SGB Update Sports & Fitness
Globe Intl. Appoints Surf/Beach Lifestyle Vet As New Board Chair
Globe International Ltd. appointed Harry Hodge as non-executive director and chair of the company’s Board of Directors. William Crothers resigned as chair and director of the Board of Directors after a three-year term, effective immediately.
Asics Invests In Virtual Reality Exercise
Asics Corp. announced that its investment subsidiary, Asics Ventures Corp., had invested in Valkyrie Industries, Ltd., a London-based startup that combines virtual reality with electrical muscle stimulation. The funding amount was undisclosed.
New Balance To Build Plant In Londonderry
New Balance plans to build a manufacturing plant near the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Londonderry, NH; this is the company’s sixth factory in the U.S. The others are in Maine and Massachusetts.
NRF Foundation Adds Four Members To Board Of Directors
The NRF Foundation reported adding four new members to its Board of Directors, elected during the organization’s summer board meeting in New York City.
Life Time Plans Summer 2023 Opening Of 30th Texas Location
Life Time reported a late-summer opening of its Life Time Sienna, a member-only club, and 30th in Texas. A preview center is open for prospective members for the 124,000-square-foot athletic country club in Missouri City, TX.
Walmart Opens Its Largest Fulfillment Center Outside Indianapolis
Walmart celebrated the grand opening of a new 2.2 million-square-foot fulfillment center twenty miles northeast of Indianapolis in McCordsville, IN. The next-gen facility is Walmart’s largest fulfillment center to date and enable the retailer to fill orders more quickly.
Nautilus Sets $5 Million Direct Offering
Nautilus, Inc. entered into a definitive securities purchase agreement with a certain institutional investor for the purchase and sale of 4.1 million shares of the company’s common stock at a purchase price of $1.22 per share.
Beachbody Hires Executive Chairman
The Beachbody Company, Inc. hired Mark Goldston to the newly formed role of executive chairman of its Board of Directors. In this role, Goldston will partner with company co-founder and CEO Carl Daikeler to guide the company’s transformation, drive profitability and leverage its assets to drive growth.
Retail Market Breathes A Sigh Of Relief As West Coast Ports Deal Reached
The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced a tentative agreement on a new six-year contract covering workers at all 29 West Coast ports.
Retail Sales See Slight Uptick In May; Sporting Goods Stores Up 2.5 Percent
Retail sales increased 0.3 percent from April to May and gained 1.6 percent year-over-year. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales would decline 0.1 percent month-over-month.
Sport 2000 Reaches €6.5 Bn In 2022 Sales; SGN Sports Leaving Group
Sport 2000 International, the world’s second-largest trade organization for independent sports retailers with 3,586 stores in 25 countries, recently reported it is reflecting on a successful year, closing the 2022 financial year with gross retail sales of €6.5 billion.
REI Workers Union Adding Pressure With Unfair Labor Practice Allegations
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) announced it would be filing Unfair Labor Practice charges (ULPs) against REI, Inc. in the Cleveland (Beachwood, OH) and SoHo (Manhattan, NY) unionized stores.
Painshield MD Maker Taps Mio-Guard For U.S. Sports Med Market Distribution
NanoVibronix, Inc., a medical device company that produces the UroShield, PainShield and WoundShield Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Portable Ultrasonic Therapeutic Device, reported entering into a distribution agreement with Mio-Guard, LLC for the sale and distribution of its PainShield MD product.
Report: May Retail Sales Grow 2 Percent On ASP Growth; Apparel Declines
U.S. retail sales revenue in May 2023, including discretionary general merchandise and consumer packaged goods (CPG), increased 2 percent compared to the same month last year, even as unit sales declined 3 percent, according to data from Circana, formerly IRI and The NPD Group.
Placer.ai.: Fitness Chains Continuing Traffic Gains In 2023
Placer.ai. data finds fitness centers saw a recovery year in visits in 2022 as pandemic concerns subsided and the industry continues to build on those healthy foot traffic gains in 2023.