ASICS might be in serious trouble, lost $180 Million in 2018

Not good at all.

That's why they signed Allie. Going after a bigger market!

Need to stop paying Sara Hall $10M+ a year

Hopefully this will inspire them to start making more innovative shoes. I have never heard anyone lavish praise on any of their shoes before or after the Hyperspeed 7. They have been passed by the likes of Altra, Reebok, and - gasp - Skechers in the Creative Product Dept.

hugecontract wrote:

Need to stop paying Sara Hall $10M+ a year

I’m pretty sure she gets paid $100/race, it just adds up

theJeff wrote:

Hopefully this will inspire them to start making more innovative shoes. I have never heard anyone lavish praise on any of their shoes before or after the Hyperspeed 7. They have been passed by the likes of Altra, Reebok, and - gasp - Skechers in the Creative Product Dept.

The 7 was trash compared to the previous iterations. The hyperspeed peaked around 4 or 5.

As others have said, I feel like it's a combination of a few factors...and maybe I'm wrong here..

1. Lack of real innovation in their shoes.

2. Sales have been declining the last few years, not just this in 2018. 10 years ago, it seemed like every other pair of shoes worn by the "hobby jogger" in races were Asics

3. Went pretty heavy into the casual/lifestyle/trendy shoe segment with their whole throwback push.

4. Rise of Brooks and Saucony (better marketing?)

5. I'm not sure I even see them sold in my local running store(s).

They rose 1.94% today

theJeff wrote:

Hopefully this will inspire them to start making more innovative shoes. I have never heard anyone lavish praise on any of their shoes before or after the Hyperspeed 7. They have been passed by the likes of Altra, Reebok, and - gasp - Skechers in the Creative Product Dept.

Maybe. But usually when a shoe company needs more sales they go after the joggers' market. So even if they call a product innovative the innovation may be another heavily cushioned thing. But on the other hand, this makes me think about posts that turn up here where people say that sponsoring elite runners is not of any real value for shoe companies. Maybe, but you rarely see anyone in Asics in photos of lead packs from major races run outside of Japan. As far as I can tell they may have the least noticeable presence among non Japanese elites than any other brand has. I wonder how things would be for them if they'd gotten Cheserek, just as an example.

They are trying to get bigger penetration into the retro market. I'll be rockin' Corsairs at the USATF meet.

ASICS lost focus on what made the company successful and tried to do too many things. All of the smart footwear people are gone, either forced out or left. Brand seems to have little direction and even less innovation.

CoachWag wrote:

They are trying to get bigger penetration into the retro market. I'll be rockin' Corsairs at the USATF meet.

You said "Penetration". Hee Hee.

The words "retro" and "penetration" should never be used in the same sentence.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

As others have said, I feel like it's a combination of a few factors...and maybe I'm wrong here..

1. Lack of real innovation in their shoes.

2. Sales have been declining the last few years, not just this in 2018. 10 years ago, it seemed like every other pair of shoes worn by the "hobby jogger" in races were Asics

3. Went pretty heavy into the casual/lifestyle/trendy shoe segment with their whole throwback push.

4. Rise of Brooks and Saucony (better marketing?)

5. I'm not sure I even see them sold in my local running store(s).

When it comes to their run specialty line, I think #1 is the biggest reason here. Gel was cool back in the mid 90s. Now it's just an extremely heavy and dated technology. They were also late to the game with seamless, engineered mesh uppers.

#3 - they definitely failed here too. No real sneakerhead is hoping to cop a Gel Lyte III when they can get a new colorway of the Jordan IV.

#4 - I'd also put Hoka & On in this category when it comes to marketing.

theJeff wrote:

Hopefully this will inspire them to start making more innovative shoes. I have never heard anyone lavish praise on any of their shoes before or after the Hyperspeed 7. They have been passed by the likes of Altra, Reebok, and - gasp - Skechers in the Creative Product Dept.

+1

Haven't wore the Asics in years. There trainers feel like bricks. And, they don't sell there Japanese racing flats here. They need to do two things:

1. Start making some trainers that aren't bricks.

2. Start selling there Japanese racing flats here in the USA.

Running shoe sales represent squat with these larger companies.

The problem Asics is facing is that they don't have a Boost/Yeezy, or a Roshe/Jordan, or whatever the other companies live on. Running shoes represent nothing, and track gear even less. The money is in shoes that "drop," and have the right silhouette. Asics has a retro line, but that's only going to go so far.

Possibly down to their clunky clogs being so expensive.

it's a tough business

brutal competition

ever-changing trends and fickle tastes

are you everything to everyone? do you hyper-niche? lower end mass market? selective higher end? distribution channels? online strategy? marketing approach?

i'm not in this business but I can imagine it ain't easy

hugecontract wrote:

Need to stop paying Sara Hall $10M+ a year

Leave Sara alone