Tom Orange is Senior Technical Representative at Asics UK, and here he explains how the company’s new running clinic are designed to help runners and boost retail sales

As a Senior Tech Rep my role is to help develop the brand within the running community.  My team and I work closely with the Asics marketing team to provide retailers with a range of support options including staff training, gait assessments, running and running product marketing campaigns, and an element that we are concentrating on in particular at the moment, Asics Running Clinics. 

Among Asics‘ broad range of running shoes for 2010 is the Gel-Cumulus 12. Designed to set the bar for lightweight, cushioned trainers, this shoe incorporates the Asics’ Gel cushioning system in the rearfoot and forefoot to boost shock absorption, while Asics says the Trusstic System provides structural integrity and support.

In our final instalment of analysis from the SGB Sports Retail Survey we look at how retailers rate the varied point-of-sale materials provided by manufacturers and suppliers.

We asked retailers to rate the effectiveness of six different types of in-store marketing materials provided by suppliers.

It was prior to the 2006 World Cup that Lotto Sport Italia became the first brand to launch a football boot without laces, the Zhero Gravity – a boot so sleek it seemed such a shame to get it muddy – and four years on, the Italian company is maintaining its dedication to innovation, by launching its next generation, the Zhero Gravity Ultra.

With over 10 years in the retail environment I have spent many an hour prior to a vital meeting making sure the Windsor knot in my tie was straight and my hair was gelled at just the right 45° angle. You learn early in your career as a sales professional that most decisions are made within the first 10 minutes of a meeting, so first impressions really do count!

Q. The Printwear & Promotion Show is celebrating 21 great years in 2010. Tell us a little bit about how the show has evolved over the years and what's new for 2010?

A. I have been involved with the Printwear & Promotion exhibition since 1993 and although the basics of the event remain unchanged in being an event to bring all that’s best to the garment decoration market, fabric and machine technology, in particular, continue to bring the major changes to the visitor.

We have had an excellent year at Hilly in 2009. Our sales are running at 15% up on last year, which in the current economic climate is very encouraging.

As an illustration, the recent STAG show was the most positive buying show in which we have ever participated. We were opening new accounts, taking orders, finding new leads and receiving lots of positive feedback about our business and the running market from retailers.

All women, no matter what their shape, need to ensure their breasts are properly supported for sport. That is old news. Women who are casual runners, who might run just a couple of miles a week, need to take their support seriously, so when you are a world-class long-distance runner, and your training is very much focused on clocking up serious miles, the importance of the sports bra cannot be over-estimated.

Revitalised in the UK, the development of the Intersport buying group is stepping up in 2010 with enhanced branding and a consumer marketing campaign. Barry Mellis, general manager of Intersport in the UK, spoke to Robin Barwick about taking ‘Sport to the People’

Continuing our coverage of the SGB Sports Retail Survey, here we look at where retailers stand on the matter of that fast-growing giant, e-commerce.

According to the SGB Sports retail survey, a total of 66.6% of independent sports retailers see the online side of their business growing steadily or rapidly over the next two years. Despite fierce competition and problems with online pricing, online retailing is clearly an issue that retailers must address in some way.

We wanted to know:

• Whether you trade online
• What sports are selling well
• What you think about trade shows and which ones you attend
• Whether you are a member of a buying group
• Your market forecast
• What you think of Sporting Goods Business as a magazine

It is always good to talk, but sometimes it is more important to listen; to those who are close to you, to your colleagues, customers, suppliers and as a magazine, to your readers.

Tobogganing on a snow-covered hillside is an age-old activity for all the family to enjoy - until the frostbite kicks in of course - but tobogganing in the world of England rugby international Nick Kennedy is altogether more gruelling, as he tells Sporting Goods Business with relish when discussing his training regime.

Online registration at ispo.com has already begun and if you book a four day pass before December 3rd, it costs just 25 Euros. This is a massive trade show and the coming event will be its 40th year of trading. An important change is that the show is no longer called ispo winter. From 2010 it will be simply ispo. At the same time there is no longer a summer ispo.

I have spent 20 years in the Sports and Outdoor trade on both sides of the fence - as supplier and retailer  - and I have seen how variable staff product knowledge can be. It's not as straight forward as: multiples and their high staff-turnover rate as ‘poor', while independents with their long-service awards and owner-salesmen rate as ‘good', although that's often true!

The value of sports retailers selling to schools can hardly be exaggerated. In the first place, PE is part of the national curriculum and as such schools have a legal requirement to provide sports of varying types (see below). They are therefore buyers of a wide range of sports goods and in significant quantities which they need to replace and update on a regular basis. They are also financially secure customers. Equally important, the kids listen to their teachers (believe it or not), and so turn into customers. The purchasing habits formed in one's teens can and do last a lifetime. Being a respected supplier to local schools also engages your business with the local community. It adds authority to what you do; if school sports departments deal with you, you must know what you are about.

Like many successful business people, Malcolm Craghill who runs Temple Sports and Craghill Boot Store has a multi-dimensional background. He is Keswick born and bred, his three shops are in Keswick and Cockermouth and he originally worked in his father's wholesale confectioners in Keswick. But this is no home boy. In his teens he spent a year in America (when that was a rarity) and he has managed a nightclub. Malcolm started in the sports business because "my three interests were girls, drinking and sport and I quickly realised I couldn't make a living out of the first two."

Triathlon has come a long way since its beginnings in 1974 - in the UK there are clubs in every major town from Cornwall to Orkney. The appeal of the sport is that it gives you a full body exercise, so swimming is upper body and chest orientated and running / biking is lower legs, hips and waist.

Derek Price, managing director of rubber ball manufacturers J Price, gets straight to the point. "Is squash still left as a sport?" is the rhetorical question from the man whose company was established in 1936. "Squash these days is 35-40% of what it was in its heyday, in the eighties and up to the mid-nineties, and the sport has been on a permanent decline ever since. People have started to do other things with their time. A lot of squash courts have become gyms, and privately owned squash clubs have gone out of business in their hundreds. Squash has gone back to where it was 30 or 40 years ago, when only the real enthusiasts played the game."

When you've become head of HEAD UK, you've got a career to talk about and a wealth of valuable knowledge to share. So let's hear from Dave Shaw. He was appointed General Manager of the UK division in January, in succession to Jeremy Sherwood who has been promoted to the international board in a new role as executive director global sales and marketing. Another recent strategic change sees the appointment of Helen McHugh who takes up the role of Promotions Manager.

If the market won't come to existing price points, there is only one thing for it, according to many of Europe's leading team-wear producers: take the price points down to the market.