Supporting its push into digital as well as recruiting efforts around its core footwear and apparel categories, Asics announced plans TO establish a Product Creation Studio in Boston.
The 25,000-square-foot office space will be located near South Station and include about 50 people. About 25 of the employees will transfer to Boston from the US company’s headquarters in Irvine, CA, and global headquarters in Kobe, Japan, while another 25 will be new hires.
“As this industry continues to evolve dramatically, it is crucial for our brand to be represented on both coasts,” said Gene McCarthy, president and CEO, Asics America Corp, in an interview with SGB. “Strategically, by establishing a design-centric hub on the east coast we can bring the brand closer some of our key consumer markets and retail partners.”
Those partners include Foot Locker, Modell’s, Marathon Sports and Olympia Sports.
Boston was chosen partly because the new facility will be in walking distance of its Global Digital Hub, which was established last spring last spring when it acquired global fitness tracker Fitnesskeeper Inc., the parent of the Runkeeper app. But the area already houses many of the country’s premier U.S. brands, including Reebok, Timberland, Saucony and Puma. Richard joined Asics last year from Puma.
“We chose Boston specifically as a city positioned at the unique crossroads of digital innovation and sport,” said McCarthy. “It’s also an ideal location given how fast the digital industry is growing. We look forward to tapping into the deep talent pool the market has to offer as we recruit for key leadership positions across several disciplines.”
Key members of Asics’ executive leadership team will be based in Boston, including Andrew Richard, vice president of North American commerce, who oversees all wholesale, e-commerce and retail divisions and one of Asics’ most recent hires, and 20-year industry veteran and former Under Armour executive, David Ayers, who serves as the vice president of apparel merchandising.
Global executive leaders in Boston will include: Craig Gillian, GM of digital commerce; Takaaki Kondo, GM of multi-channel marketing; and Kazuya Kawakami GM of consumer IT. The Product Creation Studio will be operational Summer 2017, with a rolling transition timeline through 2018.
“We are a global company and focused on bringing our best talent from around the world to one region to collaborate, push one another and ultimately, provide the best products to our consumers,” McCarthy added, “In Boston, we will have dynamic teams of product designers, e-commerce managers, app developers, and digital marketers working on projects not only for America, but for the world. Many of these functions would have historically been housed in Kobe, Japan or Irvine, CA, but we felt that positioning these teams in Boston would help us better compete in the global marketplace.
Setting up a global hub in Boston allows us to better align with our strategic initiatives and focus on key areas for growth, including our apparel and digital teams.”
The Boston push comes as Asics America closed 2016 with a strong fourth quarter. In the December quarter, the footwear running category was up 9.3 percent over the same quarter last year, boosted by new product launches including the DynaFlyte, GEL-Quantum 360, GEL- Quantum 180 and fuzeX. The GEL-Nimbus also saw an increase over the same quarter last year in the region. The region saw a gain of 25.6 percent in direct-to-consumer sales with e-commerce running ahead 75 percent year-over-year. Profitability also vastly improved in the period versus earlier in the year.
Since taking over as the region’s CEO in October 2015, McCarthy has overhauled its management team and set a goal of becoming “the most important sports and lifestyle brand” in North America by 2020. Other key hires include Roeya Vaughan, formerly at Oakley, as VP of marketing; Barbara Turner, previously at Meruelo Enterprises, as VP of human resources; and Lisa Hatton Harrington, formerly at Surf Air, as general counsel.
The Global Digital Hub at Winthrop Square is led by Chief Digital Officer Jason Jacobs and Fitnesskeeper CEO Dan Smith.
Said McCarthy, “There is incredible momentum behind the Asics brand and we have reached a key milestone in our global vision as we announce the opening of our first-ever global digital hub and state-of-the-art Product Creation Studio in Boston.”
Photo courtesy Asics
