361 Degrees, the Chinese sports apparel and footwear brand, is preparing to open a European head office near Amsterdam at the start of September to handle sales and marketing of its international range in Europe, starting with a focus on the running footwear market.
The move comes after the Chinese company raised investment to support its expansion, in the Chinese market and with the opening of subsidiaries in the U.S. and Brazil. Established in 2013, the international business is led almost independently from Taiwan under the leadership of Otto Lin. It works with separate product development focusing on the requirements of running and fitness consumers in international markets, and footwear manufacturing in Vietnam.
361 Degrees has gained exposure in the last two weeks by providing outfits for volunteers, officials and torchbearers at the Rio Olympics. The brand is also a partner for the Olympic delegations of Greece and South Africa.
361 Degrees started approaching the European market in a more structured way two years ago through an agreement with Zitra, an arm of the Otto Group, to establish European distribution. It remains a partner for supply chain and related service functions.
The appointed general manager for 361 Degrees in Europe is Jurian Elstgeest, former director of sales for Newton Running in the German-speaking countries. He previously spent more than six years at Asics Europe, the last three of them as director of performance footwear. The sales director is Ron van der Linde, who will join after less than two years as sales manager for the Benelux countries at Brunotti Europe. He previously moved up the ladder at Asics Europe for about ten years, nearly five of them as manager of emerging markets. Carol Kang is switching from the IT business to take care of finance.
Johanna Meyer-Staude, who was previously business development manager at Zitra, is joining the team as marketing manager. Before that she worked at the Adidas group in Switzerland, as account marketing manager for the Reebok brand and international buying groups, focusing on fitness campaigns. Unlike the three others, Meyer-Staude will be based in Hamburg.
361 Degrees already had distribution agreements in Greece, Poland and Latvia, and another has just been added for Italy with Sprint Commerce. 361 Degrees Europe will be targeting the largest European markets, from the German-speaking countries to the U.K., France, Spain, Italy and Scandinavia. They may be covered through agencies, distributors or direct sales from the European office, which is situated in a hub for young companies in Haarlem.
The focus is on running specialists, with a target to reach more than 100 stores by the end of this year and then double that in 2017. The half-year report of 361 Degrees indicates that it was sold in 52 points of sale in Europe at the end of June. Among specialists who have received or ordered 361 Degrees products, the company mentions Runners World near London, Sport Runner in Berlin and Run Sport in Vienna, among others.
The European team could be enlarged as 361 Degrees builds up its distribution and adds other performance categories, such as court sports. The European office and its partners should have a significant influence on the international product development and marketing.
The European distribution networkcompares with 180 points of sale in the U.S. market and no fewer than 908 stores in Brazil at the end of June. 361 Degrees has also started selling products from the international range in 65 mono-brand stores in China, most of them in larger cities, underlining the growing demand for more technical running products in the country. The products are to be offered by more Chinese stores.
As reported further on, the 361 Degrees group has raised its sales and profits in the first half of this year.
