Megamarket, a marketplace developed by Russia’s biggest state bank Sberbank (formerly communicated as SberMegaMarket), has launched its sporting goods brand Konda. So far, it includes only five shoes for running, but the company promises to gradually expand the offered range. By the end of 2023, Megamarket plans to add several new items of goods for winter sports. In the next two years, the project is due to be scaled up to 3,000 items.
To manufacture sporting goods, Megamarket plans to engage “a vast geography of production sites,” the marketplace said, not specifying where the production would be based in or outside Russia.
Since the departure of Western brands, production of sporting goods under brands with little recognition, as well as private label goods, have been growing by an order of magnitude, the Russian news outlet New Retail estimated.
Megamarket calculated that sporting shoe sales on the Russian market last year totaled Rub 350 billion (€3.5 billion). The company explained that Konda is expected to grab a substantial share of the Russian market in due course. “We are pleased to offer Megamarket users a new reliable sports partner,” said Igor Panfilov, Director of the sporting goods department with Megamarket, who previously was responsible for sporting goods development in Sportmaster.
Megamarket calls its sports shoes “innovative products.” They are made from the latest generation of materials, taking into account the weight of the individual components. Giving an example, Panfilov revealed that the new Konda laces are 30 percent lighter than their predecessors.
