All Article articles – Page 234
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Merrell Works With Vibram On Barefoot Technology
Consolidating its partnership with its biggest single client, Vibram has developed a special thin sole for Merrell that will be used in a more commercial line of shoes than its own successful FiveFingers range, but with a special minimalist look as well. Officials of Wolverine World Wide indicated that ...
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Tecnica Sells 30% Of Lowa
As it turns out now, Tecnica Group, which is launching some interesting new products, sold a 30 percent stake in Lowa last year at an undisclosed price to boost its finances in the midst of the international economic crisis. Riko, a large contract manufacturer in Slovakia, bought a 20 percent ...
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Camping Boost Helps Market Decrease Stay Small For 2009
NPD Group has put out some figures on the 2009 European market for outdoor products just in time for the OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen. The market research firm found that in the 36 countries surveyed, sales after VAT slid by about 1 percent to €14.3 billion, after 1 percent growth ...
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Lafuma Improves Its Profitability
While its sales are still weak, the Lafuma Group is gradually turning around. One year after a major refinancing that resulted in the arrival of new investors, the improved results allowed the French company to generate €8 million in free cash flow during the first six months of its current ...
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Outdoor Is A Focus At Novel Spanish Trade Show
The managers of Chiruca and Intemperie, an interesting outdoor retailer in Barcelona, were two of the three companies that got a prize at the annual Sports Unlimited fair held for the second time in Valencia last month. The other one is Coas Sport, a buying group that has joined forces ...
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Record Number Of Exhibitors Sees Improved Infrastructure At Outdoor Show
Messe Friedrichshafen, the organizer of the OutDoor show to be held from July 15 through 18, reports a record attendance of 860 exhibitors, which corresponds to an increase of 6 percent. They come from 39 countries and represent more than 1,000 brands. As reported earlier, the trade visitor can expect ...
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Spending Down, But Participation Up In U.S.
A new report has found that in 2009, important segments of the outdoor industry saw strong growth in the U.S. The study, Outdoor Recreation Participation Top Line Report for 2010, released by the Outdoor Foundation, found that the number of people participating in “core” outdoor sports grew by 3.3 percent ...
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Lafuma’S Chinese Deal With Lg Improves Korea’S Strength In The Region
The Lafuma Group has been working with a family-owned company in Hong Kong, Toronto, to introduce its core Lafuma brand into the outdoor market of mainland China. The operation is now profitable on annual sales of €3.2 million, but Lafuma wants to take it to a higher level, requiring heavy ...
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Pentland Follows Vf’S Move To Help Blacks Out
Pentland, the owner of Berghaus, Brasher and other brands, snapped up a stake of 5.87 percent in Blacks Leisure Group, as part of several changes in shareholding that accompanied the leading British outdoor retailer’s equity increase last month. Pentland already has a stake of about 57 percent in JD Sports ...
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Summer Feeling At Kjus - And At Belowzero, Too
The Swiss high-end brand of snow wear is launching its first summer collection for spring-summer 2011. The new range is called the “Perfomance Lifestyle” collection and will display “uncompromising performance,” according to Nico Serena, head of research and development and son of Didi Serena, the chief of LK International. ...
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Sourcing In Asia Faces Increasing Trouble
The weakened exchange rate of the euro against the dollar, which the editor of this publication mentioned in the “famous last words” of the last issue, is just one of the problems affecting European brands and retailers of outdoor products, compounded by the rising cost of many raw materials. ...
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Gregory Appoints New Distributors; New Parent Completes Bd Deal
The U.S. backpack brand has sealed distribution deals with five partners in European countries where Gregory has not had any presence so far. Hugo Youngman, the chief of the European operations, told this publication that he picked distributors rather than agents for the new markets. In the Czech Republic, ...
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Annecy Will Host The First European Outdoor Forum
Sporting Goods Intelligence Europe and The Outdoor Industry Compass have agreed to be among the sponsors of the first European Outdoor Forum. Scheduled to be held Oct. 11-13 in Annecy, home to Salomon, Millet, Patagonia Europe and many other outdoor-related companies, this convention aims to put together key players ...
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Owner Says Quality Kept Patagonia Ahead Of Economy
Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of Patagonia, told Entrepreneur Magazine in a recent interview that sales for the fiscal year ended April 30 should be about $340 million, marking one of its “two best years ever.” The other best year was the one ended April 2009, with sales of ...
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Unterwegs Joins Outdoor-profis And Sport 2000
The Unterwegs group, the big fish in the pond of north German outdoor retailing, has finally joined Outdoor-Profis, the large buying and marketing group of specialty retailers, as its now by far largest member. The group runs eight regular outdoor stores; additionally it operates one outlet shop in Bremen, an ...
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Crocs Continues Its Turnaround
The plastic shoe maker reported turnover 23.7 percent higher to $166.9 million for the first quarter ended March 31. This comprised a 23.3 percent increase in retail sales to $34.4 million and a 26.1 percent rise in wholesale to $120.2 million. The net income was $5.7 million, compared with a ...
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Treksta Proves To Be Fit To Conquer New Markets
The Korean shoe manufacturer has delivered promising figures for the first four months of the current year. Sales for the entire group exceeded $29.2 million after total sales for the whole 2009 fiscal year ended up at nearly 64.7 million. Most of the turnover came from Asian markets as the ...
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More Personnel Changes At Successful Bever Zwerfsport
Bever Zwerfsport, the leading Dutch outdoor retailer, stands to benefit from increased investments after a management shake-up this month. As previously reported, this entailed the departure of Didier Maclaine Pont, Bever Zwerfsport’s chief executive. It emerged this week that two other managers are leaving the company. Hans Overduin, who ...
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Garmin’S Outdoor Division Is In Better Shape Than Its Automotive Business
The outdoor/fitness segment at Garmin had good result for the first quarter ended March 27, rising by 28 percent to $103 million, but that couldn’t help the company overall, which reported a 1 percent sales drop to $431 million as its auto/mobile segment performed poorly. The marine segment grew by ...
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La Sportiva Teams Up With Samsung To Develop A Technical Apparel Line
La Sportiva wanted to diversify into clothing and did so a couple of years ago with a deal to distribute the Canadian Blurr line in Europe. The contract will continue until the spring/summer 2011 season, but it will superseded after that by a global agreement that the Italian outdoor shoe ...
