Reima, the Finnish brand of children's apparel, has developed what it claims is the first wearable technology for children, called ReimaGO, together with Suunto, the Finnish brand of outdoor instruments belonging to Amer Sports.
ReimaGO measures movement and rewards kids for being active. The wearable movement sensor, mobile app and clothing concept will be available from autumn 2016. The activity data recorded by the sensor are processed by an app that can be downloaded free of charge. The app works like a game in order to encourage children to go out and check their activity afterwards.
The Finnish company will launch a marketing campaign in spring 2016 and create a website for the product, to be launched in autumn 2016. Point of sale material will be sent out to participating retailers, who will be trained ahead of the product launch. ReimaGO will be priced at €49 for end consumers.
Reima is the biggest manufacturer for kids outdoor apparel worldwide with over 5 million products sold annually. The company managed to double its brand net sales from 2010 to 2014. About ten percent of the brand's total sales are generated by its online stores in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia and China. A new online store in Austria will be launched this month.
For the Chinese market, Reima signed a distribution contract last spring with the Global Brands Group, a U.S. distribution company. Reima products are sold in China through multi-brand and mono-brand store concepts that were recently introduced and will be expanded in the future. Four children's brands, Nautica Kids, New Balance Kids, Jeep Kids and Reima, are part of the multi-brand concept, which was set up by the U.S. distribution company in China in 2015.
Global Brands Group opened 11 multi-brand stores in 2015 and plans to open another 100 mono-brand or multi-brand stores, where Reima will be sold, by the end of 2018. The stores are run by the Global Brands Group or by retail partners.
Reima has 16 mono-brand stores in China, eleven of them owned by the brand and five franchised, run by independent retailers. The first company-owned store was opened in October 2012 and the latest mono-brand store was opened last November in Shanghai by the Global Brands Group. The plan is that all of Reima's mono-brand stores will be run by the Global Brands Group in the future.
The Finnish company recorded sales of about €3 million in the Chinese market and total sales of €75 million in 2015. Total sales in terms of value were stable as compared to the previous year, due to the weaker ruble. In terms of volume, they went up by 15 to 20 percent in 2015, as compared to the previous year.
In November 2015, Reima opened its first mono-brand store in Stockholm, which is owned by the brand. In Canada, Reima signed a distribution agreement with Lanctot, which is also selling Fischer, Swix and Louisville Slugger, a brand of the Amer Sports Group, in the Canadian market.
Lanctot has agreed to start selling Reima's collection from autumn/winter 2016/17. As a next step, Reima is looking into the U.S. market, which the company is planning to enter in autumn/winter 2017/18.
