Merrell ahead for Merrell
The world’s biggest outdoor footwear brand has a new acquisition, and big plans ahead. Jonathan
Pennington, UK Marketing Manager for Merrell, spoke to SGB Outdoor about their plans for world domination – in a good way…
SGB Outdoor: Where is a brand as big as Merrell’s growth? Jonathan Pennington: Merrell goes out to 180 countries worldwide and it’s the biggest outdoor footwear brand in the world. Our big focus is on becoming the biggest brand full stop; we launched apparel six or seven seasons ago and it’s a growing category for us, and one that will help us dictate the size of the business going forward. We’ve got the biggest market share in the world for footwear, so it’s about taking market share from other people in the clothing sector. Our women’s footwear range is growing massively. Of course, we operate in outdoor and in what we call ‘fusion’, which is lifestyle footwear. We’ve seen the biggest boom within the outdoor sector. There are big doors opening there, such as Go Outdoors, that have helped grow our business, but we have been taking wall space away from other brands and it’s down to the quality of the product and the brand heritage.
SGBO: Merrell now has a barefoot range of footwear too… It’s a growing area, though still niche. Why get into it now? JP: The trend was born from barefoot running and it’s still quite new to the UK market. It’s much bigger in the States. It usually works that if something is big in the US, after a couple of years it’s big over here. In the 1970s it was running that started over there and came over here, in the 80s it was aerobics, in the 90s basketball. We wanted to take the barefoot running category and make it more accessible from an outdoor perspective. So it’s not about barefoot running, necessarily –
we’re positioning it as barefoot adventure.
SGBO: What’s the difference? Many of the shoes are running specific but there are some lifestyle crossovers out there as well. JP: They can be used for running but we’re talking about a product that will complement people’s training regimes. You can use these in any kind of multisport situation, and that versatile footwear area is a market we own. This is about reconnecting with the terrain, it’s all about being closer to the ground and doing that from the feet upwards. They can help increase agility, strength range and motion, and it’s essentially protective, lightweight, versatile performance footwear. One of the things Merrell is known for is comfort, so within this category our shoes have more cushioning than, say, Vibram FiveFingers, there’s an extra 5mm of foam in there to give more cushioning which means it lends itself to those multisport activities, and general outdoor use as well as lifestyle and fashion.
SGBO: Partnering with Vibram for your barefoot product, it gives instant credibility… JP: Especially in the outdoor industry. It gives us the added benefit of their expertise from an outsole perspective in the outdoors too. One of the things our product has is that it looks great too, not all of them do as they’re so functional. Ours is more commercial and we feel there’s a real opportunity with it.
SGBO: It’s extra perceived value to the customer, isn’t it?
Great strides
12
SGB OUTDOOR NOVEMBER 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29