All Sporting Goods Intelligence articles in Volume 31, Issue 29+30

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    SGI Europe Executive Edition: Vol 31 - 29+30

    2020-08-14T11:05:00Z

    More e-commerce, fewer items | WFSGI sees recovery, but later | Sports equipment market up by 3.5% | Britain’s DW closes all stores | XXL bounces back | Swiss market to drop by 10% | Nike realigns management | Adidas, Puma see an upside | Reebok users decide on product

  • News briefs

    E-bike sales in Europe are expected to more than double

    2020-08-13T18:28:00Z

    Sales of e-bikes in Europe grew by 23 percent in 2019, and exceeded for the first time the milestone of 3 million units sold annually. E-bike sales accounted for 17 percent of total bicycle sales last year. These figures were recently announced by the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry ...

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    New chairman for Adidas

    2020-08-13T17:48:00Z

    Thomas Rabe, 55, has been appointed as the new chairman of Adidas AG’s supervisory board. He succeeds the 76-year-old Igor Landau after 16 years in that position. Rabe became chief financial officer of Bertelsmann in 2006 and was promoted to chief executive of the global media company six years later. ...

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    New president for Wolverine

    2020-08-13T17:47:00Z

    On Sept. 8, Wolverine Worldwide will have a new president and member of the board, Brendan Hoffmann. He brings over 30 years of experience in merchandising, digital marketing and omni-channel retail experiences. Among various stations, he served as president and chief executive of Bon-Ton Stores and Lord & Taylor. Earlier, ...

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    Champion's Nordic office moves to Stockholm

    2020-08-13T17:46:00Z

    Champion’s head office and showroom for the Nordic countries is moving to the center of Stockholm from its logistics hub at Tyresö. The move follows the appointment a year ago of Klas Ottoson as head of Northern European operations. The former Ralph Lauren executive took the place then of Ralph ...

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    Big recovery at Foot Locker

    2020-08-13T17:44:00Z

    In a preliminary statement that sent its stock price high, Foot Locker revealed a jump of 18 percent in same-store sales during its third quarter ended on Aug. 1. Analysts had forecast a loss for the company, but Foot Locker indicated that it may have even beaten the $60 million ...

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    A Foot Locker pioneer, Harold Sells, passed away

    2020-08-13T17:42:00Z

    Harold Sells, a U.S. executive closely connected with the history of Foot Locker, has died at the age of 92. His career started in 1954 when he opened the first store of Kinney Shoes, a American shoe retail chain that was then bought by Woolworth Corporation, where he helped found ...

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    Asics posts heavy losses

    2020-08-13T16:52:00Z

    After ending the first quarter in the red, Asics posted steep losses again in the second quarter. They reached 11,700 million yen (€92.5m-$109.5m), versus a profit of ¥2,100 million for the same quarter last year. Sales were off by 21.5 percent to ¥146,800 million (€1.16bn-$1.37bn) in the period, or by ...

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    Boardriders sells a U.K. retail chain to its founder

    2020-08-13T16:37:00Z

    After long discussions, Boardriders has resold selected assets of Two Seasons, a British action sports retailer, to its founder, Stuart Roberts, helped by two investors. Roberts founded Two Seasons in 1982, when he was 19 years old, and sold it to the former Billabong Group in 2007 when it had ...

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    Good ratings for Adidas

    2020-08-13T16:34:00Z

    The Adidas Group got strong investment-grade ratings from Standard & Poors and Moody’s – A+ and A2, respectively – with a stable outlook, making it one of the top-rated companies in the sporting goods industry. The two agencies praised the Big a for its diversification in terms of geographies, products ...

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    Messe München is looking for new events in times of the pandemic

    2020-08-13T14:03:00Z

    When the trade show business was discontinued in March, Messe München’s Locations division began to look for new events and opportunities. One of these new events, in this case for end customers, is a new drive-in cinema on the northern outdoor exhibition area. Other examples of “alternative use” were the ...

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    Footway replaces Sportamore’s CEO with an integration specialist

    2020-08-13T14:02:00Z

    Johan Ryding is leaving as chief executive of Sportamore, the Swedish-based online sports retailer, following the company’s acquisition by another Swedish e-tailer, Footway, in the spring, as part of the integration process. Henrik Martin took over his place as interim CEO on Aug. 12. Described as an integration specialist, Martin ...

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    Slinger Bag beats sales projections in multiple markets

    2020-08-13T14:02:00Z

    Slinger Bag, the brand behind the eponymous combination ball launcher and tennis bag, has exceeded its sales projections in Japan, Scandinavia, Switzerland and the U.K., possibly indicating that tennis afficionados are eager to return to the game. Although it was launched in those markets as recently as late May, at ...

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    Executive Survey: Sports and outdoor brands are pushing DTC

    2020-08-13T13:08:00Z

    While experiencing generally lower orders from retailers, primarily because of the coronavirus outbreak, more than two-thirds of sports and outdoor brands responding to our survey intend to further develop their own direct-to-consumer (DTC) operations, relying more on their own websites than on those of third-party e-tailers. 

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    Vulcabras banks on its business model for the recovery

    2020-08-13T13:03:00Z

    Vulcabras, parent company of Olympikus and Brazilian licensee for Under Armour, claims that its business model, which relies for the most part on in-house shoe production at two modern factories in the Brazilian northeast, is giving it a unique agility in responding to the Covid-19 crisis, positioning it as an ...

  • Article

    Reebok is giving the public a say in production

    2020-08-13T08:55:00Z

    Reebok has introduced an internet platform through which consumers from all over the world can determine the fate of the company’s new sneaker designs. The first design is actually a redesign, the “Bee Keeper” Classic Leather, by Emily Gibbemeyer and Alex Chou. Called First Pitch, the new internet platform was ...

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    Frasers delays financial report, establishes a new commercial division

    2020-08-12T21:00:00Z

    Frasers Group – formerly Sports Direct International – says it is delaying the presentation of its annual results, as it did last year, because it needs more time to complete the accounts and their audit. The report is now due to be released on Aug. 20 instead of Aug. ...

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    Burton receives labor and environmental accreditation

    2020-08-12T20:59:00Z

    The social compliance program at Burton Snowboards has been accredited by the Fair Labor Association (FLA). According to the FLA’s president and chief executive, Sharon Waxman, the American snowboarding and mountaineering company has undergone multiple years of scrutiny and set up suitable systems to detect and remedy unfair labor practices ...

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    WFSGI’s monthly survey shows signs of optimism

    2020-08-12T19:02:00Z

    The outlook is more positive than before for the sporting goods sector, based on the results of the July edition of the Covid-18 Impact Survey carried out by the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI), a monthly report conducted among manufacturers as well as retailers and brands across ...

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    ​Carl Sterner sets up Shimano’s new fishing organization for the Nordics

    2020-08-12T18:59:00Z

    Shimano has appointed Carl Sterner to build and lead a new sales organization for its fishing tackle products in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. It will be based in Uppsala, Sweden. Sterner was previously responsible for the hunting and wilderness segment in Sweden at XXL, the big Nordic sporting goods ...