Who is purchasing Race Roster?
ASICS Digital formed a new Canadian subsidiary (“Race Roster North America”) as a purchaser of the assets from Fast North Corp. Inc. (dba/ “Race Roster”). RRNA is an ASICS Corporation wholly owned subsidiary.
Why is this an important deal for ASICS?
- Scale an already healthy business to establish ASICS as the #1 endurance event platform and partner in the world.
- Accelerate growth and user benefits of OneASICS and Runkeeper.
- Leverage digital platform and long-tail marketing to bring ASICS brand and product to thousands of races and millions of runners.
- Deliver an asset and audience to regions that will drive brand awareness and consideration, traffic, retail engagement, and product sales.
Why is this an important deal for Race Roster?
- Provides immediate investment for innovation, product enhancements, and team expansion.
- Uniquely positions Race Roster to efficiently solve sponsorship and marketing challenges faced by event directors.
- Aids Race Roster’s goal of becoming the number one endurance event technology platform in the major global market.
How will this help race directors?
- Provides an opportunity to take advantage of ASICS direct and in-kind sponsorship offerings to increase profitability and reduce operating expenses.
- Provides an opportunity to take advantage of offering quality ASICS apparel to runners efficiently.
- Provides an opportunity to leverage custom training plans via Runkeeper, discounts on apparel, and other benefits through the OneASICS program to enhance the runner experience.
- Provides an opportunity to gain broader exposure to runners via Runkeeper and other ASICS marketing channels.
Note: taking advantage of the above benefits are at the option of Event Directors.
How will this deal help race timers?
Race Roster is excited to help timers further professionalize their businesses via timer sponsorships, opportunities to monetize results, and by providing free race supplies, like sponsored bibs. Race Roster is also dedicated to continuing to develop it’s world renowned scoring software, RunScore, originally authored by Alan Jones. Race Roster understands the crucial role played by timers in our industry and is dedicated to finding innovative solutions for their business needs.
How will this help runners?
Runners will be able to discover, register, train, compete, and celebrate within one digital ecosystem.
Through RunKeeper, running event participants will be able to easily discover races in their geography. They will also be provided with training tools and content to help them arrive at the start line healthy and prepared.
How does this help ASICS retail partners?
The addition of Race Roster to the ASICS family will create new opportunities to connect with millions of runners across North America and beyond. This presents a unique opportunity for our retail and run specialty partners to deepen their connection with local race directors and races without the high costs historically associated with race sponsorship. Through Race Roster, we will be able to offer our retail partners unique ways to participate in the race day journey including: bib pick up in store, hosted training runs, race promotions, and celebrations (pre, day of and post-race), race bag inserts and communications, etc. All with the shared goal of increasing brand and store awareness, and driving new foot traffic to our partners.
Will the Race Roster leadership team continue to manage the operation?
Yes and with great excitement! The founding story of Race Roster is unique in that five high school friends banded together to start the business to create better technology for their own race. All of the original founders still feel like there are many challenges faced by Race Directors, and they are excited to continue to deliver innovative products and high-quality customer service to existing and new customers.
What does this mean for Race Roster employees?
Race Roster employees will continue to develop, sell, and support the technology within the same organizational structure. The team is excited to offer the road racing industry sustainable sponsorship and marketing solutions that will have a direct and meaningful impact on the participant experience.
Race Roster employees are thrilled about the perks of working for a company that will continue to invest in their well-being and long term success.
What does this mean for ASICS Digital employees?
Race Roster brings an exciting opportunity to ASICS, Runkeeper, and the ADI team. The ADI family has now expanded to include the 70 person Race Roster team in London Ontario. Runkeeper will immediately begin hiring in London and providing resources for Race Roster hiring in Boston, US, and Europe.
How will this deal impact current Race Roster customers (races)?
Race Roster is excited to extend all of the benefits of working with the ASICS brand to its customers. However, if there is an existing relationship with a sponsor that is in conflict with ASICS, there is no obligation to take advantage of ASICS sponsorship or marketing opportunities.
How will this deal impact current ASICS customers?
