Glasses on the run Newsletter #59
Hi,
I hope you are all well.
What was interesting in the business of running
Let's start with the New York marathon, which took place yesterday. Sheila Chepkirui from Kenya won the women race with 2:24:35, leaving last year's winner (and both last year's and this year's Boston marathon winner) Hellen Obiri second just 14 seconds behind. Abdi Nageeye from the Netherlands won the men race with 2:07:39, beating two times Boston marathon winner and New York marathon 2022 winner Evans Chebet by just six seconds (Runner's World).
Continuing with some impressive financial results...
Hoka's parent Deckers announced its Q2 results. Hoka continues its meteoric growth, with its sales surpassing $2 billion for the trailing 12-month period. The Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) channel growth outpaced the wholesale channel growth for Hoka specifically. For Deckers, who also own brands like UGG and Teva, the DTC year-on-year growth was 19.9% vs 20.2% for the wholesale channel (SGB Online).
At the same time, for the first time in its history, Brooks Running reached a record $1 billion in sales for the first nine months of the year. During the quarter, its revenues grew 30% in its Asia Pacific – Latin America region. Brooks keeps holding five of the top 10 shoe styles in the specialty running segment in the US with the Ghost, Glycerin, Glycerin GTS, Adrenaline GTS, and Ghost Max models (Footwear News).
And here is a wide-ranging Yahoo Finance video interview with Brooks CEO Dan Sheridan talking about the overall market and its continued growth, the technology, as well as Brooks position, retail strategy, and potential impact of tariffs on its business, among other topics (Yahoo Finance).
Garmin also had an excellent third quarter with revenues hitting $1.586 billion - a 24% increase as compared to the same period last year. Its business is structured into five operating segments of fitness, outdoor, aviation, marine, and auto OEM. The fitness category, where Garmin's smartwatches are, grew 31% to $463.9 million (Reuters, Garmin).
On a different topic, Le Monde has done a fascinating three-part investigation into how Strava data allows for the whereabouts of world leaders to be uncovered. That happens due to the activities their bodyguards post publicly on the app (Le Monde).
And here is a humorous, but quite serious recap of this and some of the earlier issues with Strava's data so far (The Guardian).
Finally, Adidas and Ye have settled all claims. No payments were exchanged and neither side owes anything to the other (LA Times).
As always, thank you for reading,
Momchil
