by Terry Lefton
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The $8 billion wholesale athletic footwear industry in the U.S. suffered through a year wherein sneaker marketers kept trying to figure out what consumers want. Not that anyone has a good answer. They just know it's not as easy as it has been over the past five years when the industry had double-digit growth and marketing consisted of copying Nike's formula. Predictably, after awhile, all the shoes and all the ads looked the same.
"There is a certain level of boredom in the marketplace," said Reebok vp-marketing communications Brenda Goodell. "Consumers are telling us they want something else."
But what? As athletic shoes lose their fashion cachet, "alt" shoes like Lugz and Vans are holding strong. More rugged brown shoes, such as Timberland and Skechers, now fill the walls of retailers like Foot Locker. And while basketball shoes have been the industry barometer in recent years, running and walking shoes are now "the hot" categories. Accordingly, brands like New Balance are booming, since they always stressed function over fashion.
FOOTWEAR Legend for chart: A - Brand B - Co. Name, Location C - Lead Agency, Location D - Total Sales (billions) E - MediaExp (millions) A B C D E 1 Nike Nike, Beavertown, OR Wieden & Kennedy, Gooby Silverstein, San Fran. $3.700 $163.2 2 Reebok Reebok International, Stoughton, MA Berlin Cameron & Partners, New York $1.200 $55.7 3 Adidas Adidas America, Portland, OR Leagas Delaney, London $0.490 $21.1 4 Fila Fila Hunt Valley, MD N/A $0.480 $13.7 5 Converse Converse, N. Reading, MA Houston, Herstek Favat, Boston $0.281 $8.0 6 New Balance New Balance, Brockton, MA Messner Vetere Berger, et al, New York $0.261 $4.2 7 Keds Keds, Cambridge, MA Kirshenbaum Bond, New York $0.280 N/A 8 Airwalk Airwalk, Altoona, PA Lambesis, Del Mar, CA $0.180 N/A 9 AICS Asics Tiger, Atlanta Bozell Worldwide, New York $0.130 $2.1 10 Foot-Joy Titelist, Fair Haven, MA Arnold Communications, Boston $0.122 N/A Source: Sporting Goods Inteligence (sales); Competitive Media Reporting (expenditure)
While its brand is still ill-defined, Reebok now has a product story to tell in a year when performance is paramount. Thus, its DMX cushioning technology is being ported to "every shoe where it makes sense," according to Goodell, including the third version of the Allen Iverson signature shoe, an important follow-up to last year's disastrous Iverson 2. Iverson remains one of the No. 2 brand's lead endorsers in a year where Reebok and others trimmed endorsers considerably.
Victimized as much as any brand by the shift away from fashion is Fila. Adidas has supplanted Fila as the No. 3 contender, trailing top dogs Nike and Reebok. Puma was eyeing the success of Adi's advances made at least partially on the basis of retro appeal.