Wardle’s and Makin’s shares for £44.6M; the pair later resigned from the board. In December 2007, the company bought out Bank Stores, which sold fashion clothing, such as Firetrap, Alu, Henleys & Adidas Originals for around £19M.

JD Sports is the official supplier and sponsor of numerous association football teams, players and associations. In August 2008, JD Sports announced sponsorship deals with Bournemouth, Charlton Athletic, Dundee United, Blackpool, Luton Town & Oldham Athletic. In May 2009, JD Sports acquired Chausport, which operated 75 small stores in France. In addition, JD acquired the rugby heritage brands ‘Canterbury’ and ‘Canterbury of New Zealand’ as well as ‘The Duffer of St. George’ and ‘Kooga Rugby’ brands.

In January 2011, JD Sports acquired Champion Sports for €19.6M. In January 2012, JD Sports purchased the troubled Blacks Leisure Group from administration for a total of £20 million. In February 2012, JD Sports acquired streetwear clothing brand FLY53, for an undisclosed sum.[10] The same year JD Sports acquired a 40% stake in fashion retailer Tessuti, before acquiring the brand in full in 2016.[11] In February 2013, it purchased Cloggs, a shoe retailer, out of administration however closed it in 2018.[12]

In January 2016, JD Sports opened its first store in Malaysia.

The JD group also acquired the Clothingsites.co.uk group in September 2016. The group operates 2 websites, Woodhouse Clothing and Brown Bag Clothing.

In November 2016, JD Sports acquired GO Outdoors for £112 million. In late 2016, JD Sports Fashion acquired an 80% stake in the Australian retailer Next Athleisure for A$6.6 million. The first Australian JD Sports store opened in Melbourne in April 2017.

In 2017 the company saw a 30 per cent rise in sales which was credited partially to growing trends in athleisure.

In March 2018, JD Sports reached a deal to acquire Finish Line for $558 million.

In 2018, JD Sports continued its expansion in the Asia Pacific region. It opened its first store in India on 13 April 2018, It started expanding in other major Indian cities as well. next month. its first Singapore store on 24 May 2018 and its first store in Thailand on 9 November 2018.

In 2016 and again in 2019, JD Sports was the subject of accusations of mistreatment of its UK warehouse staff, with comparisons being made to Victorian “dark satanic mills” and “prison” conditions.

In 2020, JD Sports appointed administrators for its Go Outdoors brand, placing additional high street workers at risk amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It then re-acquired the business from the administrators.

In December 2020, JD Sports announced it had bought Shoe Palace for $325 million, boosting the company’s shares 5% higher. JD Sports had also acquired Shoe Palace’s holdings in Nice Kicks, a website for sneakers.

In 2021, JD Sports announced its joint venture partnership in Indonesia