Ames Watson, LLC

What does Ames Watson own?

The firm's portfolio includes Lids Sports Group, Claire's, South Moon Under, LidsU, and additional consumer retail businesses. Its largest holding is Lids, controlled through FanzzLids Holdings with Fanatics as a minority partner.

Is Ames Watson publicly traded?

No. Ames Watson is a private investment and holding company owned by its founding partners. It raises no outside fund capital and reports no public financials.

Who founded Ames Watson?

Lawrence Berger and Tom Ripley founded the firm in 2017. Berger was previously a managing director and chief investment officer at Blackstreet Capital; Ripley founded Severn Partners and also serves as CEO of Lids.

Where is Ames Watson headquartered?

The firm is based in Columbia, Maryland, in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.

How many companies does Ames Watson own?

The firm has described a portfolio of approximately ten consumer and retail businesses, though exact count fluctuates as it acquires and integrates companies. No official figure is published.

Who owns Ames Watson?

Its founders and affiliated partners own the firm outright through a permanent-capital structure with no outside limited partners.

Berger and Ripley founded Ames Watson in 2017 in Columbia, Maryland, a suburb between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Both came from backgrounds in buying and operating distressed and undervalued consumer businesses, and the firm was designed from the start to hold rather than flip.

Its first acquisition was Fanzz, a Salt Lake City-based fan apparel retailer with fewer than 100 stores, bought in 2018. The purchase established the firm's focus on licensed sports merchandise and gave it an operating platform in the category.

The defining deal came in early 2019, when Ames Watson's FanzzLids Holdings acquired Lids Sports Group from Genesco for $101 million. Fanatics invested alongside as a minority partner, taking responsibility for Lids' e-commerce channel. The price was roughly 40 percent below what Genesco had paid for the chain in 2014, reflecting the business's underperformance at the time of sale.

Under Ames Watson control, Lids was repositioned around exclusive headwear drops, in-store customization, and cultural partnerships, including a 2019 investment and creative role for rapper Meek Mill. The Fanzz chain was absorbed and rebranded under the Lids umbrella.

The portfolio expanded through the early 2020s. Ames Watson acquired accessories chain Claire's in a 2022 out-of-court transaction, added women's fashion retailer South Moon Under, built out LidsU for the college market, and assembled additional consumer holdings. By 2026 the firm described a portfolio spanning roughly ten retail and consumer businesses, still managed on the permanent-capital model with no plans to sell core holdings.