Four sports brands hiring athletes in sales team

In a new trend in sports retail, major four sports brands Nike, Puma, Reebok and Adidas are hiring athletes in their sales team. And going further to find right kind of candidates, the companies are visiting gyms and colleges.

Talking of Adidas group, its franchisee stores tie up with recruitment agencies to find sporty candidates from colleges and other stores, while Puma has an internal HR team and marketing team tracking runners and fitness experts. They also tour colleges to hire sales candidates. The company also shares their recruitment guidelines with its franchisee stores, reported Economic Times. The brands want to push top-end products through this medium.

The companies feel the concept may also help them curb attrition rate as the athletes would relate to these sports brands.
Adidas and Reebok, which have hired over 200 runners combind as footwear specialists, are hoping to take the total count to 500 by the next year.

The brands see about 20 per cent increase in sales after starting this hiring initiative six months ago. Sports retailers are trying to capitalise on the rising levels of disposable income and swelling interest in health among Indian consumers. Besides, these sports goods makers have also been holding events ranging from marathon to Zumba dance fitness programme to cross training to woo the customers and those they want to hire, ET reported further.