Footwear Insight

footwearinsight.com March/April 2019 ~ Footwear Insight • 29 Where do see the brand positioned in the market today? "Altra has really made its inroads with trail and the trail consumer. And by the way, I'm very careful in that: I don't say trail running, I say the trail consumer. We take a lot of pride in providing products that have great biomechanical characteristics, no matter the use. You don't have to be a trail runner to use our products; you can be a walker or you can be an outdoor enthusiast and the product is going to perform for you. [But] our most recent success and growth has come in road running. And we all know that as much as trail is growing right now, the greatest opportunity is in road running." Are you considering new categories in either performance or casual athletic? "We have incredible opportunities for extensions we can do long term. But right now, we are laser-sharp focused on the trail, on the road and on the running consumer. And we have a tremendous amount of runway in both areas." Altra has historically focused its energies on the run and outdoor specialty channels. Will that continue to be the priority? "The specialty channel has survived because they have this unique sit-and-fit process, right? They're prescribing the right shoe for a consumer, and they're mastered that. We want to drive consumers into the stores and have them go in and ask for our brand, and go through that sit-and-fit process and experience our unique product proposition. Our shoes are as much about an experience as they are about just being as shoe. We feel so confident that when a consumer tries our shoes on, that unique experience is going to convert the consumer. And that's how we're going to succeed." What's the biggest opportunity in the channel? "We need to grow in our penetration in doors. We still have run specialty and outdoor specialty stores that don't carry our brand, and we need to grow within the stores where we already have relationships now. And that is a very difficult conversation: how do you take another shelf, one shelf at a time? How are we going to do that? How do we [take] a retailer that has adopted us as trail brand, how do we get them to expand on a second trail shoe? How do we get them to bring in the Escalante [road running style]?" What tactics will you be using to support that growth? "We have 17 tech reps out in the field. And having feet on the ground in the marketplace along with all of our sales reps— that's how we're going to convert consumers. That human interaction that happens every day in the store is critically, critically important to our future success. We're over-investing in feet on the ground, and we're going to continue to drive that as an opportunity for us to convert consumers." Have you explored expansion in other channels outside of specialty run and specialty outdoor? "We have tremendous growth opportunities [in those channels] first. Are there going to be natural extensions into more distribution channels? I think in time, absolutely, there will be. Because a tremendous amount of athletic shoes are being sold beyond the independent specialty channels right now. But that's probably going to be a long-term vision for us. Right now, we're very focused on the end user and the consumer within those two channels, and I think with the amount of opportunities we have there, we're going to be content focusing there for the next few years." VF has made direct-to-consumer sales a major element of its growth plans across brands. How will that play out for Altra? "We've converted to a new operating system under VF; we've moved the distribution center; and we've converted our DTC platform. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention to you that all of that happened in 2018 and the brand grew by 28 percent in that same period of time. We have a lot to improve on with our own DTC, and VF's going to help us to do that, but the goal of our DTC is to introduce ourselves to consumers and to provide market-industry leading content — from there, we want to drive them to a brick-and-mortar setting." Founders Golden Harper and Brian Beckstead are both staying on with the company — what will their roles be going forward? "Brian has obviously been very involved in strategic direction, and will really help in regards to product direction, marketing voice, and a lot with interaction with consumers and retailers. And Golden is going to continue in his role, where he is just out there spreading the gospel of why this brand exists, and he'll continue to be heavily involved in product creation and spending a lot of time with the product team, ensuring that we don't ever lose sight of what our core principles are." l Altra Kayenta No Silica gel , clay, or biocides CAPTURES and ISOLATES MOISTURE in excess of 200-450% of its dry weight Prevention is better than cure Michael Hanrahan > > michael@superdryers.com (201) 679 4703 Steve Ryan > > steve@superdryers.com (312) 371 5438 Alex Chisholm > > alex@superdryamericas.com (904) 210 8602 MOLD? MOISTURE DAMAGE? AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE For orders in the Americas : w ww . s up e r d r y e r s . c o m

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