Dan Werremeyer, president of Kinetic Sports Inc., has announced that the board of Kinetic Sports will not renew their license agreement for walking and running shoes with Etonic Worldwide of Waltham, Mass., at the end of 2005.
Kinetic originally acquired the Etonic license from Spalding in 2000, (which had purchased the Etonic brand in 1989). With a wealth of experience in sourcing and marketing athletic shoes, Kinetic was given the opportunity to reestablish the stagnant Etonic running and walking shoe business. The Kinetic license agreement allowed Spalding to concentrate their marketing efforts on golf, which included the Etonic golf shoe and glove, golf equipment, and other sports.
For the past five years, Kinetics investment in product development, advertising, marketing, and professional sales efforts, has led to regained distribution in major retail accounts and independent running specialty stores, and a more than ten-fold sales increase from date of the original license acquisition from Spalding. Most recently, The Etonic Hybrid was named “Best New Shoe” by independent testers in the Spring 05 shoe review by the Running Network.
“Since the brands sale by Spalding to Etonic Worldwide, significant differences in marketing philosophies have led to our decision to move in a different direction”, says Werremeyer. “We respect and value the Etonic association and can assure our many customers that we will be continuing to ship their orders through June 2006 to help make this transition as smooth as possible.”
