Glasses on the run Newsletter #50
Hi,
I hope you are all well and will enjoy this short selection of stories.
What was interesting in the business of running
Let's start with Asics. Asics had a great first quarter of its fiscal 2024. Its sales grew 21.9% year-on-year to 174.1 billion yen. Its gross margin grew 4.3ppt to 54.3%, growing in "all categories, regions, and channels, resulting in record-high all kinds of profits", while its record-breaking operating margin grew 4.9ppt to 19.4%. Asics's performance running business line grew 12.8% to 87.8 billion yen (50.4% of its total sales), growing in most regions (SGB Media, Asics).
More from Asics - it released results from its Movement for Mind programme, showing that running (or walking) for just 30 minutes twice per week does have a positive impact on mental wellbeing (The News Market, Asics).
Strava is launching a number of new features. Most interestingly, that includes AI-informed feedback and insight into how someone is progressing against their goals, but also using AI to detect cheating with a feature called “Leaderboard Integrity”. It's also launching dark mode, which is apparently the most requested feature by users, as well as night heat maps (Runner's World). And another really interesting article on Strava - also from Runner's World - on how professional athletes use the platform to keep track of what their competitors are doing, but also to sometimes selectively post activities to not reveal all the details of their own preparation (Runner's World).
Following from the previous edition and the news about Brooks unveiling a new tagline "Let's Run There"... Brooks has partnered with actor Jeremy Renner who talks about his journey from him breaking 38 bones in a snow plow incident to running again in just 10 months (Footwear News).
And finally, not a running story, but very interesting nonetheless - how Shaquille O'Neal plans to help Reebok re-enter and succeed in the world of basketball shoes in his role as President of Basketball for the company (New York Times).
As always, thank you for reading,
Momchil
