Foot Locker - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Foot Locker is Medium Risk.

Foot Locker is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. The company occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Foot Locker received a score of 90 on the 2025 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group. The company recruits employees based on sexual identity issues, indicating it prioritizes sexual issues over merit (1)(2). The company integrates ESG into its business practices. From its Global Sourcing Guidelines: “Foot Locker expects its suppliers to have a commitment to sustainability, reduce waste, and work toward reducing its carbon emissions in line with international climate targets” (3). The company promotes divisive sex and gender policies. Its Global Sourcing Guidelines requires international vendors to include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policy (4). However, the company has not canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (5).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Foot Locker does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs (1)(2)(3).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Foot Locker’s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company forces employees to attend multiple, controversial trainings on gender identity, sexual orientation, transgender issues, and divisive racial ideology. The company provides gender transition guidelines for its employees and a specific benefits guide with a comprehensive explanation of transgender services funded by the company (1)(2). Foot Locker offers unconscious bias training for its employees (3). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its leadership composition. From its Corporate Governance Guidelines: “As a guiding principle, the Board strives for a Board with diverse backgrounds and experience, with directors having skills relevant to the Company’s strategy and reflecting a mix of geographic, gender, age, and ethnic diversity and tenure” (4). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its recruitment and hiring. From its 2023 Impact Report: “Our DIB strategy is designed to attract, hire, retain, and advance talented team members from diverse backgrounds, bringing forward rich perspectives and experiences” (5). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (6).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Foot Locker supports DEI within its business practices. From its 2023 Impact Report: “We embrace diversity by welcoming all people, encouraging different philosophies, and valuing the ideas and opinions of others. Our comprehensive DIB strategy is woven into how we work—from talent attraction to development and retention” (1). The company supports DEI within its business practices. From its 2023 Impact Report: “Our Board and its committees provide oversight of our ESG initiatives, ensuring that we address both existing and emerging issues relevant to our industry. We are guided by stakeholder feedback and a strong commitment to transparency, continuously seeking to improve our practices” (2). The company scored a 95 out of 100 on the 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group (3)(4).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Foot Locker provides a benefits package for employees that covers travel/lodging costs for an abortion and transgender medical procedures for covered employees and dependents, including children (1)(2)(3)(4). The company’s HRC 2025 CEI rating indicates the company covers transgender related costs for its employees and their children, including paid short-term leave, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, chest surgeries, genital surgeries, medical visits and lab monitoring, travel and lodging. By allowing a political stakeholder group to dictate operations, the company increases health care costs and risks dividing employees, alienating customers and harming shareholders (5)(6). Foot Locker is a Champion Tier corporate sponsor of the Trevor Project, an organization that advocates for controversial sex and gender ideology, including “gender transition” drugs and surgeries for minors, through legislation, litigation, advertising, and PR campaigns. The organization also hosts online chatrooms that allow adults to communicate with minors as young as 13 about sexually explicit topics. Adults in these chatrooms have encouraged minors to adopt transgender identities and withhold this information from their parents (7)(8)(9)(10)(11). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (12).