Sport Clips vs European Wax Center franchise USA 2026: is the $95K investment gap worth it?
Sport Clips is the lighter bet on entry — $237K vs $332K (about $95K less). Sport Clips runs the bigger network at 1702 vs 1042 outlets.
01 What actually matters
Numbers that separate them on a 5-year horizon — not the franchise-development pitch.
Sport Clips has 1.6× more outlets than European Wax Center (1702 vs 1042) — more brand recognition and supplier scale, but also denser intra-brand competition in saturated markets.
Sport Clips charges 6% royalty on revenue — recurring, uncapped, and deducted before your own margin is calculated. Factor it into every pro-forma.
02 The numbers, visualised
Primary format per brand, from FDD Item 7. A brand's smaller express or non-traditional formats can cost materially less.
Initial investment (FDD Item 7)
Total initial investment, low end of each brand's FDD Item 7 range for its primary format. Several US brands also run smaller express, non-traditional or conversion formats at materially lower investment — check the brand page for the full Item 7 table.
Network scale — total outlets
Total US outlets from FDD Item 20. Bigger networks mean more brand recognition and supplier scale; smaller ones mean less intra-brand competition in your trade area.
Customer ratings
Which brand's outlets are rated higher by customers, aggregated across locations. Exact star rating and review volume are in Brand Health.
Direction only — the underlying rating & review count are Pro data.
03 Side-by-side
Straight from each brand’s FDD. Green badge marks the more favourable value for a typical first-time operator.
| Metric | Sport Clips | European Wax Center |
|---|---|---|
| Initial investment (Item 7) | $237K ↓ Lower | $332K |
| Royalty (Item 6) | 6% | 6% |
| Gross margin | — | — |
| Min space (sq ft) | 1000 | 1000 |
| Total US outlets (Item 20) | 1702 ↑ Bigger | 1042 |
| Franchise fee (Item 5) | $70K | $45K ↓ Lower |
| Additional funds | — | — |
Not sure if Sport Clips or European Wax Center actually fits *you*?
BrandFit asks 6 visual questions about your operator profile, capital, and location — then ranks all 184 brands by predicted success-fit for your situation. See where these brands really stand for someone like you.
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04 Explore these brands in depth
Same data plus the full FDD breakdown, fee load, contract fairness and SBA lending picture — free on every brand page.
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05 Frequently asked
Wrapped in FAQPage JSON-LD for SERP rich-result eligibility.
How do Beauty & Personal Care franchises pay out — revenue share or fixed margin?
US Beauty & Personal Care franchisors almost always take a percentage of gross sales, not a share of profit — so the fee is due whether or not the unit is profitable. FDD Item 6 lists the full stack: royalty (commonly 4–8%), a national advertising fund (1–4%), technology fees, and often a local-marketing minimum. Add them together before modelling take-home; the headline royalty is rarely the whole load.
Which Beauty & Personal Care brand has the largest network in the US?
Sport Clips operates the largest network among these — 1702 outlets. Large networks offer more brand recognition and supplier scale, but also mean denser intra-brand competition in already-saturated markets.
Do these Beauty & Personal Care franchises offer territorial rights?
Territory is FDD Item 12, and it is where Beauty & Personal Care franchisors differ most. Some grant a protected radius or a defined trade area; many grant no exclusivity at all and reserve the right to open company units, non-traditional locations or e-commerce channels inside your area. Read Item 12 word for word — "protected territory" and "exclusive territory" are not the same thing — then ask existing franchisees whether the brand has honoured it.
What is the minimum space required for a Beauty & Personal Care franchise?
Among these brands, the smallest footprint is Sport Clips at 1000+ sqft. Square footage is only half the site test — most US franchisors also specify traffic counts, co-tenancy, parking ratios and a trade-area population in the franchise agreement, and will reject a site that hits the minimum footprint but misses those.