The company notes “Asics reached a decision on this Acquisition as we believe that the integration of “Runkeeper’s” globally recognized brand and worldwide user base with Asics’ technological competence in manufacturing will lead to continued enhancement of our corporate value”.
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I have some big news today! Just last year Under Armour acquired a bunch of fitness-related apps, and this year it looks like ASICS wants in on the fun as well, and has recently announced that they have acquired fitness app Runkeeper. The sports company had previously pushed into the software world with its own app, My ASICS, which has seen only mediocre success compared with competitors like the Nike+ app. We saw how the rise of mobile, social networks, and personalization were starting to impact other categories, and we thought these ingredients had huge possibilities when applied towards fitness and health.
Runkeeper started in 2008 as FitnessKeeper, becoming one of the first fitness tracking apps designed for the iPhone. Adidas acquired Austrian app maker Runtastic last summer.
In the short term, nothing major will change. “And from people using our Shoe Tracker feature in the app, we know that Asics shoes are by far the ones that Runkeeper users run in the most!” Run-related data has become at least as important as the shoes in which one runs, and it makes sense for companies to have a stake in every part of that experience.
If you exercise then you’re likely familiar with the name Asics, a popular manufacturer of running shoes and clothing.
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“From the end-user standpoint, not much will change”, Jacobs wrote in his post. “Not only will the Runkeeper product carry on, but we will be able to move even faster”. The price of the Asics acquisition wasn’t disclosed.
