Besides the usual fashion trends, it seems another trend beginning to pop up is fashion outfits buying out fitness-focused apps. Following in the footsteps of Adidas and Under Armour that purchased well-established fitness apps, ASICS is also trying to keep up by acquiring Runkeeper.
Via a Medium post, Runkeeper's founder Jason Jacobs revealed that his app was in the right place and time to partner up with ASICS. The fitness apparel brand, popular among runners, was "by far" the most popular among Runkeeper users.
Those users, however, shouldn't worry about the app changing too much. Jacobs assures that not much will change in terms of app use. He is also confident that the company "will be able to move even faster."
"We will be able to pursue the vision we've set out to pursue all along, with a partner that can bring many resources to bear that we couldn't fathom having access to on our own," Jacobs shares.
Currently, there are an estimated 45 million runners who use Runkeeper. That's a huge base of customers ASICS just bought into, and just like competing fitness apparel brands, should give the company a technological edge within the running community.
Unlike Nike, which went into a completely different direction than the competition by developing its own technology such as the Nike+ Running app and hardware like the long-gone Nike FuelBand, name brand fitness apparel companies are finding it more economical to acquire companies with an existing user base.
ASICS now joins other athletic clothing businesses like Adidas, which purchased Runtastic, in supporting its more innovative efforts into combining smart technology into shoes and clothes.
The forerunner in this realm, Under Armour, owns both Endomondo and MyFitnessPal. At the same time, the company is also pulling a Nike move by developing its own smart "RE" running show and partnering up with HTC to offer even more fitness-related hardware.
What ASICS plans to do exactly with Runkeeper is yet to be seen, but the Japanese company now has access to fitness data about millions of runners using the app. With that information, it could potentially get into the hardware business by developing smart clothing as well.
