INOV8
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| INOV8 Logo | |
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Footwear |
| Founded 📆 | 2003 |
| Founder 👔 | Wayne Edy |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | Staveley, Cumbria, United Kingdom |
Area served 🗺️ | Worldwide |
| Products 📟 | Athletic shoes |
| Owner | Wayne Edy |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | inov8.com |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
INOV8 is a sportswear company that designs and markets shoes, apparel and equipment for running, hiking and physical fitness. It was founded in 2003 in Northern England and has its headquarters in the Lake District.
The company is owned by its founder Wayne Edy. He sold it to Descente, a Japanese sportswear maker, in 2015 and then bought it back again in 2020. The deal to buy it back was officially announced in 2021.[1]
History[edit]
INOV8 was founded in 2003 by Wayne Edy, a Zimbabwean-born entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the outdoor shoemaking industry. He risked most of his savings to launch his own brand.[2]
During the entirety of its first 20 years the brand was called INOV-8. In October 2023, the hyphen was removed, and the brand renamed INOV8. At the same time, INOV8 replaced its original logo of a foot-shaped number eight with that of a bird's talon.[3]
As of October 2023, INOV8 also redesigned the shape of all their future footwear, focusing on a more natural, anatomical fit with a wider toe-box. It also removed the use of numbers in its shoe naming. The numbers had represented the weight of the shoes in grammes.
The first shoe launched by the brand in 2003 was the MUDROC 290, designed for trail running and fell running. It was light in weight and featured deep-cleated rubber studs.
The shoe grew a following among elite off-road runners, which raised its profile and helped INOV8 expand into the hiking and fitness markets.
In 2014, the company won the Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade, reflecting its growth globally.
In 2018, in collaboration with The National Graphene Institute at The University of Manchester, it launched the first sports shoes to contain graphene.[4] Infused into the rubber outsoles, INOV8 called the technology G-GRIP. Later, in 2022, it infused graphene into the foam midsoles of some of its shoes.[5] It called this technology G-FLY.
Products, Awards & Sponsorships[edit]
INOV8 products have won many awards, including 'Best Trail Shoe' for the TRAILFLY G 270 V2 in the Runner's World Gear Awards 2023[6] and 'BEST HIKING BOOTS' for the ROCLITE PRO G 400 GTX V2 in The Great Outdoors Gear Awards 2023.[7]
The company sponsors a variety of runners, hikers and fitness professionals. Its first athletes were primarily fell runners and trail runners, but its roster has expanded to include ultramarathon runners, obstacle course racing competitors, hikers and fitness athletes taking part in events such as The CrossFit Games.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Back at the Helm: Catching Up With Returning Inov-8 CEO Wayne Edy".
- ↑ "inov-8: Wayne Edy". NPR.
- ↑ "Inov8 Flies Into 2024 With a New Logo and Shoe, the Mudtalon Speed". 20 January 2024.
- ↑ "Inov-8 Launches 'World's First' Sports Shoes Made From Graphene, Dubbed Planet's Strongest Material". Forbes.
- ↑ "Inov-8's new graphene trail running shoe literally nitro-boosts feet". 14 October 2022.
- ↑ "Runner's World Gear Awards 2023". 18 December 2023.
- ↑ "The Great Outdoors Gear Awards 2023". 18 July 2023.
External links[edit]
This article "INOV8" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:INOV8. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
