(Bloomberg) -- Nike Inc.’s Vaporfly Next% sneakers have been called “groundbreaking” and described as a “supershoe.” For Japanese shoemakers Asics Corp. and Mizuno Corp. they are something else: trouble.
Shares in the shoemakers slid in Tokyo Monday after Nike’s sneakers played a starring role in one of Japan’s most-watched road races, the Hakone Ekiden. The grueling relay marathon race pits teams of about 10 collegiate runners on a course of more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) between Tokyo and Hakone, near Mt. Fuji, over two days.
The overwhelming majority of this year’s contestants -- more than 84% -- ran wearing Nike’s Vaporfly Next% sneakers, according to statistics compiled by Ekiden News and shared by Bunshun Online. That included the winning team from Tokyo’s Aoyama Gakuin University, serial victors of the event who until this year were known for opting for Adidas sneakers.
By comparison, support for Asics collapsed, the report said, with the number of runners choosing the Japanese shoemaker’s sneakers plummeting to seven from 51 a year earlier. Runners opting for Mizuno sneakers also fell from 24 in 2019 to just nine this year.
Nike historically owes much of its success to Asics, having been founded in the 1960s by Phil Knight to distribute shoes made by Onitsuka Tiger, the company that went on to become Asics. But Masayuki Otani, the chief market strategist at Securities Japan Inc., said there were concerns in the market over whether Asics can retain its strength as a maker of running shoes against competitors such as Nike. Asics shares fell 3.8% on Monday, the most in more than two months.
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