Glasses on the run Newsletter #34

Hi,

I hope you are all well and will enjoy this short selection of stories from the world of running.

What was interesting in the business of running

Nike's Q1 results - lower than expected sales, higher than expected earnings. Overall sales grew by 2% year-on-year to $12.94 billion. The growth was driven by Nike Direct, which gained 6%, reaching $5.4 billion (41.7% of total sales). Interestingly, and apparently similar to what is happening with other retailers, the growth in Nike Direct was...

driven by stores, where traffic climbed double digits from last year. The strength caused a shift in sales from digital to physical channels...

So, after the pandemic's shift to online, now the trend is going in the opposite direction. Most retailers have been working for years now to combine their ecommerce and physical stores into a single customer experience.

Moving on to Altra who launched its first 'low-drop' shoe - the AltraFWD Experience.  It's heel-to-toe drop is officially 4 mm, although Runner's World's test measured it to be 6.8 mm for the men's version. In any case, the drop is nothing drastic and is apparently an attempt to make Altra more approachable to a wider group of runners. It's the first shoe that departs from Altra's 'zero-drop' philosophy and as someone who has been running in Escalante for years, I'll be interested to see what the new shoe feels like.

Brooks has also made an innovative launch - it has partnered with HP on a shoe with 3D printed midsole. The shoe is called Exhilarate-BL and will be available in limited numbers as part of a 'test and learn' programme.

And finally, are you familiar with the Fastest Known Time movement? I wasn't. I really enjoyed this interview with one of the movement's pioneers. Here is a quote from it:

and at the beginning we just had three rules: Be honest, tell someone what you were going to do before you did it, and then tell them immediately after you did it.

Thank you for reading,

Momchil