Running Insight

APRIL 16, 2018

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S partan, the 17-year old obstacle race and endurance brand, and CRAFT Sportswear, the premium Swedish endurance sport brand for running, cycling and Nordic Ski, are partner- ing in a new multi-year deal to bring specialized apparel and footwear to Spartan's worldwide participants in 40+ countries. Spartan Founder and CEO Joe De Sena hopes the rela- tionship with CRAFT, following a recent one with Reebok, will help attract some crossover athletes to the wide age-ranging sport and also bring it steps closer to a longer-term objective of becoming a recognized Olympic event. In 2011, Spartan changed its format to three different distance races—3-mile, 8-mile and 13-mile—each on military-inspired courses. This year, more than 100,000 kids will participate in Spartan events, De Sena proclaims. CRAFT, available in North America for slightly more than a decade, is pinning the Spartan relationship on broadening its market reach, including through a product extension into footwear. Typically, a stronger performing brand in Northern Hemisphere markets, CRAFT already distributes its performance apparel and base layers in many top U.S. running stores. Starting in Spring 2019, CRAFT will introduce Spartan racers to a collection of OCR, Olympic-caliber apparel with Spartan- specific footwear. "The Powered By" line will be distributed at Spartan.com and Spartan events only after debuting in December 2018 at the Ultra World Championships. Subsequently for Fall 2019, CRAFT will have a network of strategic retail partners to carry the Spartan-specific apparel and footwear. Eric Schenker, CEO of CRAFT Sportswear North America thinks the Spartan-specific footwear, currently in development, will be the catalyst for the Swedish brand to expand into broader trail-specific footwear. n Spartan and CRAFT Sportswear Team Up RUNNING INSIGHT 2 runninginsight.com © 2018 Formula4media LLC. RUNNING INSIGHT ® is a registered trademark of Formula4Media, LLC. © 2018 all rights reserved. Running Insight is published twice each month, is edited for owners and top executives at running specialty stores and available only via email.The opinions by authors and contributors to Running Insight are not necessarily those of the editors or publishers. Articles appearing in Running Insight may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publisher. Formula4Media, LLC, P.O. Box 23-1318, Great Neck, NY 11023. Tel: 516-305-4709. Jeff Nott ...................................jnott@formula4media.com Jeff Gruenhut .................. jgruenhut@formula4media.com Christina Henderson .... chenderson@formula4media.com Katie O'Donohue .........kodonohue@formula4media.com Sam Selvaggio.............. sselvaggio@formula4media.com Daemon Filson .....................dfilson@formula4media.com Editor-in-Chief ........ Mark Sullivan: msullivan@formula4media.com Managing Editor ............ Cara Griffin: cgriffin@formula4media.com Publisher .....................Troy Leonard: tleonard@formula4media.com SUBSCRIBE store.formula4media.com BACK ISSUES runninginsight.com Advertise Listen to a Sports Insight Extra podcast with Spartan's Joe De Sena and CRAFT's Eric Schenker discussing their new partnership sportsinsightextra.com/podcast.html LISTEN IN PODCAST

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