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Nike hammers ASICS and Mizuno on their home turf

Business media report downturns in the Japanese brands' stock prices, blaming the perception that Nike shoes are faster

Nike’s domination of the running shoe market has captured the attention of the mainstream business press, with Bloomberg reporting that wholesale purchasing of the Nike Vaporfly NEXT% shoe by university students running in ekidens (particularly the Hakone Ekiden on January 3, at which 15 course records were broken) has cut into sales for Japan’s two main running brands, ASICS and Mizuno. ASICS’ stock price dipped 3.8 per cent on the Tokyo Exchange today, and Mizuno is down 0.9 per cent. Eighty-four per cent of runners at the Hakone Ekiden sported the Nike Vaporfly NEXT%.

The race was won by the perennial favourites representing Aoyama Gakuin University, who, according to the report, wore Adidas until this year. ASICS wearers at the event plunged from 51 to seven and Mizuno from 24 to nine between 2018 and 2019.

RELATED: Hakone Ekiden 2020 sees 15 course records fall

Running is hugely popular in Japan, with the number of runners estimated at between 10 million and 25 million, or between seven and 20 per cent of the country’s 126.8 million population. And though the Hakone Ekiden involves only a few hundred participants, the event has been called Japan’s equivalent of the Superbowl, with widespread fan support and TV coverage. (It even has cheerleaders.) It’s safe to say the event’s influence extends far beyond the numbers of participants.

The story points out the irony that Nike was born when founder Phil Knight became a U.S. distributor for shoes made by Onitsuka Tiger, the precursor to ASICS.

Though World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) is rumoured to be planning a rule that would limit the height of the foam stack on running shoes, insiders speculate it probably would not make the Vaporfly or the NEXT% illegal (though it might rule out Nike’s latest iteration, the AlphaFly, worn by Eliud Kipchoge at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, which has a higher stack height than the other two). In any case, ekiden racing is not subject to World Athletics rules.

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