Russian retail company Inventive Retail Group plans to launch a new network, Amazing Red, to sell sporting goods of multiple Western brands. Tikhon Smykov, president of Inventive Retail Group, told the local press that the company intends to launch 100 outlets under a new banner in the course of the next few months. He added that the first stores were due to be put into operation in July in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
At least a part of the new doors is planned to be added at the expense of the former Puma stores in Russia. In addition to Puma, Amazing Red will sell sporting goods of Nike, New Balance, Reebok, Asics, Street Beat and Hoka. Puma curtailed operations in Russia in March 2022, terminating rent agreements for roughly 100 stores across the country, including 21 in Moscow. In January 2023, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that the German company could return to the market as soon as in the summer.
Inventive Retail Group developed the Russian network of Nike stores in Russia before the US firm pulled out of the country in 2022. The Russian news outlet Oborot reported, citing local analysts, that in the wake of a mass exit of foreign sporting goods supplies from the country in 2022, the market is still in short supply. In particular, the Russian sporting goods market experiences a shortage of goods for winter sports. Since the middle of 2022, Russian businesses have been sourcing goods through parallel import schemes in countries with a hot climate in the Middle East and Africa. They are delivering goods primarily for summer sports to Russia. In addition, leading Russian marketplaces sell some goods of foreign brands at prices substantially higher than they used to be, Oborot said. The publication stated that there are also various counterfeit goods, like fake Adidas sneakers, available for a price as low as Rub 1,000 (€10) per pair.
