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Staff Training
Anatom Academy
Staff training is vital in the outdoor industry, even more so in times of recession;
Andy Blair, Anatom's Sales and Training Manager, tells us what makes their
courses stand out and how they help the retailer.
I
n the outdoor industry, every product is technical to some level; explain product, how it works and how it stands out from our competitors.
fabrics boast amazing technology, walking boots have different We currently represent Superfeet in the UK and Scandinavia and all of
treatments or have technical linings, tools do everything but make mainland Europe. Superfeet is an American-based company, and their
the tea (unless it's a kettle, obviously). So when it comes to your parent company is called North West Labs. They come from a very technical
staff, skimping on training is potentially short-changing your background in making orthotics and Superfeet is the over-the-counter
customers. If they don't have the right knowledge to sell the version of their medical product.
correct gear to the correct customer, you could be missing The other main brand we distribute is TEKO socks, which was new to the
out on repeat business and recommendations galore. UK from January 2008. TEKO has many great features and one of them
Anatom specialises in foot-related product like the wonderful is that it is technically very sound, offering great products and fibres,
TEKO socks, and Superfeet insoles, both of which have a fair but it also has a very strong environmental and ecological story.
amount of science behind them. Anatom as a company takes its Again, that gives us a lot to get 'stuck in' to.
training very seriously indeed, because they know the value it gives The other branch of Anatom, which we take great pride
to customers; Andy Blair explained to us what they do, how they do in, is the training division, which is called Anatom
it and where his own enthusiasm comes from. Academy. Throughout the year we run specialist
footwear training, which covers many aspects – not
SGB: Andy, tell our readers a bit about Anatom… only of fitting footwear, but biomechanics, how the
Andy Blair: Anatom has been in business for close to 15 years. We foot works, how it works in relation to the rest of your
are distributors of product for the UK, Europe and Scandinavia. We body, related problems to poor biomechanics and how to
have always looked for technical products because the market is pretty modify footwear. In general, just to up the level of service that
saturated with run-of-the-mill products. We’re technically-minded people consumers are quite rightly looking for these days. By doing that, we feel
and want to be a little bit different. We sell products to our customers that that it sets a higher standard and will distinguish shops that don’t take
are different, and that have a very good technical story. It gives us room to much care in fitting footwear from the ones that do. We run those courses
10 SGB OUTDOOR APRIL 2009
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