Glasses on the run Newsletter #55
Hi,
I hope you are all well and will enjoy this edition of the newsletter.
What was interesting in the business of running
Starting with the Paris Summer Olympic Games that just finished yesterday.
The women marathon final, which took place on the last day of the Games, showed performance and competition of the highest level. Sifan Hassan won the race with a new Olympic record of 2:22:55. The Dutch runner, who won the London and Chicago marathons last year, had already taken place in the 5,000 and 10,000 Olympic finals, at both of which she won bronze. The world-record holder Tigst Assefa from Ethiopia finished second just 3 seconds behind the winner. And Kenya's Hellen Obiri - the winner of the last two Boston marathons and the last New York City one - finished third, just 15 seconds after the winner. (Runner's World)
The men marathon final also produced a new Olympic record. It was set by Tamirat Tola from Ethiopia who won the race with 2:06:26. He previously won the New York City marathon in 2023. Tola was followed by Bashir Abdi of Belgium, who finished second with 2:06:47, and Benson Kipruto of Kenya who finished third with 2:07:00. The race was disappointing for the winner of the previous two Olympic men marathon races, and widely considered the best marathoner in the world, Eliud Kipchoge who did not finish the race. (BBC)
So, what shoes were the fastest marathoners wearing? In the women marathon final, four out of the top 10 runners, including the winner Sifan Hassan, wore Nike Alphafly 3. Two wore Adidas, two wore Asics, one wore On, and one wore Under Armour. Three of the top 5 runners in the men race wore Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1. Among the top 10 fastest, three (including the winner Tamirat Tola) wore Adidas, two wore Nike, two wore Asics, and one wore New Balance. Interestingly, two Chinese brands were also present - Xtep and Li-Ning. More details in Runner's World for both the men and the women races.
Despite being the most popular brand among the fastest marathoners however, Nike is still struggling to connect with everyday runners, as its CEO shared a few quarterly earning calls ago. This is a seven-minute video that explains why Nike ran into trouble, why its strategy to focus on its direct channel is not paying off (yet), and why it is now trying to rebuild relationships with its wholesale partners and distributors. (Bloomberg Originals)
Meanwhile, some of Nike's competitors are posting record breaking quarterly results. Here are some of them.
Brooks' revenue for the second quarter grew by 15% year on year. The company says it recorded double-digit growth in both its wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels. It is the leading running performance brand in the US market and that helped it reach 19% growth. The company quotes Glycerin 21, Ghost Max, and the strong Ghost 16 introduction as contributing to the growth. And it expects that the newly introduced Hyperion Max 2 will perform strongly through the fall marathon season. (Business Wire, Footwear News)
Mizuno, which does have a running business, but is diverse into a number of different sports, reported a strong Q1 with its sales growing 6.3% year on year. Its operating profit grew by 21.6%. Interestingly, in Europe, its gross profit margin of running shoes improved so much, that although net sales for the region decreased 2.0% year on year, operating profit increased 41.9%. (SGB Media)
Garmin also followed in the trend above. It posted its second quarter results with 14% year on year growth. While its outdoor business declined by 2%, mostly driven by adventure watches, its fitness business (which includes wearables) posted 28% growth. (Garmin)
In the meantime, resale platform StockX posted its annual snapshot report with data about the best selling products on its platform. Asics was the fastest growing brand with a growth rate of 600% year on year. Adidas and On were second and third with 93% and 63% respectively. (StockX, Fashion Dive)
Finally, here is an overview of the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (Bloomberg). And this is a beautiful visual story of how Nike, Adidas, and others are innovating in the pursuit of the fastest running shoe. (FT)
As always, thank you for reading,
Momchil
