Interface News Reporter | Qin Siyue
Interface News Editor | Lou Jingqin
In mid-May, the Japanese sports brand Asics released its financial report for the first quarter of 2024. According to the financial report, ASICS's brand net sales in the first quarter increased by 14.3% to 174.102 billion yen (about 8.078 billion yuan), gross profit increased by 24.1% to 94.847 billion yen, and operating profit increased by 52.9% to 33.812 billion yen.
By region, net sales in Greater China increased by 24.5% to JPY 23.87 billion. This revenue ranks third in ASICS' overseas market, after the North American market and the European market.
ASICS believes that the growth needs to be attributed to the hot sales of running products and sports and leisure products.
"The company is investing more in running and launching more innovative products. The sportswear category saw triple-digit growth compared to the year-ago quarter, with the GEL-1130TM and GEL-KAYANO 14 models seeing triple-digit growth year-over-year. ASICS mentioned in the financial statement.
In terms of categories, among the five major segments of the brand, the running shoes (P.RUN) segment continued to lead the way, with revenue of 87.894 billion yen in the quarter, the core sports segment (tennis, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, etc.) ranked second with revenue of 24.884 billion yen, and the sports style (SportStyle) and Onitsuka Tiger apparel and equipment (Apparel and). Equipment) ranked third to fifth, with revenues of 23.493 billion yen, 18.024 billion yen, and 9.325 billion yen, respectively.
In addition to apparel and equipment, ASICS's other four segments all achieved growth. Among them, the SportStyle segment grew the most: an increase of 51.69% over the same period last year. It can be seen that the retro running shoe craze is still benefiting Japanese brands in early 2024.
The GEL-1130TM and GEL-KAYANO 14, which were highlighted by ASICS in its financial report, are the representative shoes of ASICS catching up with the retro running shoe boom in 2023. Taking GEL-KAYANO 14 as an example, Jiemian News found that the transaction volume of this shoe on the well-known second-hand trading platform exceeded 12,000, and the average transaction price was around 1,000 yuan recently.
Thanks to the popularity of Y2K, consumers have begun to favor retro-style outfits in the past two years. Vintage shoes with plain colors, clean lines and classic patterns are an essential addition to vintage wear. The GEL-1130TM and GEL-KAYANO 14 mentioned above are retro styles, focusing on simple and elegant appearance and comfortable wear. In 2023, ASICS also became the brand with the second highest transaction volume increase in the list of sneakers on the well-known trendy second-hand platform StockX.
American running shoe brand New Balance is also on the list with a number of retro classic running shoes such as 530 and 990. In 2023, the brand's annual sales will reach US$6.5 billion (about 46.787 billion yuan), an increase of 23% compared to 2022. More than $5 billion of New Balance's $6.5 billion annual revenue is contributed by footwear.
Interestingly, despite being the beneficiaries of the retro running shoe craze, neither brand wants to tie too deeply to the label.
In the completed "2020 Growth Plan", ASICS's three priority areas are running shoes, China and digitalization. In the company's latest 2030 vision, functional running shoe brands and accelerating the expansion of Greater China continue to be prioritized strategies, and retro trendy shoes still have no sense of existence.
In the past two years, New Balance's activities in the Chinese market have also focused on running: sponsoring road running events such as the Shanghai Women's Half Marathon, signing marathon runners, and organizing NB running training camps. New Balance also told Jiemian News that in the future, the brand will continue to deepen the field of running and increase investment in major road running events at home and abroad in 2024.
Although retro trendy shoes are hot now, the long-term growth of demand for professional running shoes is more obvious. In addition, on the whole, the trend market has been weak recently, how much sales dividends can retro trends bring to brands now, and how many sales gaps will be brought to brands when the popularity declines. Compared with relying on trend strategies to sell shoes, sticking to functional running shoe products is more conducive to the long-term development of sports brands.