Glasses on the run Newsletter #31

Hi,

I hope you are all well as we are getting close to the end of the summer and about to kick off the peak marathon season. I hope you enjoy the short selection of stories below.

What was interesting in the business of running?

Starting with a few Saucony stories:

• Very interesting trends in this survey on training shoe brand preferences. It is showing Saucony almost catching up with Hoka as the top brand, followed by Asics (also gaining significantly) and Nike (in a downward trend).
• Saucony also announced a set of sustainability goals. More significantly, it aims for 90% of its products to 'contain organic, recycled or renewable materials by 2025', going up to 100% by 2030.
• At the same time, Saucony's parent Wolverine Wolrdwide had disappointing Q2 results, which led it to replace its CEO. The new CEO has already announced a new 'brand-building model', based on a playbook from Cat Footwear and Merrell. All brands are also being consolidated into the Grand Rapids, MI headquarters while the Boston campus is being closed.

StockX published its trading report for the January through July period of this year. In the sneakers category, three of the top five brands are running ones. Those are On - in the top spot, as well as Salomon and Asics - third and fourth respectively. As the report states, this is a "proof that running shoes have made their way into mainstream sneaker culture...".  

And finally, in the week of UTMB, here is an explainer of what it is, a course overview, what races are included and how you can get in. And as a reminder, here is the great analysis the Coros team did from Kilian Jornet's watch data during his record breaking race last year.

As always, please share your feedback and thank you for reading,

Momchil