Inside Insight

From Running Insight: Saucony, Keds and Sperry acquired by Wolverine Worldwide In a move that has been anticipated for almost a year, Saucony, one of the hottest brands in the running business for the past five years, will be acquired by Wolverine Worldwide, the footwear conglomerate that owns Merrell, Chaco, Sebago and a number of [...]

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Leonard Armato, the one-time sports agent who represented Shaquille O’Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, has left Skechers after about two years with the company. Armato joined Skechers after a stint with The Association of Volleyball Professionals, which suspended operations because of financial hardship shortly after he left, and ended up filing bankruptcy. The AVP has since [...]

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Above: Videos of the Altramaniacs, courtesy of Altra Zero Drop Footwear. More videos can be viewed on Altra’s YouTube channel. The below article is from the April 16, 2012 issue of Running Insight magazine. Quirky Superhero Duo Hits the Web for Altra Have you heard of the Altramaniacs yet? They are a couple of quirky [...]

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From Running Insight: Six months after making an acquisition that shook up the run specialty space, Finish Line is bringing on a major financial and strategic partner to help it manage its run specialty business. At the same time it announced its first quarter earnings would not meet earlier projections, The Finish Line said that [...]

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Watch the video above for some amusing scenes from a typically bad retail store. Does any of it sound familiar? “Let me know if I can help!” Great job on that video by The Mann Group (www.manngroup.net).

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Merrell has launched a women’s-specific online resource dedicated to educating and training women on barefoot running and fitness: www.merrell.com/barefoot-women. The title of the site is “Pretty Strong,” and it’s captioned with “unleash your natural power, embrace your natural beauty.” Meant to encourage women to set and meet their personal fitness goals through the benefits of [...]

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Above: videos via Nike. Nike Flyknit is a footwear construction technology Nike is touting as “a minimalist design with maximum return.” As Nike Inc. president & CEO Mark Parker describes it: “The Nike Flyknit upper redefines the idea of running footwear: lightweight and virtually seamless, it acts like a second skin for the foot and [...]

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Keen announced that it has purchased a building at the corner of 13th & Glisan in Portland, Oregon that will serve as the company’s new headquarters. The building is just a few blocks away from the company’s existing operation in Portland’s Pearl District. The 50,000 square foot office building is a five story building that [...]

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Salomon USA is opening its first flagship store in the United States.  The Salomon store will be located in Salt Lake City’s City Creek shopping center in the largest city near the company’s hometown of Ogden. The store is set to open in late March and will carry Salomon apparel, footwear and other softgoods items found on [...]

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  Converse has opened its first West Coast specialty retail store in Santa Monica, CA. Located at the Third Street Promenade, the Santa Monica Converse store is the Nike-owned brand’s third inline location in the United States. Customization is a key focus in this new retail location, where customers will be able to design their [...]

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