Glasses on the run Newsletter #60
Hi,
I hope you are all well and will enjoy this short 60th edition of the newsletter.
What was interesting in the business of running
Asics reported very strong results for the first nine months of 2024. Its overall sales for the period reached 525.5 billion Yen - a 17.3% increase on the same period last year. Its largest category continues being the Performance Running one with 258.3 billion Yen, growing 13.7%. Its largest region continues being Europe with sales of 143.1 billion Yen - a 17.1% increase (Footwear News, Asics).
Albeit not that impressive, Puma also had strong Q3 results. Its sales grew 5% year on year to € 2.3 billion. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) makes up 17% of the total sales, which is significantly lower than other top brands like Nike and Adidas. Sales in the Footwear category increased 9.3% to € 1.24 billion, driven by football and running shoes. Puma quotes Run Outside Online, according to which Puma has been the top brand among the top 20 fastest men and women at the 2024 New York City marathon (Reuters, Puma).
Saucony's parent - Wolverine World Wide, Inc. - also announced its Q3 results. Unlike Asics and Puma, Wolverine's business actually decreased with sales of $440.1 million for the quarter - a decrease of 16.6% year-on-year. Saucony's sales dropped by $11.5 million (10%) to $104.8 million. It is noteworthy however that the company is on a turn around journey and those results were better than expected (SGB Online, Wolverine World Wide).
More generally, performance footwear in the US remained flat in Q3, while the Running Footwear category grew 4%, attributable to an increase in the average selling price (ASP), which offset the lower number of shoe pairs actually sold. The overall US footwear sales reached $10.5 billion (SGB Media).
Finally, here is an interesting article on Nike's reputation, which is apparently falling (Forbes).
As always, thank you for reading,
Momchil