Japanese company Asics is the latest footwear brand to get a toehold in Shoetown.
The 69-year-old company celebrated the opening of its new “creation studio’’ at 125 Summer St. last week, inviting its Olympic athlete brand ambassadors Lolo Jones and Jordan Burroughs to help showcase the space and kickoff a Morning Mile running program at 10 city elementary schools.
Mayor Martin J. Walsh was also on hand at the unveiling of the company’s first East Coast outpost, which will house its creative teams. “We’re becoming the shoe capital of the world,’’ he said, noting the convergence of Converse, New Balance, Reebok, and M.Gemi in Boston over the last few years.
Asics moved its footwear, apparel, equipment, marketing, digital, and commerce divisions here from Irvine, Calif., and it plans to house as many as 100 staffers in the new space. It’s already made 50 new hires.
“We’re really excited to be in Boston, there’s a lot of heritage and history of the footwear industry,’’ said Gene McCarthy, Asics America president and chief executive.
In the 1800s, New England was known for its string of factory “shoe towns’’ that produced much of the country’s footwear — Lynn, in particular, at one point was making as many as 1 million pairs a day. While shoe production has largely moved to Asia, many of the country’s biggest footwear brands now have headquarters or major operations in Boston.
McCarthy wants his creative team to be inspired by that rich regional history. “There was an artisan craft here back in the day and we hope that being here is contributing to that craft and honoring that craft,’’ he said.
But being here also means being closer to the competition, he admitted.
“It’s just that idea that if you look over your shoulder, someone might be gaining on you because they’re in another downtown location,’’ he said. “It’s that friction that we want.’’
The move also puts the company closer to the 1 Winthrop Square headquarters of fitness tracking app RunKeeper, which Asics acquired in 2016 for $85 million. RunKeeper now oversees international digital operations for its parent, and McCarthy expects more collaborations to come out of their close proximity.
While McCarthy often flies between the company’s Americas divisions, which span from Canada to Brazil, you may soon see him jogging along Boston streets — he recently scooped up a Seaport condo. The Bronx native spent several years living on the South Shore, but says he’s excited to be downtown. “People have a spring in their step here,’’ he said.
Walmart’s shoe buy is getting its footing
When news broke in January of last year that Walmart’s e-commerce arm Jet.com was acquiring local footwear website Shoebuy.com for $70 million, it left many scratching their heads: Shoe who? The Boston-based website was established in 1999 — the same month as its major competitor, Zappos, now owned by Amazon — but it hadn’t gained nearly the same amount of traction. The deal was considered part of Walmart’s efforts to widen its audience beyond cost-conscious shoppers and expand the retailer’s e-commerce footprint, so to speak.
So after a year in, it seemed like high time to check in with what Shoebuy is up to.
It turns out, quite a bit. First, Shoebuy isn’t Shoebuy anymore, it’s Shoes.com. The moniker change came after the Canadian company by that name shuttered its operations a few weeks after the Shoebuy acquisition was announced.
Walmart swept in a few months later to purchase the Shoes.com domain for $9 million, and launched under its new name in April of last year. The new Shoes.com continues to operate as an independent website, while also sourcing national brands for both Walmart.com and Jet, but the name allows the company to establish the “natural leadership of the category,’’ said Alex Proelss, its senior vice president of brand marketing and creative. “We’re the world’s first thought on shoes.’’
They company also has moved out of its Downtown Crossing headquarters to sleek new digs in Charlestown, where it’s hired an additional 45 employees, bringing the head count to about 240 (with plans to bring on 40 more this year). It also added a second fulfillment center in California — there’s already one in Woburn — and has been upping its inventory to meet the footwear demands of Jet and Walmart’s online shoppers.
All of those changes have translated to 4 million unique visitors a month on the website, which is up 1 million per month over last year, Proelss said, and that’s not accounting for shoe purchases the company fulfills for Jet’s 10 million monthly visitors or the 100 million visits that Walmart.com gets. Shoe sales are poised to increase further as Walmart places a larger emphasis on apparel this year. The retailer recently overhauled sections of its website dedicated to furniture and home goods to focus on trends (a move aimed at competing with the likes of Wayfair) and it will soon do the same with its fashion and beauty products. Last fall, it announced a partnership with Lord & Taylor saying it would feature the store’s clothing and accessories online.
Walmart is making a “clear movement into fashion,’’ Proelss said, “and shoes are the heart of that.’’
Janelle Nanos can be reached at janelle.nanos@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @janellenanos.
