Inov8 has reappointed Ricochet as its distributor for France, ending the direct-sales operation it initiated in January 2022, as we then reported. Ricochet returns, then, after four years. Emmanuel Fedon, who opened the trail-running brand’s showroom in the city of Annecy and has led its French team since 2022, is leaving the company.
In March 2025 Inov8 described France as a “priority market” under direct control, having announced the switch with comparable confidence: Inov8’s then head of sales called Fedon’s hire “a real coup” and placed France among direct markets alongside the UK, USA, Germany, Austria and Scandinavia (Ultra Runner Mag). Tuesday’s press release states no reason for the reversal.
Also moving back to distributors, as announced in the same release, are Austria and Scandinavia. HB Sports is now covering Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands; the Good Karma Company is now covering Scandinavia. Both territories appeared on Inov8’s list of six direct markets in July 2024, alongside the UK, the US, Germany and France (Running Insights). Three of those six markets have now reverted to distributors.
For Australia and New Zealand, meanwhile, All Sports has become Inov8’s distributor, and A1 is continuing in Canada. Inov8’s own distributor page lists Endurance Edge, not All Sports, for Australia. Endurance Edge still describes itself as the brand’s “official Australian distributor.” This could be a simple delay in website updates; Inov8 has not addressed the discrepancy.
According to founder and CEO Wayne Edy, the change reflects a broad correction rather than anything specific to Inov8. “Like many in our industry, we spent too much time chasing DTC. This wasn’t the right balance, and as soon as I came back into the business in 2024, I worked to change this,” he says in the release. Inov8 put its SS27 distributor order book up 63 percent versus SS26 but has disclosed no underlying figures.
Edy founded Inov8 in 2003, sold it to Descente in 2015 and bought it back in 2020, returning as CEO in December 2024 (Footwear News). Descente’s own public filings, covering its period of ownership, recorded an impairment of Inov8’s full remaining goodwill in the fiscal year ending March 2019, citing “continuous sluggish business condition” (SGB Media Online). No comparable disclosure exists for the period since. Inov8 is privately held, and no independent sales data covers its performance in France, Austria or Scandinavia under either the direct or the distributor model.
