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Asics eyes manufacturing opportunities in India

By Sujata Sachdeva

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Asics, the Japanese sports shoes and apparel company with a presence in over 150 countries, is looking at manufacturing its apparel range in India apart from opening its mono-brand stores in the country. It recently opened an office in Gurgaon. Earlier, ASICS India had a distribution partnership with Reliance Retail to retail its products through Reliance Footprint stores, which expired in March 2015.

Asics founded in 1949, is globally known for its high-performance sports shoes especially for running exercise. Keeping the fitness consciousness on the rise in India, the company is keen to leverage on its popularity among professional marathon runners. It recently sponsored the Mumbai Marathon event and also runs campaigns around marathon events in New York, Paris, and Tokyo.

Amid competition from established sports-fitness-lifestyle brands such as Reebok, Adidas, Nike and Puma in India, Asics may find it difficult to carve a niche despite having clientele such as martial artist Bruce Lee, who sported Onitsuka Tiger training shoe in one of his movies in the 1970s and US President Barack Obama. The company is looking forward to build its image through other sports such as cricket, volleyball and tennis.

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