In the lead-up to the New York City marathon, New Balance is engaging runners from around the globe with a “Miles for Pizza” Challenge through the Strava app between Oct. 2 and Nov. 4. Logged miles may be cashed in upon arrival in the Big Apple at the pop-up “NB Pizza Co.” in New York City’s Murray Hill neighborhood for free slices. The NB Pizza Co. will offer programming, including the Friday Happy Hour Run, Saturday Long Runs and Single Sundays where the first 50 runners to join receive a few branded singlet. NB will also blanket New York with out-of-home advertising starting on Oct. 28, including the ABC Super Sign, Foot Locker and Champs digital signs in Times Square. The brand’s TCS New York City Marathon Collection of products, ranging from $30 retail for a graphic T-shirt to $285 for a lifestyle capsule, has been available since Sep. 19 at select retailers.
American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) has contacted the U.S. Trade Representative’s office about Amazon’s persistent counterfeit goods problem and recommends its marketplaces in France and India be added to the annual list of “Notorious Markets,” a list that identifies sites and markets that enable the sale of counterfeit merchandise. In its correspondence, the AAFA said Amazon needs take further actions to build a cleaner marketplace. For its part, Amazon says it spent $400 million last year on personnel and machine learning technology to guard against fraud and abuse.
Delta Apparel, which formally reports fiscal year-end and Q4 results on Nov. 21, released preliminary figures for the period ended Sept. 28. FY19 overall net revenues are expected in the $428-430 million range versus $395.5 million in FY18 due to gains from DLA’s digital print business, DTG2Go and continued accelerating sales from its Salt Life unit.
GYMGUYZ, the U.S. first in-home mobile personal training and fitness franchise based in Plainview, NY, says it intends to hire an additional 200 personal trainers and open an additional 100 locations before the end of 2020. Founded in 2008, the company currently has over 250 locations around the world serving 575 cities. U.S. expansion in 2019 has included the states of CA, NJ, FL, MD and OK.
Rue Gilt Groupe, owned by Michael Rubin, the CEO of Fanatics’ parent Kynetic, is launching an online discount shopping site in an equal partnership with U.S. mall operator, Simon Property Group. Tested since March, www.ShopPremiumOutlets.com has approximately 300,000 products available from numerous brand partners that include G.H. Bass, Under Armour and Cole Haan.