Supply chain-related obstacles continued to affect Asics’ North America wholesale and retail channels in the second quarter, it said Friday.
Despite these challenges, the Japanese company’s North America business saw double-digit growth in its core performance sports category, it said. Improvement in product availability, it noted, resulted in sales increases for both tennis and golf.
At the same time, Asics recorded its third consecutive quarter of double-digit e-commerce growth in the region. Contributing to this was a 64 percent jump in OneASICS memberships, it said.
The increase followed the introduction of “member exclusive” products earlier this year. The perk consists of an exclusive 30-day window when members can access select products before they become available to other consumers. Performance running and tennis products have been the most successful exclusive items so far, Asics said.
“As the obstacles associated with the global supply chain continue to affect our wholesale and retail channels, we are anchored by the year-over-year category increases we are seeing from run specialty, team sales and more,” Richard Sullivan, president and CEO of Asics North America, said in a statement. “Looking ahead to the third and fourth quarters of 2022, our valued partners across the business will continue to be the driving factor behind the anticipated successes of the Asics North America region.”
Though residual supply chain challenges most impacted Asics’ performance running and sportstyle categories, the company said several such products turned in strong performances during the second quarter. In performance running, for example, the Gel-Nimbus 24 was the top-selling style in the wholesale channel, while the Metaspeed series saw year-over-year growth thanks to the Metaspeed Sky+ becoming the top-selling model in the franchise. In sportstyle, the Tiger Runner, Japan S and Gel-Kayano 14 all experienced wholesale growth. Unlike Brooks, which on Thursday touted a return to meeting demand in May, Asics did not hint at when the company expects its supply chain challenges to normalize.
