Downtown Locker Room Plans To Expand Urban Fashion Stores

Article written by: Rodrick Rainey
Posted on: April 1, 2005

Downtown Locker Room is outfitting several markets with new stores as part of its continued aggressive expansion plan.

The Hanover, Md.-based urban fashion chain, which has 40 stores from Baltimore to Atlanta, will open 10 stores this year and plans to have 90 stores in about five years.

The company says its stores are filling a need in untapped markets.

“Urban fashion retailers are not catering to customers the way they should be,” said Jeff Bowden, director of corporate and community outreach for Levtran Enterprises, which owns Downtown Locker Room. “We see opportunity.”

After opening in Baltimore in 1984, the company continued to grow but at a slow pace, adding about one store a year. In 1999, the company accelerated its growth plan locally and in new markets including Richmond, Norfolk and Atlanta.

Last year, sales reached $75 million compared with $62 million in 2003.

But don’t expect to the see the Downtown Locker Room name in stores outside the Washington and Baltimore area.

Mr. Bowden said that original name no longer describes the company and its merchandise because it expanded beyond athletic footwear about 15 years ago. New stores in markets outside the Washington and Baltimore area use the name DTLR.

Downtown Locker Room already is branded in this region, so any new stores here will have that name.

Levtran will open a Downtown Locker Room at Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton this month. The company is finalizing deals on DTLR stores in Atlanta, Hampton, Va., and its newest market, Charlotte, N.C.

Next year, Levtran plans to open in another new market and is considering Houston, Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans, Mr. Bowden said.