Specialty Running Stores Start Association

A group of owners of specialty running stores, gathered from across the U.S. the day before the WSA to discuss ways to cooperate and develop a national association to deal with the many challenges facing this channel of the running business. A working title and five regional presidents were appointed to begin discussions on issues that face the local, independently owned running stores.

For more information, please email tim@runforyourlife.com and msullivan@sgimedia.com.

The 50 Best Running Stores in America

The Running Network, LLC and Formula 4 Media, publishers of Footwear Intelligence, have joined together to develop a national program to recognize the top specialty running stores in the U.S. Not only will 800,000 runners be given the opportunities to vote on their favorite local running stores ( the program was launched with a page in the Spring 06 RN Shoe Review, which will go into 32 of the 35 RN publications), but Footwear Intelligence and RN publications will launch an insert celebrating the importance of the local running store in their November/December issues.

The WSA Show

The WSA show held additional significance this year, with some of the consolidations taking place in the industry. adidas finalized their purchase of Reebok, and rumors of a great start to 2006 for many in the industry were supported in discussions that this writer had with many of the players in the industry. New Balance, Saucony, Etonic, ASICS, FILA, Avia, Ryka, Spira, Ecco, were among the brands in the athletic sphere. Other brands had staffers there, Brooks, Nike, adidas higher ups were seen over the four day show.

It was also a time to find out where your favorite shoe-ologists had gone. Adrian Leek and Brad Little, former coworkers at adidas America, are working together at Doc Martens. Angel Martinez and Pat Devaney at Deckers, Mark Nenow going to Brooks, Matt Donnelly at Avia, Gary Siriano at Etonic and Tom Brunick heading up product at both Avia and Ryka were some of the sights seen at the WSA.

The theme that came out after meeting with all of the players is just this: the good get better and the best stay focused. Brands that do more than give lip service to keeping the relationships open with the local running store, and focusing top performance product to that channel are doing exceedingly well.

RN Footwear editor Cregg Weinmann commented to this writer that product is at its best in years and that competition is also much deeper. " It is harder to get into this market now than at any time that I can remember.

The food chain in this channel: ASICS, Brooks, Saucony,Mizuno, New Balance, adidas, Nike, Reebok is always moving. ASICS, Brooks and Saucony continue to focus, and continue to grow. FILA is taking some shelf space at this time, and it does not take a rocket scientist to note that the three largest, Nike, adidas and Reebok, while selling much running product overall, are getting pushed around in performance running.

Fleet Feet Continues to Grow

Hats are off to Tom Raynor and Jeff Phillips of Fleet Feet, for the continued success of their Fleet Feet franchisees, now at 67 stores. The food chain, for footwear and apparel in their channel (taken from Running Intelligence): ASICS, Brooks, Nike, Saucony, New Balance, Mizuno, adidas.

Alert readers will note the success of New Balance in the Fleet Feet chain--after dedicating a New Balance staffer to manage relations with Fleet Feet, NB grew 40 percent to 12.2 market share in Fleet Feet stores. What do we learn runningologists? Focus, focus, focus.

Financial Day

It's Performance, Stupid!

Herbert Hainer, CEO of adidas spoke via video link at the WSA Financial Day, which was held on Saturday, February 11, 2006. Hainer could not have been more explicit and relaxed with the media, and analysts, who just could not believe that he was not going to run the companies as many had written about in a laborious series of financial columns over the past several months.

Herbert Hainer, was thoughtful, relaxed and cheerful with the questions. Among his highlight comments: Hainer was very bullish on running, which he felt would continue to grow for the next 12 to 18 months. He also said that his intention "was to make Reebok more of a performance brand than it has been in the last two to three years...We will bring Reebok back to a performance brand, Reebok has done a good job in music..we don't have deep overhangs, all orders have been dealt with, 85-90 percent will play out in the next three months, then we will be back on track...Reebok will have a slowdown in the first and second quarters, but the third quarter is very positive, the product is back on track, more money on marketing, much better communications for Reebok as well..."

According to Hainer, Reebok was a strategic aquisition. Reebok, Hainer said, was underdeveloped in Asia and Europe and would gain some help from adidas footholds there. adidas would gain from Reebok strengths in the United States.

Herbert Hainer was quite specific about the following, " If we just ask for more shelf space, no, but if we present two brands, with yearly campaigns and a yearly calendar" , then Hainer was quite positive about gaining shelf space for his two brands. Hainer compared the adidas-Reebok relationship to a sibling rivalry-eating at the same table, however, with different designers, marketing teams, one is good at basketball, one is good at soccer. " We can do great things," add Hainer.

Rob Langstaff, the new adidas America president (appointed in November 2005), had an actual physical presence in the Venetian Ballroom. Langstaff supported all that Hainer said. Langstaff has been back for about three weeks from his nearly eight years as head of adidas Japan. Langstaff was good in front of the crowd, explaining that he has been on the road, meeting retailers and vendors in the U.S. and he will doing the same for the next six months.

Langstaff told this reporter and one other about the cultural changes in coming back to the US. He had noted that at nearly 5-8, he towered over the average Japanese man, who stands at 5-7, but that is not the case with the American male. Self deprecating, relaxed, Langstaff could be just what adidas America needs to get the brand back on track.

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Other channels spoke of the health of the sport as well. Foot Locker, which owns Footaction, 360 stores, Lady FootLocker with 550 stores, Kids FootLocker, 325 stores, Champs-550 stores and FootLocker with 4000 stores in NA, Europe and Asia, and FootLocker.com/Eastbay, had $5.35 billion in sales for 2005, Matt Serra, COO of Foot Locker talked of the strong growth of the brand and and how strong running is, but also how strong casual athletic and retro is.

Serra also made sure all noted how much he respected Herbert Hainer from adidas and how much he liked the possible opportunities with adidas and Reebok.

Jan-Feb 06

Running growth continues...Disneyworld, PF Changs, plus three strong indoor events have put the sport on the right start for 2006. Watch upcoming LA Marathon, Big Sur and Boston, among others to see how the sport fares in 2006!

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