JD Sports is bringing its sneakers and streetwear to Metairie for the first time, opening its first Greater New Orleans store at Lakeside Shopping Center by late 2026. The global athletic footwear and clothing retailer plans to set up shop next to Macy's and across from Anthropologie, joining a wave of national brands crowding into the region's flagship mall.
The new store will give JD Sports three locations in Louisiana, adding to existing shops in Baton Rouge and Alexandria, according to NOLA.com. Lisa Manzella said JD Sports is a great addition to Lakeside's diverse retail lineup and strengthens its offering in the athletic and lifestyle category, per the same report. The shop will carry athletic brands including Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Asics, Hoka and Jordan.
A Mall That Keeps Defying the Odds
Lakeside Shopping Center continues to buck national retail trends even as many suburban malls across the country struggle with vacancies, the outlet reports. The 1.2 million-square-foot center opened in March 1960 as Greater New Orleans' first regional mall before being acquired in 1968 by New York-based real estate firm The Feil Organization, which still owns and operates it today. Lakeside now commands some of the highest lease rates in the metro area, and its tenant roster already includes Vuori, Alo, Athleta and Lululemon.
Part of the mall's pull comes down to sheer geographic reach. Third-party trade area analysis reported in March showed Lakeside draws shoppers from up to a 60-mile radius, more than double the 25-mile average for a typical super-regional mall, according to New Orleans CityBusiness. Leasing executives at The Feil Organization have noted that national retailers increasingly choose Lakeside as their debut point for the entire Gulf South region, not just Greater New Orleans, the outlet reported.
A Fast-Growing Retail Roster
JD Sports isn't the only new name at Lakeside this year. The mall announced in March that Aritzia, Clarks, Chicken Salad Chick and Gorjana would all join as tenants, and Hoodline previously reported on the incoming Chicken Salad Chick location. Aritzia is taking a 9,200-square-foot space in the main mall across from Kendra Scott, with an opening slated for late 2026, according to New Orleans Magazine. Coach also opened a boutique at Lakeside in March, in the Dillard's wing across from Vuori, marking the designer brand's first full-price shop in Louisiana, per Biz New Orleans.
JD Sports' Bigger Corporate Playbook
The Metairie opening fits into a much larger strategic shift for JD Sports' British parent company, JD Sports Fashion plc, which completed a $1.08 billion acquisition of Alabama-based Hibbett in mid-2024 to accelerate its expansion across the southeastern United States, according to World Footwear. Hibbett had operated nearly 1,200 stores across 36 states before the buyout. That expansion has come with a trade-off: in May, JD Sports announced plans to close roughly 175 Hibbett stores across North America over three years as it shifts toward larger, higher-margin flagship locations under the JD banner, CoStar reported.
It's a pattern JD Sports has followed before. The company first entered the U.S. market in 2018 through a $558 million purchase of Finish Line and has since systematically converted many of those locations into flagship JD Sports stores, according to SGB Media Online. Customer loyalty accounts and STATUS points are shared across both the Finish Line and JD Sports banners. The Lakeside store adds to a Southern expansion push that has also included a recent opening at Eastgate in East Memphis, which Hoodline covered as part of its regional rollout.
Feil's Wider Metairie Footprint
Lakeside's landlord has interests well beyond the mall itself. The Feil Organization controls more than 6 million square feet of commercial space across Greater New Orleans, including the Lakeway Center office complex and the land housing New Orleans' Costco Wholesale store. That regional footprint helps explain why Lakeside's retail momentum is increasingly tied to broader commercial activity nearby, including a $17 million Fat City Leisure Park project that Jefferson Parish and local development leaders approved near the mall off Veterans Memorial Boulevard, which Hoodline reported would use federal block grants and state funds to redevelop vacant Edenborn Avenue parcels. For now, shoppers looking for the newest sneaker drops will have to wait until late 2026, when JD Sports' doors finally open next to Macy's.
