Nikkei Asia has reported that Asics is expanding its production to Indonesia and Cambodia to take advantage of the growing popularity of running in Southeast Asia and diversify its sources of supply. Asics makes about half of its running shoes in Vietnam, which benefits from a high-quality labor force and free trade agreements with many countries. However, Covid-related lockdowns in that country recently forced the company to scale back production, resulting in lost sales. As a result, the company is looking to tap markets with a growing running market, including South America in addition to India, Indonesia and Cambodia, Asics CEO and COO Yasuhito Hirota said in an interview with Nikkei Asia.
In the same interview, Hirota told the website that his company also plans to make digital services more central to its operations until 2030. Asics, together with Nippon Television Holdings, recently acquired R-bies, the largest running magazine, community platform and race registration website in Japan, Australia’s RL, which operates Register Now, the country’s No. 1 race registration platform, Canada’s Race Roster as well as similar digital platforms in other countries, which can be used to offer customers additional digital services and monetizable membership programs. In another foray into the digital world, Asics recently unveiled a new running shoe that is only available with digital currency.
