In 2018, Saucony were at a crossroads. Its core U.S. market was stagnating: Niche startups were taking market share away in technical categories, while their main retail outlet – independent running shops – were closing at an alarming rate.
Saucony responded with a three-pronged strategy to revitalize the brand:
Capture new growth in international markets, especially EMEA.
Double down on high-opportunity segments like trail running rather than relying solely on core road-running shoes.
Apply a structured innovation strategy to uncover fresh growth opportunities.
Saucony chose trail running in EMEA to be the spearhead project, setting the standard for their wider strategy. Saucony partnered with Sense Worldwide to deepen their understanding of the trail running culture and to craft an approach that would reposition the brand for European trail runners and spark innovation in both product and marketing.
We connected with European extreme trail runners from the Sense Network (e.g. barefoot ultramarathoners, gear fanatics ) to map motivations, behaviors and how trail running truly differs from road running.
We convened during the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc – the world’s pinnacle trail race event. Here, we engaged hardcore trail runners and gear shops in over 1,600 hours of cumulative research interviews. We also hit the trails for on-the-ground testing with prototype shoes, witnessing firsthand terrain challenges, wear-and-tear on gear, and the emotional highs of trail running.
We facilitated strategy workshops with Saucony’s global and EMEA teams – including product designers, marketers, and sales leads to present our recommendations and most impactful opportunities. We then worked with their teams to co-create actionable concepts, polishing our findings into concrete strategic directions the Saucony team could execute.
We synthesised the results of our research to formulate strategic recommendations and identify new growth opportunities to help Saucony gain an increasing foothold in the European trail running and technical footwear category.
Our insights emphasised the need for durability in trail running shoes. Trail runners tended to rate this feature above all others, due to their high turnover in shoes, with traction up as the second priority. This led to our recommendations for development specifically around the topsole cushioning and outsole used in Saucony’s trail shoes to withstand intense use.
Community came up repeatedly as a crucial element for trail running in Europe. We worked with Saucony’s marketing teams on effective tone and channels they could use to associate their brand with this aspect of the sport. Our recommendations informed Saucony’s launch of the Run it Local and Run for Good campaigns that significantly raised their profile among European trail runners.
10% increase in technical footwear sales within one year of the project.
2x increase in brand awareness metrics among UK trail runners within one year.
$505M record annual revenue reached in 2022, with growth since 2020.
65% of revenue now comes from EMEA (up from 40% in 2018) as Saucony’s center of gravity shifts to Europe.
#1 fastest-growing brand for Wolverine Worldwide portfolio post-transformation.
Award-winning product: Launch of Peregrine 10 trail running shoe, securing multiple “Best Buy” awards and athlete accolades.
“This is the best trail shoe I have worn! The shoe has great traction and support for those technical sections but then is comfy and light enough for more buffed out trails. It feels like it can handle everything I throw at it.”
Grayson Perry on the Saucony Peregrine 10, 2x Trail Running World Champion
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