Asics North America (ANA), which includes the U.S., Canada and Mexico, said sales in the U.S. were down 18.4 percent year-over-year in the first quarter. Canada and Mexico were down 5.5 percent and 10 percent year-over-year in the local currency respectively.
Asics U.S. saw a year-over-year decrease of 14.2 percent in performance running due to COVID-19.
Asics North America said it saw the adverse effects on the year-over-year performance of the wholesale and retail channels across the region due to COVID-19. While the global health crisis created difficulties, Asics did see strong demand for running footwear and apparel across the online business through retail partners’ online channels and Asics’ own e-commerce channel.
“There is no question that these unprecedented times have created challenges for our brand and the industry as a whole,” said Koichiro Kodama, Asics North America CEO. “We have also found that our brand philosophy of Sound Mind, Sound BodyTM is more important than ever, especially as people have needed to adjust to these new circumstances and fitness regimes. With these adjustments and during this time, we have also seen an increased demand for Asics performance footwear products online through our key partners as well as our own e-commerce.”
Before the pandemic, Asics launched several new innovative footwear products including Evoride, which became the third member of the Asics Energy Saving Series following Metaride and Glideride models. Asics also debuted the Gel-Nimbus Lite and Novablast models.
As the footwear industry responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, Asics is supporting consumers and partners through various activations.
Asics has increased its healthcare and first responder discount to 60 percent in the US and is providing free access to the Asics Studio app, allowing consumers to utilize the full library of at-home trainer lead workouts.
Additionally, Asics is working closely with key running retail partners throughout the region to identify areas of need within their communities – from shoe donations for local healthcare workers and first responders to t-shirts for screen printing and fundraising efforts.
Photo courtesy Asics
