Descente targets footwear with UK outdoor brand purchase
Japanese sportswear group Descente has bought inov-8 with the intention of expanding the business.
The UK-based outdoor company was founded in 2003 by Wayne Edy, who will continues in his role as “innovator”.
Descente has been the distributor of inov-8 shoes in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong since 2013.
Descente president Masatoshi Ishimoto said: “Through this significant acquisition, I believe we can give full play to the strengths of both Descente and inov-8, helping inov-8 to further develop and expand its global operations, and in doing so, ensuring the future growth of the group’s overall shoe business, which is a key objective of current management planning.
“By assimilating inov-8’s impressive research and development capabilities we create many exciting new possibilities for product development within the group."
Inov-8 has enjoyed double-digit growth for the past few years and is sold in 62 countries.
