Journeys, the sneaker and footwear chain that became a fixture of American malls after its founding in 1986, has quietly shuttered more than 150 locations in recent years as its parent company, Genesco, abandons underperforming shopping centers in favor of cheaper, off-mall real estate.
The closures have come in waves. Journeys shut 94 locations in 2023 alone. More than 50 additional stores closed through early 2025. And as The U.S. Sun reported, another 15 spots have already disappeared this year.
For anyone who grew up browsing Vans and Converse under fluorescent mall lighting, the numbers tell a familiar story. The American shopping mall, once the unquestioned center of retail life, keeps losing tenants. And the brands that remain are making hard choices about which leases are worth renewing.
Genesco CEO Mimi Vaughn has framed the mass closures not as retreat but as repositioning. During the company's fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call, Vaughn laid out the rationale in corporate-turnaround language:
"Given our strong track record of turning businesses around in challenging times, an even greater call to action to accelerate the pace of Journeys improvement and initiatives already underway, we are well positioned to unlock Journeys' considerable earnings potential and value."
Strip away the boardroom polish and the message is straightforward: Genesco believes Journeys can make more money with fewer stores, provided the surviving locations sit in the right spots. The company is pivoting toward power centers and strip malls, locations with lower rent and easier access for local shoppers who don't want to park at a dying mall and hike past empty storefronts to buy a pair of sneakers.
The numbers suggest the strategy has some traction. Journeys posted a 9% comparable sales increase in fiscal 2026 and 12% growth during the holiday quarter. Fewer stores, in other words, but the ones still open are selling more.
That is the optimistic reading. The less cheerful version: a company founded nearly four decades ago has erased more than 150 outposts from the American retail map in roughly two years, and its CEO is calling it progress.
Journeys is hardly alone. At the start of last year, experts estimated that 2025 would see roughly 15,000 store closures across the United States, more than double 2024's total and the highest figure since the pandemic gutted Main Street and mall corridors alike. That projection underscores just how deep the restructuring runs across American retail.
Journeys' retreat is part of a pattern that has hit anchor tenants like Macy's, which recently announced another wave of its own closures reaching into California and Pennsylvania.
Coldwell Banker Commercial, the real estate firm, drew a sharp line between the malls that will survive and the ones that won't. Properties with strong locations, good tenant mixes, and experiential offerings "are capturing growing shares of discretionary spending even as overall mall counts decline and store closures surge," the firm stated.
But Coldwell Banker's assessment of the losers was blunt:
"Lower-tier centers face a stark choice: invest heavily to reposition toward premium experiences, find alternative uses, or sell while value remains."
That verdict applies to hundreds of malls across the country. When even a brand as deeply embedded in mall culture as Journeys decides the rent isn't worth the foot traffic, it tells you something about the viability of the buildings themselves.
One detail in the broader data stands out: luxury retail space in the United States grew 65% in early 2025. While mid-tier mall tenants flee, high-end retail is expanding. The divergence is stark. Americans with money to spend on premium goods are still shopping in person, they're just doing it in different places than the families who once filled Journeys stores on Saturday afternoons.
The trend is not limited to footwear chains. Multiple major retailers are projected to close more than 700 U.S. stores in 2026, a sign that the contraction still has room to run.
For working-class and middle-class communities, the consequences are tangible. Every closed Journeys or department store means fewer local jobs, less sales-tax revenue, and another dark storefront in a shopping center that may already be struggling to fill vacancies. The malls that once anchored suburban commercial life are hollowing out, and the replacement model, power centers, strip malls, online ordering, doesn't employ as many people or generate the same kind of community foot traffic.
Even luxury chains are not immune to restructuring. Saks Global recently confirmed another round of closures as bankruptcy restructuring reshaped the storied luxury retailer.
Genesco's bet is that Journeys can thrive as a leaner operation, freed from expensive mall leases that no longer deliver enough customers. Vaughn's earnings-call language about "unlocking earnings potential" is corporate-speak for a simple calculation: the company believes it was paying too much rent for too little return in too many locations.
The open question is whether the remaining Journeys stores, now in off-mall locations designed for convenience rather than the old browse-and-wander model, can sustain the brand's identity. Journeys built its name as a mall destination for teens and young adults. Strip malls and power centers serve a different customer in a different mood.
Genesco has not disclosed exactly how many Journeys locations remain open or how many more closures it plans. The company's public statements emphasize "initiatives already underway" and a "strong track record," but the specifics of the next phase remain vague.
Meanwhile, Macy's has signaled its own closure timeline will stretch through 2028, suggesting that the broader mall shakeout is far from over.
The retail sector's projected wave of closures in 2026 will test whether the survivors, Journeys among them, can actually grow in their new, smaller footprint or whether the cuts merely slow an inevitable decline.
For now, more than 150 Journeys stores are gone. The malls they once occupied are a little emptier. And the communities around those malls are left to absorb the cost of yet another brand that decided the American shopping center isn't worth the lease.
When even the stores that defined the mall experience start heading for the exits, you don't need a real estate analyst to tell you what's happening to the building.