Buying Runkeeper for $85 million sounds like a sweet deal for Asics –  a company that is well known by runners through-out the world. We would be surprised if Asics doesn’t come up with connected running shoes. Underarmor did that at CES 2016 when it announced Speedform Gemini 2 smart sneakers which were capable of measuring distance travelled, stride length, and pace.

Runkeeper has 45 million subscribers who like to run, practice and compete and now with the help of Asics we would expect to see Runkeeper hardware coming onto the scene. With all the smartbands that need to tell you how you slept, smartwatches that track your movement and phones with GPS, you have plenty of data to digest. There are is little excuse these days and losing weight and staying fit is a matter of will power. 

Asics clearly has realised the importance of fitness/sleep tracking technology and saw Runkeeper as a huge asset to its offerings.

It is not the only one. This deal follows a move by rivals Under Armour to buy the fitness-tracking software house Endomondo and MyFitnessPal last year.  Adidas also purchased Runtastic. Runtastic was acquired for  €220 million by Adidas. Adidas bought the controlling 50.1 percent stake from the German publisher Axel Springer.