News briefs – Page 5
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News briefs
Joma to reward the pandemic’s anonymous athletes
In tribute to those who have either undertaken or continued to practice a sport during the Covid-19 pandemic, Joma and the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP) have established a “national team of anonymous athletes.” By continuing down the road they’re already on, these ordinary citizens can register to receive either technical ...
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News briefs
Italy registers booming bike sales
Bicycle sales in Italy have jumped by 60 percent since bicycle shops reopened after the lockdown on May 6, as compared to the same period of 2019. According to data released on June 9 by Ancma (Associazione Nazionale Ciclo Motociclo Accessori), the sector’s trade association, Italians bought 540,000 units in ...
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News briefs
No Pitti Uomo fair in September
In what its president, Claudio Marenzi, calls a “painful but inevitable” decision, Pitti Immagine is postponing all its physical trade shows in Florence from September of this year to January 2021. This goes also for Pitti Uomo, the big international menswear show, which is also used by some sports brands ...
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News briefs
Wolverine performs better than expected
Wolverine Worldwide told analysts at the Baird 2020 Global Consumer, Technology, and Services Conference on June 4 that its sales were better than expected in the first nine weeks of its second quarter, falling by less than 50 percent overall. The impact of the coronavirus-related retail lockdown was partly offset ...
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News briefs
Germany’s VAT cut may hit retailers across the border
Germany decided on June 3 to reduce the VAT rate on non-food products to 16 percent from 19 percent, starting from July 1 and through the balance of this year, to give a boost to consumption and the economy. It has also cut the VAT rate for restaurants from 19 ...
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News briefs
Intersport Germany publishes another report on buying behavior in times of the coronavirus
Intersport Germany recently published an interesting report on buying behavior in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. The German sporting goods retail chain has now published a second one, again based on a survey of 300 consumers. In this report, 51 percent of respondents indicated that they had discovered or ...
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News briefs
Decathlon France supports the recovery of grassroots sports
Decathlon is supporting the “Soutiens Ton Club” (=Support your Club) initiative, a platform for donations to help sports associations in France, which have been seriously affected by the coronavirus crisis and are likely to have a hard time recovering from it. The program, which was launched on May 19, is ...
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News briefs
McArturGlen to launch rent relief package for its retail partners
McArthurGlen, the international operator of designer factory outlet centers, has launched a rent relief package for its retail partners until the end of this year. The group is waiving all minimim base rent, turnover-based rent and marketing charges for tenants in all of its centers that were closed from April ...
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News briefs
Falke offers its own Community Mask
If you can make good sports socks, you can also make good face masks to protect consumers from coronavirus contamination. We have already reported about the ergonomic UYN Community Mask by Italy’s Trerè Innovation, the former licensee of X-Bionic and X-Socks. It’s now another knitting specialist’s turn to launch its ...
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News briefs
A new antibacterial towel for sweaty faces
ProSane Wear, an apparel company based in New York, is launching a reversible antibacterial microfiber towel hoodie, designed to make it possible to wipe sweat from the face without touching the towel directly with the hands. This special design helps minimize bacterial transfer from potentially contaminated surfaces, objects and other ...
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News briefs
Burton cancels 2021 snowboarding event
Burton Snowboards announced that the company had cancelled the 2021 edition of the Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships, scheduled for March 1-6, 2021 at Vail Mountain Resort in Colorado, due to ongoing uncertainties around the Covid-19 pandemic. Burton’s chief executive, John Lacy, explained that it was a difficult decision as ...
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News briefs
Sportmaster managed to avoid staff cuts
In contrast with earlier reports, Russia’s biggest sporting goods retailer managed to avoid the threatened elimination of nearly 2,000 jobs from its payroll because of the retail lockdown introduced in Russia to slow down the spread of Covid-19. Roughly 1,800 Sportmaster employees found temporary jobs with some major Russian food ...
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News briefs
Temporary layoffs stop at XXL in Norway and Finland
A recovery in the demand for sporting goods products in Norway and Finland has led XXL to cancel all the temporary layoffs that it had announced on March 23 due to a considerable sales decline caused by the Covid-19 situation. Sales normalized in April and have picked up recently especially ...
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News briefs
Sports Direct blasts at delayed store reopenings
The Frasers Group, the British company formerly called Sports Direct International, announced on May 22 that it would continue to guarantee full payment of its employees’ wages in the U.K. through the end of this month, as it did in April, but it’s not sure whether it will continue to ...
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News briefs
Italy’s sporting goods industry calls for public support
Assosport, the Italian Association of the Sporting Goods Industry, is urging the Italian government to adopt effective measures to help the sector recover, after three months of inactivity. In its opinion, the measures should include, among others, an exceptional reduced VAT rate of 4 percent on sporting goods until July ...
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News briefs
Adidas launches reusable face mask
Adidas has launched its own washable face mask to help consumers battle the coronavirus pandemic. It is called Face Cover and is made from a soft and breathable material, using a minimum of 40 percent recycled content. Face Cover is not a medically graded mask nor a Personal Protective Equipment, ...
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News briefs
Technogym supports fitness clubs’ re-opening
Technogym’s Mywellness platform will be offering additional features to assist fitness clubs in their re-opening phase. During the lockdown, fitness facilities were able to connect with their members via the Mywellness platform, which allowed them to offer digital coaching and remote support services. Members of the Mywellness community will now ...
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News briefs
Macron announces a virtual version of the Bologna Marathon
Macron, the Italian sportswear company based in Bologna, has announced a virtual replacement for the annual Bologna Marathon, which was supposed to take place on March 1. The brand is the official technical sponsor of the event. The first Bologna Virtual Marathon is scheduled to take place on June 5-6-7. ...
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News briefs
Good first “virtual” sales meetings from Europe
The first virtual sales conventions organized by Schöffel and Oberalp went well, according to the two companies. Schöffel’s 100-percent digital sales meeting was held on May 19 and 20, involving roughly 130 participants from about 15 different countries in all the major markets, more than originally expected. A total of ...
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News briefs
Nike lets New Balance finish up the season with the Liverpool team
If the football season is resumed in the U.K., as has already happened in Germany, the Liverpool team will be allowed to continue wearing the New Balance jerseys until the end of the season. The English team was close to winning the title before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Nike was ...