Arthur Launched A New Running Shoe Technology, Can Fire Help Reverse The Decline?

When ASICS announced its restructuring in 2018, it was mentioned that the old goal of the running shoes is to "resurrect" the advantages of professional running shoes. (Arthur)

Now, a new technology is expected to save the downturn.

In February 27th, Arthur released MetaRide, a professional running shoe suitable for long-distance running.

Japanese brand claims that this new running shoe has been developing for more than two years, and is described as "revolutionary professional running shoes" and "one of the most important innovations in the company's establishment in 70 years".

"We believe that this new technology has great potential and will overturn traditional long-distance running experience.

Some of the first experienced MetaRide athletes and runners revealed to us that MetaRide effectively changed their original training, competition, running and recovery methods, "said Arthur, President of Hiroda Yasuhito.

Since February 28th, the Arthur store, which includes the Chinese market, has begun to sell MetaRide products limited to a price of up to 1890 yuan.

Harano Kenichi, director of the Arthur Institute of ergonomics, said the new technology is fundamentally different from the original Arthur's running shoes and other traditional running shoes on the market.

MetaRide is developed by the Arthur Institute of ergonomics, Kobe, Japan. Its main selling point is to reduce the energy loss of the ankle joints by nearly 1/5.

Arthur said ankle joints are a region where energy consumption is great during running. New shoes can reduce ankle movement when maintaining stability.

According to FootLocker, in the autumn of 2019, Arthur will continue to introduce a running shoes with MetaRide concept.

These products, known as revolutionary technology by Arthur, are important sustenance for the old running shoes of Japan to reverse the decline of their performance.

Founded in 1949, Arthur, also known as New Balance, Saucony and Brooks, is the world's four largest running shoes brand.

But for three years in a row, the old Japanese performance was unsatisfactory. In the 2016 fiscal year, Arthur's sales decreased by 6.9% compared with the same period last year, and the growth rate in the 2017 fiscal year increased by only 0.3%.

In mid February, Arthur's latest performance in fiscal year 2018 showed that overall sales fell 3.4% to 386 billion 662 million yen (about 23 billion 700 million yuan), and operating profit dropped 46.3% over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the losses in the 2018 fiscal year amounted to 20 billion 327 million yen (1 billion 200 million yuan), which is the biggest loss suffered by Arthur in the past 20 years.

One of the few bright spots is that Arthur's Onitsuka Tiger continues to perform well, with sales up 31.6% year-on-year.

China's market performance has also remained stable, with an increase of 17.3% in 2018.

In the face of poor performance, in November 2018, Arthur announced the restructuring of the business structure and divided the product into three categories: Performance running, core performance sports and sports style, and business focus shifted from life style to professional running category and back to brand foundation.

The company has made it clear that the next stage will take the "Resurrection" running shoes as the goal and consolidate the core category of its professional running shoes. MetaRide series products will undoubtedly be the focus of Arthur's investment.

However, because of declining sales and net profits, Arthur has lowered its performance forecast for fiscal year 2019. The company expects overall sales to rise by 0.9% to 390 billion yen compared with the same period last year, while operating profit increased by 14% to 12 billion yen.

Author: Luo Yingying