Saucony

Saucony /ˈsɔːkəni/ is a North American manufacturer of footwear and apparel. The company is a subsidiary of Wolverine World Wide.[1]

Saucony
Subsidiary
IndustryFootwear, textile
Founded1898 (1898)
Kutztown, Pennsylvania, U.S.
HeadquartersWaltham, Massachusetts, U.S.
ProductsAthletic shoes, jackets, hoodies, t-shirts, sweatpants, shorts, socks, hats, backpacks
ParentStride Rite (2005–2007) Collective Brands (2007–2012)
Wolverine World Wide
(2012–present)
Websitesaucony.com

Products commercialised by Saucony include footwear and clothing ranges, such as athletic shoes, jackets, hoodies, t-shirts, sweatpants, shorts, and socks. Accesories include hats and backpacks.[2]

History

The company's first factory was founded in 1898 at Kutztown, Pennsylvania, on the high banks of the Saucony Creek (from which the company would get its name) by four business men.[3] In 1910, Russian immigrant A.R. Hyde started a shoe company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called Hyde Athletic Industries.[4] Over the years, Hyde became known for making athletic footwear including brands such as SpotBilt and PF Flyers; Hyde Athletic Industries bought Saucony in the late 1960s, and moved it to Cambridge. In 1979 two of Saucony's running shoes were selected in the top 10 by Runner's World magazine (the Hornet was chosen best value) and by the following spring the demand for the product had gone up 20 fold. In the late 1980s, when Saucony became Hyde's dominant brand, the name of the company was officially changed from Hyde Athletic Industries to Saucony.

Launch party of the co-branded Saucony X Dunkin' Kinvara 9 running shoe, April 2018

Saucony's shoe boxes once had the phrase "sock a knee" printed on them, which represents the correct pronunciation of the company's name.[5] The Saucony brand logo represents the Saucony Creek's constant flow, and the boulders lining its creek bed. The company is a popular racing shoe producer, making track spikes and cross country racing flats. Saucony also makes shoes for specific track and field athletics events.

In 2005 Saucony was acquired by Stride Rite Corporation for $170 million.[6] Stride Rite Corporation was then acquired in 2007 for $800 million by Payless ShoeSource and the combined company became known as Collective Brands.[7] In 2012, the Performance Lifestyle Group of Collective Brands, which included Saucony, along with Keds, Stride Rite and Sperry Top-Sider, became part of Wolverine World Wide in a $1.23 billion transaction that also involved the sale of Payless ShoeSource and Collective Licensing International to private equity firms Blum Capital Partners and Golden Gate Capital.[8] In 2016, Wolverine World Wide relocated Saucony and its other Boston-area brands to a new regional headquarters location in Waltham, Massachusetts.[9]

Wolverine World Wide sources a majority of its footwear from numerous third party manufacturers in Asia Pacific and South America.

Footwear
Saucony Peregrine 8 trail shoes

The company offers a variety of shoes, such as running, trail running, racing, walking, and a college collection. Each of these types of shoes utilizes specific technology relevant to the type of targeted activity. The shoes are designed for 3 main purposes: racing, running, and walking. Shoes are also made by focusing on the runner's foot size, type of running, arch type, pronation, and running location.

On April 3, 2018, Saucony teamed up with the Massachusetts-based doughnut and coffee company, Dunkin' Donuts to produce a strawberry-frosted donut themed running shoe to commemorate the 122nd running of the Boston Marathon. The Saucony X Dunkin’ Kinvara 9 comes in a donut box and the heel of the shoe is covered in rainbow sprinkles.[10] The company again released a Dunkin' themed running shoe in March 2019 on the successor to the Kinvara 9, the Kinvara 10.[11]

Originals

Originals are Saucony's heritage range, which includes reintroduced older shoe styles produced by the company, which have been improved with better materials and different colorways. These include the popular Shadow model and Jazz model, the latter of which remains the company's biggest selling product of all time.[12]

Sponsorship
gollark: It looks like some sort of abstract art piece.
gollark: Are those LED filament lights, then, or some sort of magical multicolored incandescents?
gollark: Cool idea, since you could also run networking over that and control lighting over something less unreliable than wireless whatever, though I imagine needing a network switch would increase the costs.
gollark: Though it's always hard to get new standards to actually be adopted anywhere.
gollark: It might make sense to have home lighting use lower-voltage DC instead of mains AC now, and have a big converter somewhere, to avoid every bulb having to contain expensive and in some cases unreliable and flickery conversion electronics.

References
  1. "Saucony official site".
  2. Running apparel on Saucony website, 9 Aug 2020
  3. "History | Saucony Company". The Stride Rite Corporation. Retrieved February 4, 2009.
  4. Kathy S (March 23, 2011) Saucony bares their “sole” on minimalist running Retrieved on March 26, 2014
  5. "US today on Saucony". US today. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  6. "Stride Rite to buy Saucony for $170 million". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  7. "Payless set to acquire Stride Rite for $800 million". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  8. "Wolverine, Golden Gate, Blum agree to buy company whose brands include Keds, Sperry Top-Sider". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  9. "Wolverine strides into Waltham". Boston Herald. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  10. Dawson, Andrew (2018-03-28). "Saucony Teams up With Dunkin' Donuts for One Sweet Running Shoe". Runner's World. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
  11. "Dunkin', Saucony team up to create doughnut-themed shoes for Boston Marathon". 13 WTHR Indianapolis. 2019-03-22. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  12. "Sneakers – Retro Shoes & Sneakers | Saucony Originals". www.saucony.com. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
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