Great Clips vs Sport Clips vs Supercuts for franchise buyers: 4,400+ Great Clips salons, a Regis-owned Supercuts, and three different Item 19 methods.
Quick answer Great Clips is the largest at 4,441 salons in the U.S. and Canada and costs $187,800 to $419,900 with a $20,000 franchise fee. Sport Clips runs $226,800 to $580,500 across 1,788 stores and reports a $416,189 median for stores open more than two years. Supercuts costs $185,930 to $323,460 and reports a $297,216 median across 1,661 franchised salons.
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 | 1,000–1,500 sq ft | 900–1,200 sq ft | 900–1,200 sq ft |
| Total investment | $226,800–$580,500 | $187,800–$419,900 | $185,930–$323,460 |
| Franchise fee | $69,500 for 3 stores ($30,000 single) | $20,000 plus $5,000 initial ad fund | $39,500 single salon ($69,500 for 3) |
| Royalty | 6% | 6% | 4% first year, then 6% |
| Advertising fund | 5% (currently capped at $650/week) | 5% | 5% of service revenue |
| Units (Item 20) | 1,788 at Dec. 31, 2025 | 4,441 incl. Canada at Dec. 31, 2025 | 1,798 at June 30, 2025 |
| Target demographic | Men and boys | Family / all | Family / all |
| Operational model | Walk-in plus in-store check-in kiosks | Online Check-In queue | Walk-in plus app and online check-in |
| Ownership | No parent company disclosed | No parent company disclosed | Regis Corporation subsidiary (Nasdaq: RGS) |
(Sport Clips and Great Clips figures come from their 2026 FDDs, with unit counts as of December 31, 2025. Supercuts figures come from its FDD issued October 2025, which counts salons at its June 30, 2025 fiscal year end.)
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 focus on men and boys 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. Budget for its fee stack, though. On top of the 6% royalty and the ad fund, Sport Clips charges weekly training, stylist-recruitment, and technology fees, currently capped at $155, $35, and $70 a week.
Great Clips is the largest of the three by unit count, with 4,441 franchised salons in the U.S. and Canada at the end of 2025 and no company-owned salons. The brand’s defining operational feature is the check-in system: customers can check in remotely (app or web) 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. Its investment range starts almost where Supercuts’ does ($187,800 against $185,930) but tops out higher, at $419,900. Available territory in established markets is limited; available territory in growing markets exists.
Supercuts is the value-positioned classic family salon. The brand had 1,798 U.S. salons at June 30, 2025, down from 2,270 three fiscal years earlier, and the franchisor, Supercuts, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Regis Corporation. Supercuts has had a more difficult brand trajectory than Great Clips or Sport Clips; the 2020s saw store closures and franchise-system consolidation. In December 2024 Regis took back 108 franchised Supercuts when it bought the assets of Alline Salon Group, and 97 of them were running as company salons at June 30, 2025.
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 $416,189 median for 2025 ($419,485 average), but only across 1,645 mature stores open more than two years. Great Clips reports a $390,685 median ($410,783 average) across 4,158 U.S. and Canadian salons eligible to be open for all of 2025, and it is the only one of the three to publish franchised-salon cash flow: 2,376 reporting salons averaged $83,504 in operating cash flow, with a $75,896 median. Supercuts discloses a $297,216 median ($322,306 average) for the 1,661 franchised salons that reported sales in all 12 months of its July 2024 to June 2025 fiscal year, and no expense data. Never compare two medians without first checking each brand’s tenure filter and sample size.
That filtering matters for your pro forma. None of the three figures isolates first-year salons, and the Great Clips FDD says newly opened salons tend to run significantly below its averages, especially those opened by new franchisees in markets with few existing salons. The Sport Clips median is the most filtered of the three, so treat it as a mature-store benchmark and not a year-one forecast. Sport Clips also publishes an expense report for 73 of its company-owned stores, which averaged $139,920 in operating profit on $528,535 of net sales, but that profit figure is calculated before royalties and training fees.
The other figure worth calculating is revenue relative to total investment. At the midpoint of each Item 7 range, the Great Clips median is about 1.3x the investment, Supercuts about 1.2x, and Sport Clips about 1.0x, with the highest sales but also the highest capital requirement. Sport Clips puts the median cost of a store opened in 2025 at $399,757, close to that midpoint. Supercuts also offers an acquisition entry path: in fiscal 2025 it sold existing company and affiliate-brand salons for conversion at $0 to $15,000 each, though buyers also pay development fees and may be required to build a new salon alongside them. 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.
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About this analysis The franchise data in this article is drawn from VetMyFranchise's structured analysis of 2,300+ Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with U.S. state regulators. See our data & methodology.
Great Clips is the largest by a wide margin: 4,441 franchised salons at December 31, 2025, about 4,288 in the U.S. and 153 in Canada. Supercuts had 1,798 U.S. salons at June 30, 2025 (1,701 franchised), and Sport Clips had 1,788 at December 31, 2025 (1,702 franchised, 86 company-owned). 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 built its model around Online Check-In, which lets customers see wait times and join the queue before they arrive; its FDD requires every franchisee to activate and honor it. The other two have added check-in as well: Sport Clips requires two self-check-in kiosks in each store, and the Supercuts operations manual covers mobile-app and online check-in. All three depend on stylist availability; finding and retaining licensed cosmetologists is the operational constraint that determines unit profitability.
Current FDDs put total initial investment at $185,930 to $323,460 for Supercuts, $187,800 to $419,900 for Great Clips, and $226,800 to $580,500 for Sport Clips, depending on real estate, build-out, and submarket. A single-unit franchise fee is $20,000 at Great Clips, $30,000 at Sport Clips, and $39,500 at Supercuts; Sport Clips normally sells a three-store package for $69,500, and the Supercuts three-salon development fee is also $69,500. Equipment is relatively standardized (chairs, mirrors, sinks, retail product displays). The FDDs describe spaces of 900 to 1,200 square feet for Great Clips and Supercuts and 1,000 to 1,500 for Sport Clips, usually in strip or shopping centers.
It depends which number you weigh. Sport Clips reports the higher sales figure: a $416,189 median for 2025 across 1,645 stores open more than two years. Supercuts reports a $297,216 median for its July 2024 to June 2025 fiscal year across 1,661 franchised salons that reported sales in all 12 months. Supercuts costs less to open, so the gap narrows once you divide by investment: at the midpoint of each Item 7 range, the Supercuts median is about 1.2x the investment and the Sport Clips median about 1.0x. Neither FDD answers the franchisee profit question. Supercuts discloses no expenses, and the Sport Clips expense report covers 73 company-owned stores and leaves out royalties and training fees.
None of the three is growing much. Great Clips is the steadiest, with 4,427 franchised salons at the start of 2023 and 4,441 at the end of 2025, plus 903 signed agreements for salons not yet open. Sport Clips shrank from 1,860 stores at the end of 2023 to 1,788 at the end of 2025. Supercuts shrank fastest, from 2,270 salons at the start of its 2023 fiscal year to 1,798 at June 30, 2025, and reported one signed franchise not yet open. For a buyer, momentum signals brand health and future territory, though a shrinking system like Supercuts also produces a steady supply of existing salons to acquire.
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