The big buzz among online trail runners today was that Montrail is being acquired by one of the billion dollar shoe brands. Montrail has been one of the pioneering brands of trail and ultra running and has stuck close to the low-key essence of the sport, so it’s no surprise that runners are worried that an acquisition will “corporatize” the company they have come to love. Can you imagine what glitzy Phil Knight from Nike would do to an ultra running brand?!? It’s enough to make you chunk your breakfast.
That being said, my guess is that it isn’t Nike. It’s probably New Balance. Here’s my theory:
Adidas-Salomon and Reebok merged, combining the #2 and #3 players to finally building a solid contender to Nike. Adidas is a marketing powerhouse (and has the adventure-friendly Salomon brand as well), and focusing that energy on expanding Reeboks style brand is going to take 105% of their energy. Big mergers are tough – probably not the best idea to tack on another brand.
Nike’s stock price is stagnant, and they recent canned their CEO. Adidas is whomping their ass in Europe and Japan, two high-growth markets where Nike's swoosh has traditionally dominated. Usually in periods of transition and core market erosion, you don’t take on an acquisition like this. Besides, Nike is doing well with the trail running line, and has a solid cost structure from hiring slaves in third world countries (ha, ha).
But what about New Balance? Great company, great products, but they just became a seriously small #3 to Adidas/Reebok and Nike. They need to bulk up and build out their brands. From a cultural perspective, who better to acquire Montrail? New Balance has their whole “For Love or Money” campaign – if any company is going to fit into the ultra world, it would be these guys.
I can only hope that whomever the acquirer is, they appreciate the time and effort Montrail puts into their race series, their ultra teams, and their support of the trail running community. It would be a massive loss to have this thrown to the wayside in the name of profits.
I’m sure we’ll here more in the next couple of days. My apologies for getting all MBA on you guys, but I found the prospect fascinating. And if I’m right, you heard it hear first!!!!
- SD
[See comments below - it was confirmed late on 1/25/06 that Montrail was being bought, but my guess on acquirer was...DEAD WRONG!!! I'm such a rookie. ;-) It turned out to be Columbia Sportswear, home of Columbia, Mountain Hardwear, Sorel, and more. You can find the press release here.]
