UKH

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/26/shock-to-the-system-asics-...

Having built up quite a client base they seem to want to take a tighter grip on their distribution concentrating on large chains and online.

Would be a devastating blow to independent climbing shops if the big shoe brands, Scarpa, la Sportiva, decided to go the same way. It's a tough world in climbing retail and a lot of the profit comes from shoes. 

In reply to PaulW:

Compared to a lot of other categories, shoes have relatively low margins and you need a lot of pairs on stock to sell a single pair - and I suspect this goes doubly for trekking, climbing and mountaineering footwear where much of the manufacturing is still done by hand and close to home. 

It would suck for the consumer mostly, given they would have to travel farther to get a decent selection. But from a retail perspective it's quite hard to actually make a profit selling outdoor footwear. Unless you have literally everything, hence the proliferation of brand stores and big box retail. 

In reply to PaulW:

Our local shop won’t stock Salomon shoes as there were too many rules and a high volume needed. A good shoe shop is hard to beat when it comes to choosing shoes and that option seems to be being removed. 

In reply to SouthernSteve:

One of our shoe sales reps mentioned a while back that the demand for outdoor footwear has skyrocketed over the last few years, while production capacity took a blow, so they have to be much more strategic about where to allocate stock. 

This wasn't for Salomon but I doubt it's much different for them. 

In reply to PaulW: I was a bit surprised at the high % of shoes Asics were selling in that article, but I guess that's because I'm only thinking running shoes.