Nike store in downtown Seattle to close on Jan. 20

SEATTLE, Wash. — The Nike store in downtown Seattle is closing near the end of January.

A sign was recently posted in the window of the sportswear store at 1500 6th Ave. saying that it would be closing on Jan. 20, 2023. At this time it is unknown why the store is closing after years in the area.

Around 500 street-level stores have closed in downtown Seattle since the start of the pandemic and around 300 new business have opened, according to the Downtown Seattle Association.

The Downtown Seattle Association had this to say about the Nike store closing:

For several years, retailers have been evaluating changing needs for space and scale. We’ve seen that in urban areas since before the pandemic. We never like to see a downtown retailer choose to close and Niketown has been a great part of our retail mix through the years. We are excited about several newcomers who have opened their doors in recent months with more on the way. To help foster their success we need to ensure a safe and welcoming environment, something that’s been improving in downtown and is top of mind for our city leaders.

According to the Nike website, there are three stores still open in nearby areas including a Nike factory store in Bellevue, a Nike clearance store in Auburn, and another Nike factory store in North Bend.

The news of this closing comes a few months after the National Retail Safety Survey for 2022 was released. That survey revealed that retailers nationwide were reporting "an increase in all aspects of shoplifting" and notes that retail "shrink," an industry term for how a retailer measures the difference between the recorded inventory versus the actual inventory, was nearing $100 billion.

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“Our retailers are reporting an increase in all aspects of shoplifting, but we are starting to see more and more the brazen, large quantity incidents of shoplifting, which indicate to us it's not just solely for personal use,” said David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations for the National Retail Federation.

KOMO News has reached out to Nike for more information on the closing.

Since the start of the pandemic (March 2020) the Downtown Seattle Association estimates that around 500 street-level businesses closed and around 300 new businesses opened in downtown Seattle.