Asics Corp. plans to bring in more lower-priced running shoes as part of its plan to almost double sales in five years. According to Bloomberg, Asics Corp. aims to reach sales of 400 billion yen ($4.8 bn) or more by the fiscal year to March 2016.
Toshiyuki Sano, an executive in charge of finance, said in an interview with Bloomberg News at Asics' headquarters in Kobe, Japan, “We can't expand by focusing on the medium-to-high end of the market anymore. We want to offer simpler entry-level models.”
Sano said Asics will introduce more entry-level models with a recommended retail price of around $60. Asics has mainly been selling shoes priced between $75 and $125, while Nike offers models for less, he said. Shoes priced under $75 currently account for about 10% of Asics' athletic- footwear sales, Sano told Bloomberg.
“While we want to offer entry-level shoes, we want to keep the price around $60 so we can offer certain functions,” Sano said. “At the $50-range you can't include some functions, and we are reluctant to go there. We wouldn't go down to $30.”
“We want to attract entry-level runners,” he said. “If that base grows, so will sales of our higher-level models.”
Officials at Asics America could not be reached for comment.
