Every high street in Britain has one. That black shopfront, the yellow logo, the wall of trainers stacked like a very expensive Lego set, and the faint, unmistakable smell of new rubber and teenage optimism. JD Sports is so thoroughly part of the furniture that it’s easy to forget it started as a small shop in Greater Manchester run by two men, one of whom had just given up on a football career. It’s a much better story than “large retailer expands.”
1981: a fireman, a teenager, and their parents’ money
John Wardle was on his third career by the time he opened a shop. Born in 1944, he’d been a Manchester firefighter, then a civil servant at the Ministry of Defence. Before all that, he’d signed for Bolton Wanderers — until an injury ended any hope of playing professionally. He went into coaching instead, ending up as assistant coach at Radcliffe FC in the 1970s.
By the end of that decade he had a different idea: open a sports shop. Joining him was David Makin, who was eighteen. Backed by funding from both families, the pair opened their first store in 1981 in Mossley, and called it — with a distinct lack of branding ambition — Mossley Sports.
For a while it was exactly what it sounded like: a local sports shop selling sports things to local sports people.
The hip-hop swerve that changed everything
Then Makin noticed something.
American hip-hop was arriving in Britain, and it came with a very specific dress code: branded trainers, tracksuits, sportswear worn by people with no intention of doing any sport whatsoever. Makin worked out that this wasn’t a fad, it was a market — and he persuaded Wardle to reorganise the shop around it.
This turned out to be one of the shrewdest calls in British retail. In 1983 they opened a store in Manchester’s Arndale Centre, and for it they created a new name from their own initials: John and David. JD Sports.
By the mid-1980s the actual sports equipment had all but disappeared from the shelves. Shin pads and squash rackets don’t sell like trainers do. JD had stopped being a sports shop and become something new: a fashion retailer that happened to sell sportswear.
Nearly everything the company has done since traces back to that single decision.
From 61 shops to the FTSE 100
The expansion timeline reads like someone hit fast-forward and forgot to let go:
- 1989 — first London store opens on Oxford Street
- 1996 — the company floats on the London Stock Exchange with 61 stores
- 2000 — buys the Cobra brand, gaining control of its own clothing line
- 2002 — acquires more than 200 stores, including 182 First Sport shops, from Blacks Leisure
- 2005 — picks up 70 Allsports stores from administrators; Pentland Group buys out Wardle and Makin’s shares for £44.6m, taking majority control
- 2018 — buys American chain Finish Line, its first serious move into the US
- 2024 — completes the roughly $1.1bn acquisition of Hibbett, adding 1,169 stores across 36 US states, then adds French retailer Courir
Somewhere in there, JD picked up a nickname it has never once tried to shake: the King of Trainers.
There’s a nice footnote to the founders’ story too. After leaving JD, Makin went off and founded Footasylum in 2005 — a direct competitor. JD then bought Footasylum in 2019, only for the Competition and Markets Authority to force it to sell the business again, with both parties fined £4.7m in 2022. Retail rarely offers plot twists that neat.
Where JD Sports is today
The numbers now are difficult to square with two men and a shop in Mossley.
In the financial year ending 31 January 2026, JD Group reported total sales of £12.66 billion, with organic sales growth of 2.1% and free cash flow of £462m. It operates 4,811 stores across 36 countries, under a whole family of names — JD, Size?, Courir, DTLR, Shoe Palace, Hibbett, Sprinter, Sport Zone, Cosmos and Go Outdoors.
The biggest surprise for British shoppers: the UK isn’t the main event any more. North America is now the group’s largest region, accounting for around 38% of sales. A shop founded to sell tracksuits to Mancunians is now, first and foremost, an American business.
Current strategy under CEO Régis Schultz is less about land-grabbing and more about tidying up — “fewer, bigger, better” stores, with a programme to close around 175 smaller Hibbett locations in the US over the next few years. Meanwhile the flagship ambitions continue: JD opened its largest store ever in 2025, near its Manchester headquarters, with Usain Bolt cutting the ribbon.
How to actually pay less at JD Sports
Here’s the thing about the King of Trainers: the crown is not cheap. Flagship Nike and adidas releases carry flagship prices, and JD’s whole model is built on getting the products people most want, which is rarely the same as getting the products people most want cheaply.
Which is where discount codes earn their keep. You can find current JD Sports discount codes at Couponplus, covering trainers, tracksuits, and the rest of the range.
A few things worth knowing before you check out:
- The app usually beats the website. JD frequently runs app-exclusive discounts and early access to drops that never appear on desktop.
- Student and blue-light discounts stack surprisingly often. Always check whether a code can be combined before assuming it can’t.
- Sale season is genuinely good. JD runs deep end-of-season clearances, and codes frequently apply on top of already-reduced stock.
- Watch the delivery threshold. There’s usually a minimum spend for free delivery — and JD’s postage is rarely worth paying.
- Sign up to the newsletter first. New-customer discounts are common and apply to a first order.
Forty-five years ago, a man whose football career ended in injury opened a shop with a teenager and their parents’ savings. Today it turns over more than twelve billion pounds a year. The trainers still cost what they cost — but with a discount code from Couponplus.co.uk, at least you’re paying rather less than the King charges at full price.
