ASICS Foot ID helps us in achieving a conversion rate of above 90 percent in sales, said Rajat Khurana, MD of ASICS India and South Asia in an interaction with The Hindu on the sidelines of reintroducing the SportStyle Skyhand OG sneakers in India after a gap of 30 years. The Japanese sportswear maker said that there has been an uptrend in the SportStyle category in India followed by China, U.S. and Europe.

ASICS Foot ID is a running posture measurement machine using their proprietary algorithm to analyse a runner’s feet in 3D. It identifies the key pressure points and how they pronate, thus suggesting an appropriate pair of running shoes.

ASICS Foot ID machine is available across 90% of stores in India with the exception of 10% stores wherein the store size is very small, and they don’t have a space for the Foot ID machine, said Rajat.

The running shoes contribute more than 50% to the revenues of ASICS, said Rajat.

(For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today’s Cache)

Currently, ASICS has 111 stores in India. However, it plans to increase it to 120 by the end of this year and also aims to grow to 200 stores by 2026.

The SportStyle is emerging as a healthy layer segment because of a young median age (around 28 to 35) in India wherein the consumers want to look good when they do any kind of sporting activity, added Rajat.

For the SportStyle Skyhand OG sneakers comeback, ASICS on-boarded Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor as its brand ambassador.

ASICS is expected to grow by 26-27% year-on-year this year and eyes a healthy 30% in 2025. The shoe making company said that 60% of its sales is coming from metros and rest from Tier 2 and 3 cities. It also said that more than 60 percent of the stores opened in the last one year are in these areas only.

Rajat told that ASICS has reached 30% local manufacturing of its shoes in India. It aims to stretch it up to 40% in the near future. But Asics do export the sandal type flip-flops from India.

ASICS also has the carbon plate shoes that saves energy by a few percentages when you run, said Rajat.

It has the gel technology shoes as well for the new age runners combining the function with fashion.