ASICS is committed to serving runners and the running community. The deal is a win for runners, race directors, ASICS, ASICS run specialty partners, and all those whose business is dependent on a vibrant running community. The combination of ASICS, Runkeeper, and Race Roster will create innovative opportunities for connecting our partners to runners across North America and beyond.
Will Race Roster consumers (runners) become OneASICS members?
All Race Roster runners are welcome to join OneASICS and take advantage of OneASICS member benefits. Runners will only be marketed ASICS products with their permission and permission of the race.
What if a race is currently sponsored by a run specialty or other 3rd party retailer?
Race Roster understands the important role that run speciality stores play within the running community and is committed to extending the online rewards for participants to include spending in a race’s preferred running store.
What synergies can be gained from this deal?
Combined, ASICS and Race Roster have the ability to be present in each of the milestones that make up an athlete’s journey from event discovery to race day. While supporting each customers’ general pursuit of fitness, ASICS now has the ability to meet their customers along the way towards reaching specific achievements in running events.
Where will Race Roster North America be headquartered?
RRNA will continue to operate business as usual in London, Ontario.
Where does Race Roster do business?
Predominantly in the US, and Canada with recent expansion into UK & Australia.
Is Race Roster’s mission changing?
No. Race Roster’s mission has and always will be to solve the challenges faced by event organizers. We believe we’ve done a fantastic job with registration technology and are now looking forward to helping event organizers meet sponsorship and marketing goals.
What types of events does Race Roster serve?
Race Roster operates primarily in the running event industry, which is a subset of the broader endurance event industry. Running events can range in size from 50 runners to over 50,000 runners, and in distance from 1K kids runs to 100K+ Ultra Marathons. The largest population of runners registering for races on Race Roster participate in the 5K.
Other endurance event registration categories on Race Roster include, Cycling, Duathlon, Triathlon, Ultra-running, Walking, Swimming, Membership, and Other.
What if a race is currently sponsored by a competitor of ASICS?
Race Roster will respect all existing contracts and is committed to supporting all of our events regardless of their brand affiliation.
How will ASICS use the existing and future participant and user data?
All event organizers will have the option to engage ASICS as a sponsor at varying levels. The specific use of data will be outlined within each sponsorship opportunity. ASICS will only communicate with Race Roster users who have been a part of a race whereby the event organizer has secured ASICS as a sponsor. ASICS is dedicated to providing meaningful content to nurture each athlete’s journey from event discovery to race day.
How does Race Roster fit within the existing ASICS Digital portfolio?
We believe that Race Roster, Runkeeper, and ASICS is a transformative combination. World class race management, mobile fitness technology, and the ASICS premium brand will elevate race experiences worldwide and transform the race industry. This will enable us to uniquely meet the needs of Race Directors and our consumers.
What is ASICS Digital and how does it fit under the ASICS umbrella?
ASICS Digital is the global digital HQ for ASICS and serves all things digital consumer globally. The ADI family is comprised of ASICS fitness apps (Runkeeper, ASICS Studio), Race Roster, Consumer Platforms (global ecommerce businesses), Consumer Engagement (e.g., digital marketing, loyalty, contet), and Data & Analytics.
What is OneASICS?
The OneASICS program is a free membership program for customers of ASICS. As a OneASICS member, you have access to exclusive benefits designed to keep you running. The goal of the OneASICS program is to bring all consumers of ASICS products and services under one CRM database, helping to build a direct and meaningful relationship with our consumers.
What is Runkeeper?
The ASICS Runkeeper app helps you track runs, set specific goals and stay motivated through audio cues, virtual challenges, race training plans and more. Available on iOS, Apple Watch, Android, and Android Wear devices. The app also integrates with wearables like Garmin.
Runkeeper has always been focused on helping runners of all levels get out the door and reach their goals. The app helps users easily track workouts, set goals, and stay motivated as they track their progress over time.
Runkeeper Go, the premium experience, features additional resources to help users take their training to the next level.
Who should I contact with additional questions?
Race Roster: Chantelle Wilder, chantelle@raceroster.com, 226-377-7233
ASICS Digital: Whitneigh Kinne, whitneigh.kinne@asics.com, 207-756-4670
