Exel Oy, the Finnish company that spread Nordic Walking in Europe, has teamed up with Reebok to promote the sport in the American market. The collaboration is steered by Exel’s U.S. subsidiary in Georgia, Vermont. The Finnish company has been trying to popularize Nordic Walking in North America for several years, but it has only achieved piecemeal results in the North of the country, coming to the conclusion that it would need to partner with a much larger company.
Exel will combine the expertise that it accumulated with Nordic Walking in the hills and mountains of Austria, Germany and Switzerland with the much older methods pioneered by Reebok to introduce step aerobics in the American fitness studios since the ‘eighties. While Exel will continue to address ski instructors and mountain guides to spread the word about Nordic Walking, in order to create the demand among retailers and sports clubs, Reebok will join Exel in approaching trainers in gyms and fitness centers, persuading them to teach the activity in their classes.
Reebok should benefit from the tie-up through its own range of Nordic Walking shoes, which it has just introduced in the U.S. market, partly in an effort to pep up the overall market for walking shoes, which has eroded over the last years. The range is doing particularly well in the German market.
