Running Insight

these brands get pneumonia," Running Industry Association executive director Terry Schalow says. Beyond delivering revenue, run specialty means something to the brands, Schalow asserts, even if it doesn't always appear that way. "It's completely inaccurate to say that the vast majority of the brand community doesn't care about specialty retail," he says. In fact, beyond traditional retailer- friendly elements such as providing higher booking margins and earlier delivery of goods, a number of brands are supporting the channel with a mix of innovative offerings and mindful practices designed to deepen partnerships and fuel collective success. Driving sales to brick-and-mortar specialty shops For as much as brands are coming under fire for wooing sales to their own e-commerce homes, many brands have unveiled efforts to push traffic and sales to independent running retailers. Last spring, Brooks unveiled its Fast Track mobile app to specialty retailers. Through the "extended aisle" platform, retailers can offer Brooks' full array of styles, sizes, colors and even widths to in-store customers. Retail staff can order a product directly from the platform and drop ship it to the customer while the individual store earns the sale. "We wanted to give retailers a simpler tool for doing business with us and that helped them sell to runners," says Rick Wilhelm, vice president of specialty retail accounts at Brooks. A number of brands, meanwhile, have hopped on Locally.com. The site, which includes footwear, apparel and accessory brands such as Hoka One One, Saucony, Brooks, 361 Degrees, New Balance, Smartwool, Feetures, Nathan and CamelBak, absorbs manufacturers' products into a digital catalog and helps consumers find the nearest place to buy a specific item. In another twist, Mizuno launched its Blue Sky Ticket program at Fleet Feet stores in mid-2017 with the initial shipments of its new Wave Sky neutral shoe. When customers purchased a pair of Wave Sky footwear from a Fleet Feet outlet, they received an incentive ticket to return to a Fleet Feet store by the end of 2017 for a discount on Mizuno gear. Clever Competitions A few years ago, Feetures found that running stores sold approximately one pair of technical running socks for every two shoes sold. To Feetures executives, that number wasn't acceptable. The North Carolina-based brand responded with its Pair Up program, a simple, no-fuss national sales contest designed to drive technical running sock sales and spark an oft-ignored, revenue-driving opportunity. Aiming to boost an entire category rather than just a single brand, the Pair Up program rewarded retailers for increasing their sock-to-shoe sales ratios across all technical sock brands, not just Feetures. Supporting Run Specialty (continued) 72 runninginsight.com © 2017 Formula4media LLC. Feetures! is reintroducing last year's successful national sales contest called "Pair Up." This year the contest has been simplified and streamlined. This time around, we will award group prizes. That means all associates who work at stores that reach or exceed the 1 to 1 ratio during the period will each receive a gift box of socks and SWAG. What's more, the top 8 stores with the highest sock to shoe ratios will win $1,000 to throw a Grand Celebration Party. It's that simple. What: The idea is to help you sell more socks and improve their customer experience. Blisters, which are often caused by low quality socks, are the number one sports injury among runners. That means you can improve your customer experience by educating them about the benefits of performance socks. When: September 9th – 25th Where: Your store! Each location can be separate or multi-store groups can compete together, but we need one Sock Star for each entry. The Challenge: We invite you and your staff to participate in our challenge to sell a pair of socks for every pair of shoes sold during the period. Sell more socks and win prizes for you and your store! pair up Sell a pair of socks with every pair of shoes. 2016 September 9–25 sponsored by

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