Sport Clips vs Great Clips vs Supercuts franchise comparison — investment, royalties, U.S.
Hair salons are one of the longest-established franchise categories in America. The category has matured into three distinct positioning strategies represented by Sport Clips, Great Clips, and Supercuts. All three serve the same fundamental need (haircuts and basic salon services) but target different consumer segments and operate slightly different operational models.
This comparison breaks down what franchise buyers should know about each in 2026.
| Metric | Sport Clips | Great Clips | Supercuts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concept | Men-focused sports-themed salon | Family check-in salon | Family value salon |
| Typical square footage | 1,200–1,800 sq ft | 1,000–1,800 sq ft | 1,000–1,500 sq ft |
| Total investment | $260,000–$400,000 | $200,000–$370,000 | $230,000–$370,000 |
| Franchise fee | ~$59,500 | ~$25,000 | ~$22,500 |
| Royalty | 6% | 6% | 6% |
| Advertising fund | 5% | 5% | 5% |
| U.S. unit count | 1,800+ | 4,400+ | 2,000+ |
| Target demographic | Men | Family / all | Family / all |
| Operational model | Walk-in / appointment | Check-in queue | Walk-in / appointment |
| Ownership | Independent | PE — Bertram Capital | Regis (publicly traded) |
(Industry-typical numbers from recent FDDs.)
Sport Clips targets men explicitly. The salons feature:
The differentiated positioning means Sport Clips doesn’t compete head-to-head with Great Clips or Supercuts even in the same submarket. The men-only target also means a different staffing pattern — most stylists are licensed cosmetologists comfortable working primarily with male clients.
For franchise buyers, Sport Clips offers brand differentiation and a niche where competitive intensity is lower than the broader-family salon space.
Great Clips is the largest U.S. hair salon franchise by unit count (4,400+ units). The brand’s defining operational feature is the check-in system: customers can check in remotely (app, web, phone) and arrive when their wait time is favorable. The system reduces walk-in wait friction and is a real competitive advantage.
Great Clips’s broad family positioning competes directly with Supercuts and to a lesser extent with non-franchise local salons. Investment is at the lower end of the three brands. Available territory in established markets is limited; available territory in growing markets exists.
Supercuts is the value-positioned classic family salon. The brand has roughly 2,000+ U.S. units (slightly declining net-net over recent years), operating under Regis Corporation’s franchise system. Supercuts has had a more difficult brand trajectory than Great Clips or Sport Clips — the 2020s saw store closures and franchise-system consolidation.
For franchise buyers, Supercuts offers the lowest entry investment and broadest brand recognition among the family-positioned models. The trade-off is a brand in a more mature operational phase with less unit growth and some franchisor financial uncertainty (Regis has had operational challenges).
The snapshot above compares cost and footprint, but buyers ultimately care about revenue, and the three brands disclose it very differently. Sport Clips reports a median salon revenue near $409,000, though that figure is filtered to mature salons open two or more years. Supercuts discloses roughly $297,000 as an all-salon median with no tenure filter, which pulls ramp-stage units into the average. Read apples-to-apples, the gap between mature-unit performance is narrower than the headline numbers suggest, and Great Clips discloses on yet another basis, so never compare two medians without first checking each brand’s tenure filter and sample size.
That filtering matters for your pro forma. Because the Sport Clips median reflects seasoned salons, a new franchisee should model year one at roughly 50-65% of the disclosed figure and ramp from there. The Supercuts number, already blended with newer units, reads closer to a realistic first-year expectation.
The other figure worth calculating is revenue relative to total investment. Sport Clips lands near 1.1x at the midpoint, with higher absolute revenue but higher capital, while Supercuts runs closer to 1.7x, its lower revenue offset by a lower entry cost. Sport Clips wins on absolute owner cash flow at the mature steady state; Supercuts wins on capital efficiency and offers an acquisition entry path, buying an existing salon, that the newer-build brands rarely match at comparable cost. Whichever you favor, pull the Item 19 table and confirm the sample size, the tenure filter, and whether the figure is a mean or a median before building a forecast on it.
All three franchises depend on the same operational constraint: licensed cosmetologist supply in the local labor market. Stylist availability and retention determine:
In markets with abundant cosmetology school graduates and competitive wage structures, all three brands operate effectively. In markets with constrained stylist supply, all three struggle to staff properly. The brand-level franchise systems provide recruiting support and training, but local labor market access is the variable that drives unit profitability.
Before signing any of the three franchise agreements, validate stylist availability:
The franchisor will have system-level data; the local reality is what affects your unit economics.
| Buyer Profile | Better Fit |
|---|---|
| Buyer wanting differentiated demographic targeting | Sport Clips |
| Buyer in established market with limited family-salon territory | Sport Clips |
| Buyer wanting largest brand recognition | Great Clips |
| Buyer in growing market with available territory | Great Clips or Supercuts |
| Buyer prioritizing lowest entry cost | Supercuts |
| Buyer comfortable with mature-brand recovery thesis | Supercuts |
For all three franchises:
Want a 12-section deep-dive on any of these brands? Get a $49 Research Report for Sport Clips, Great Clips, or Supercuts — or use our free side-by-side comparison tool.
Hair salon franchising is a mature category with three distinct strategic options. Sport Clips offers demographic differentiation and reduced direct competition. Great Clips offers the largest franchise system and a meaningful operational advantage in its check-in model. Supercuts offers the lowest entry cost with the trade-off of a more challenged brand trajectory.
The decisive operational variable for any of the three is stylist availability in your local labor market. Validate that before signing, read all three FDDs, and pick based on the combination of differentiation, brand recognition, and available territory that fits your situation.
Great Clips is the largest with roughly 4,400+ U.S. units. Supercuts has roughly 2,000+ U.S. units (slightly declining). Sport Clips has 1,800+ U.S. units. For franchise buyers, the larger footprint means stronger brand recognition but typically less available territory in mature markets.
Sport Clips targets men explicitly — sports-themed décor, TVs playing sports throughout the salon, branded MVP haircut experience. The brand's positioning differentiates it from Great Clips and Supercuts, which target broader family demographics. Sport Clips's focus on men reduces competitive overlap with Great Clips and Supercuts in the same submarket.
Great Clips runs a check-in system that lets walk-in customers add their name to a queue and arrive when their turn comes; the model emphasizes convenience and predictable wait times. Supercuts and Sport Clips both run walk-in or appointment models with more traditional salon operations. All three depend on stylist availability — finding and retaining licensed cosmetologists is the operational constraint that determines unit profitability.
Total initial investment for all three brands typically runs $200,000–$400,000 depending on real estate, build-out, and submarket. The franchise fee ranges $15,000–$60,000 across the three brands. Equipment is relatively standardized — chairs, mirrors, sinks, retail product displays. Real estate is usually 1,200–2,000 sq ft of inline retail.
It depends which number you weigh. Sport Clips reports a higher median revenue near $409,000, but that figure is filtered to mature salons open two or more years. Supercuts reports roughly $297,000 as an all-salon median that includes ramp-stage units, and it carries a stronger revenue-to-investment ratio because its entry cost is lower. Sport Clips wins on absolute owner cash flow at the mature steady state; Supercuts wins on capital efficiency. Read apples-to-apples, the mature-unit gap is narrower than the headline numbers suggest.
Sport Clips has the stronger system growth, expanding its salon count over the last decade while Supercuts has stayed roughly flat under Regis and Great Clips keeps adding units on the largest base. For a buyer, momentum signals brand health and future territory, though a stable system like Supercuts also produces a steady supply of existing salons to acquire.
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