Ektio Shoes, a clinically tested athletic shoe designed to counter ankle sprains, announced a partnership with Xebio, one of the largest sporting goods retailers in Japan. The deal will allow Ektio to expand globally in some of the approximately 420 stores in Japan.
“Xebio will give Ektio significant Asian distribution in the athletic footwear market,” said Ektio President and CEO Dr. Barry Katz, “The Japanese market is constantly seeking innovative products, making this a great fit with Ektio. Xebio's reach into China will also be quite significant, as the rapidly growing Chinese basketball market also has a great need for ankle protection in basketball. There is no better alternative on the market to prevent ankle sprains in basketball than Ektio footwear.”
NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry and former New York Knicks star John Starks are both stockholders in the Ektio brand. They joined forces with Dr. Katz because millions of dollars are spent every year in emergency rooms-the reason, ankle sprains! It’s the number one injury in all of sports. The technology in the Ektio shoe is intended to prevent ankle sprains-and produce better balance and ankle stability, which has shown to increase shooting performance.
Xebio, the large-scale Japanese sports retailer, confirmed that it was moving into the Chinese market in April with the opening of a full-fledged multi-sports store of about 1,700 square meters in the Bai Nao Hui shopping mall in Shanghai. Xebio, which runs more than 420 sports stores in Japan. For this purpose, it formed a joint venture with Toyota Tsusho, a Japanese trading company with infrastructure in China, to set up Xebio China last November. Coming just after Intersport’s licensing agreement with a Chinese partner for ten southern provinces, the move by Xebio marks a significant shift in the country’s retail market: it has long been ruled by mono-brand stores but several other retailers are preparing to try out new multi-brand and multi-sports formats.
