News and insights about brands in the sporting goods industry – Page 79
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News briefs
Babolat pádel racquet wins readers’ poll
Babolat’s Air Viper has won best pádel racquet of 2021 in Padel Spain magazine’s annual readers’ poll, with about 150,000 people voting online. Babolat says it developed its oversized Air Viper line through the observation of pádel play and a technical study. The company believes that there exist three pádel ...
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News briefs
Hugo Boss returns to winter sports
Like Ellesse and Prada, Hugo Boss is returning to the skiwear segment under its new management and with its new and bolder logo for the Boss brand. It has started a new four-year partnership as the official partner of the Hahnenkamm Races, one of the most prestigious events in the ...
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News briefsIsbjörn of Sweden may change ownership
Online Brands Nordic, a Swedish investment group, is bidding to acquire Nordic KidsWear, which owns Isbjörn of Sweden, the Swedish brand of sustainable children’s outdoor and ski clothing. It is offering a cash payment of about 17.9 million Swedish kronor (€1.71m-$1.92m), the issuance of 597,165 shares in Online Brands, ...
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News briefs
Investor calls for Peloton to be sold and its boss to be fired
An activist investor in Peloton Interactive is calling on its board of directors to dismiss its CEO and co-founder, John Foley, and to explore a sale of the company, whose share price has declined drastically due to falling demand for its products and connected fitness solutions. Blackwells Capital, which holds ...
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News briefs
Gorilla Sports gains foothold in Spain
Gorilla Sports has found a local investor to help it set up a shop in Spain. The German home fitness equipment company is establishing a subsidiary, to be led by Guillem Boix, in Fontcoberta, a city in the Catalonian province of Girona. Offices and warehouse together will occupy about 1,000 ...
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News briefsFrance is Inov-8’s newest direct market
Source: Inov-8 Emmanuel Fedon The U.K.-based running, hiking and fitness brand Inov-8 has added France to its portfolio of European direct markets, led by Emmanuel Fedon as sales manager. Fedon lives in Annecy and brings two decades of sports industry experience to the role. He previously worked ...
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ArticleKKR offers to buy Accell Group
The bicycle industry continues to boom and is therefore increasingly targeted by investors. After the recent acquisition of Dorel Sports by the Dutch family-owned Pon Holdings group, it’s now the turn for the Dutch Accell Group to announce that a consortium led by the U.S. financial investor KKR (Kohlberg Kravis ...
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News briefsAdidas sets tennis court afloat off Great Barrier Reef
Adidas and Parley for the Oceans have constructed a tennis court out of recycled ocean plastic and set it afloat, in time for the Australian Open, within Australia’s Great Barrier Reef marine park. The court does not itself float but is set atop one of the park authority’s barges. It ...
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ArticleNike reviews changes in its distribution apparatus
On Jan. 19 Nike published a run-down of the changes it has made to its supply chain since mid-2020, when “consumers across all segments immediately shifted to digital engagement.” The company refers to this digital direct-to-consumer (DTC) operation as the “Sole Train” – no doubt a punning reference to Soul ...
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Article
Peloton denies plans to pause manufacturing
While confirming that it is re-evaluating its organizational structure and the size of its staff, Peloton Interactive denied a new report that it was going to temporarily halt production of its stationary bikes and treadmills in response to softening demand. John Foley, co-founder and CEO of the American connected fitness ...
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News briefs
Koch is pushing Sting box gloves in Europe
Franz Koch, a German entrepreneur who has spent some 35 years in the sporting goods industry, is taking on the distribution in Europe of Sting, an Australian brand of boxing gloves and other products. He will also help a Taiwanese fitness equipment manufacturer, GooHoo, to grow in the region. Founded ...
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ArticleWinter Olympics may revive a languishing ski market in China
The emerging Chinese alpine skj market currently represents only about 3 percent of the global market, about twice the level of 2015, when we issued a big market research report on the broad Chinese sporting goods market in collaboration with ISPO. It has been languishing lately, but there is strong ...
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ArticleThe first winners of the 2022 ISPO Awards
The ISPO Group has announced the first winners of its revamped ISPO Awards. The modernized version of the award show, which – in its previous form – has been part of ISPO since 2011, will now be presented throughout the entire year and judged by a jury comprising members of ...
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News briefs
Macron replaces Canterbury as sponsor of World Rugby
Macron has announced a new technical partnership with World Rugby, taking over a contract that had been signed by the global governing body with Canterbury in 2018. The Italian teamwear company, which already sponsors many of the 128 national federations that belong to World Rugby, will provide the technical apparel ...
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News briefs
Puma hires a new country manager for Benelux
As of March 1, 2022, Gerwin Willemsen will be Puma’s country manager for Benelux, in charge of sales, marketing and operations. He will be taking over from Bas van den Bemt. Willemsen has been with Adidas Benelux for the past 12 years or so, most recently as sales director for ...
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News briefs
Nike, Columbia to begin firing unvaxxed employees
According to Oregonlive, which covers the sportswear giant’s home state of Oregon, Nike was set on Jan. 15 to begin firing employees who were not, by the current definition, vaccinated against Covid-19 and had not received a religious or medical exemption. According to the same source, Columbia Sportswear, also headquartered ...
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News briefs
Puma grew by 14% in Q4 and by 32% in 2021
In a preliminary statement, Puma reports a currency-adjusted sales increase of about 14 percent to €1,767 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, leading to an improved operating profit of €65 million for the period, up from €63 million in the corresponding quarter of 2020. The results were achieved in ...
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News briefs
New president and CEO for Ecco USA
Ecco has appointed Tom Berry as president and CEO of Ecco USA, effective immediately. After more than 20 years with the Danish footwear brand, the former president, Dave Quel, had announced his retirement last summer, and Klaus Flock, the chief financial officer of the subsidiary, serving as interim president since ...
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News briefs
Moncler says some data were stolen in cyber attack
Moncler said that key data on the credit cards of its customers and other means of payment were not included among the data stolen in a cyber attack suffered a few weeks ago, as the company did not store such data on its systems. It admitted that other data on ...
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Article
Peloton raises prices, contemplates restructuring
The former star of the connected fitness industry and the stock market has asked McKinsey & Co. to review its cost structure with an eye toward cutting overheads by shutting down its new in-house apparel division, which is in litigation with Lululemon, and by eliminating some jobs, according to a ...
