Adidas Hit By Lawsuit By Rick Pitino
The suit claims Adidas has caused the legendary coach “grave damage to his public and private standing and reputation, causing him extreme embarrassment, humiliation, and emotional distress.”
HanesBrands Snaps Up Alternative Apparel
Continuing a string of tuck-in acquisitions in the activewear space, HanesBrands Inc. acquired Alternative Apparel, a marketer of apparel basics under the Alternative brand, for approximately $60 million in cash.
Puma’s Q3 Earnings Surge, Lifts Outlook
Puma reported operating earnings vaulted 68.3 percent in the third quarter as it continued its streak of double-digit top-line growth.
SidelineSwap Looks To Bring Re-Seller Market To Sporting Goods
Brendan Candon, SidelineSwap’s CEO, said, “By building a platform that’s hyper targeted on the sporting goods category, and simplifying the selling process, we’ve been able to attract a ton of athletes who otherwise would have let their gear collect dust in a garage.”
PrimaLoft Finds New Investor To Support Growth
Said Mike Joyce, president and CEO of PrimaLoft, “Our new partnership with Victor Capital will provide the capital, commitment and operating support to drive our technological innovation and market development to new levels.”
Lululemon Not Concerned About Amazon Possibly Entering Activewear
“I think Amazon is mostly around commodity product. That’s not our sandbox,” Laurent Potdevin, Lululemon’s CEO, told CNBC.
Susquehanna Downgrades Deckers Over Ugg Weakness, “Unrealistic” Marcato Plan
“Marcato’s plan to drive shareholder value at DECK is either overly optimistic or completely unrealistic,” wrote Susquehanna analyst Sam Poser in a note. “We lean towards the latter.”
IHRSA: Boutiques Continue To Lead Health Club Gains
Membership in U.S. health clubs reached an all-time high in 2016, thanks to 15 percent growth at boutique studios, according to the 2017 IHRSA Health Club Consumer Report. Studio members tend to a decade younger than the overall average for all facilities and are more ethnically-diverse.
Aisle Talk, Week Of October 9
Top headlines from the active lifestyle industry you may have missed this week.
Bump Stock Makers Face Bans, Lawsuits
The clamor over “bump stocks” – the devices used by the Las Vegas shooter to make his rifles fire nearly as fast as machine guns – continues with increasing calls for outright bans and lawsuits arriving.
Did The ‘Pay To Play’ System Cause The U.S.’s World Cup Failure?
The failure of the U.S. men’s national soccer team to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia to some points to a broader problem around youth sports participation.
Adidas Winning, Nike And Under Armour Losing With Teens
According to Piper Jaffray’s Taking Stock With Teens research survey, Adidas, Vans, Birkenstock and Supreme are seeing some of the biggest gains in earning teens’ affection. The losers among the larger bands in the active space include Nike, Ugg and Under Armour.
Camping World Snaps Up Uncle Dan’s
Camping World said the acquisition of Uncle Dan’s will position the company for further growth to its expanding e-commerce platform at udans.com, by increasing customer reach and adding new quality product offerings.”
Activist Group Pushes For Major Changes At Deckers Outdoor
Marcato Capital Management, in its proxy statement seeking to replace all 10 Deckers Outdoors’ directors with its own squad, detailed an extensive plan to reimagine Deckers, including the sale of non-core Ugg brands, a rash of store closings, additional cost-reduction initiatives, and aggressive stock buybacks
Russell Looks To Build On Retail Momentum
As detailed in a letter to dealers last week, Russell Athletic has decided to exit the team uniform business. But it’s only because management feels it required more emphasis on bigger opportunities on the consumer retail side of the business, Matt Murphy, Russell’s VP of marketing, said in an interview with SGB.
