Walmart said Thursday that it will offer tween brand Justice in 2,400 stores nationwide and online for the upcoming back-to-school shopping season.
The mega retailer has more than 140 Justice items available now, including tween fashion, jewelry and accessories, bedding and bath, backpacks, stationery, skateboards and tech accessories.
In September, shoes and pet accessories will debut, the company said in a statement.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Justice as its exclusive fashion retailer as we continue to expand our assortment and add new national brands, offering customers quality, on-trend and accessible style at an incredible value,” said Denise Incandela, EVP of apparel and private brands at Walmart U.S., in a statement.
Incandela wrote in a blog post that in the last few years, Walmart has “added more than 1,000 national fashion brands to give our customers more of what they’re looking for from head to toe.”
She added that Walmart has added national brands recently including Reebok, Champion and Kendall + Kylie.
On the footwear side, the company has added Madden Girl, Stride Rite, Munchkin by Stride Rite and Pawz by Bearpaw this year.
Brand management company Bluestar Alliance bought Justice late last year for about $90 million. The deal included Justice’s intellectual property plus certain related assets, as well as the assumption of certain liabilities.
“Bringing Justice to Walmart is such a natural fit,” says Ralph Gindi, president of Bluestar Alliance, in the statement. “Justice connects to so many girls in an incredibly impactful way, we wanted to make sure even more consumers would have the opportunity to grow up with the brand.”
Gindi noted that previously Justice was available in 1,000 brand stores.
Bluestar’s portfolio includes two other teen-centric brands — Hurley and Bebe. The group also owns Tahari, Brookstone, Kensie, Limited Too, Nanette Lepore and Catherine Malandrino.
In November, Justice’s former parent company, Ascena Retail Group Inc., said that all Justice doors were expected to shut down by early 2021. Ascena said last July that it would shutter about 600 of the more than 800 Justice U.S. locations.
Formerly known as Limited Too, Justice — which became a subsidiary of Ascena in 2009 — offers fashion, footwear and accessories for girls aged 6 through 12. Its physical units were located across the United States and Canada, as well as in Asia, Mexico and the Middle East.
