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Document 61 of 67.

Copyright 1998 Information Access Company,
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Copyright 1998 Fairchild Publications Inc.
Footwear News

May 18, 1998

SECTION: No. 20, Vol. 54; Pg. 24; ISSN: 0162-914X

IAC-ACC-NO: 20646432

LENGTH: 730 words

HEADLINE: SWING OUT SISTERS: NOW THAT FANS ARE FOLLOWING A NEW CROP OF DYNAMIC FEMALE TENNIS PROS, WILL RETAILERS COURT MORE CUSTOMERS?selling tennis shoes

BYLINE: Melville, Greg

BODY:
There is little doubt that the emergence of charismatic young athletes such as Martina Hingis, Venus Williams, Anna Kournikova and Lindsay Davenport are giving the sport of women's tennis a needed boost. Footwear vendors and retailers are now hoping that the increased interest in women's tennis will stir greater participation in the game, thus a higher volume of tennis-shoe sales.

"There's a whole new crop of athletes who are just fabulous," said Skip Lee, the category business manager for tennis at Nike, Beaverton, Ore. "You've got a lot of different women with a lot of different viewpoints playing a lot of good tennis."

With the increased level of competition, there has also been some growth in fan interest, Lee added.

"We're just starting to see it now. The crowd levels [at tournaments], the noise levels are much more than they have been in the past. It used to be that the crowds would appear for the men's match, and it would be like a fire drill before the women's match. Not any more," he said.

"I think there's a huge change in the women's tour," said Dianne Hayes, tennis marketing director for global sports at Stoughton, Mass.,-based Reebok International Ltd. "There's a lot of excitement, and you can feel it when you watch the tour."

While women's tennis heroes may create interest and enthusiasm for the sport, they generally do not directly sell shoes. Most vendors and retailers agreed that hero products are not highly sought by consumers of women's tennis shoes. Instead, heroes are important to the category, because they encourage youngsters to take up the sport.

"Tennis shoes are very personal items," said David Schwartz, owner of Tennis Co., a pro shop in Southfield, Mich. According to Schwartz, his female customers typically require good fit and comfort in their tennis shoes. Whichever pro athlete endorses the shoes is generally not relevant. On the men's side, however, heroes are a bit more important, he said. "Are they coming in for Andre Agassi shoes? Yes. But it is the 13- and 14-year-old boys looking for the latest and greatest thing."

Hero products also have little effect on the fashion end of the women's tennis-shoe market, according to some retailers. Pro Look Manager Luis Pasquel said female customers at his Long Beach, Calif., store care little about whose signature is on a pair of tennis shoes.

"Our store is all about fashion," he said. "Here, women would buy Michael Jordan tennis shoes before they would by a women's tennis shoe by a women's tennis player."

Nonetheless, retailers like Pasquel and Schwartz are hoping the new tennis stars will bring growth -- from both a performance and a fashion perspective -- to a category that has been flat for quite some time.

Reebok is capitalizing on the heightened interest in the sport by planning a grass-roots promotional tour to show off its tennis-shoe line, including the Net Master DMX, which will be worn by Williams and be available at retail in July. Among the more notable events organized by the company will be a Girls Sports Day, cosponsored by Lady Foot Locker, to be held just after Wimbeldon in July. The event will give 300 to 500 girls in New York City the opportunity to participate in several sports clinics, including one on tennis given by Williams.

According to Rick Kerpsack, the business director for performance footwear at Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods Co., there are some positive indications that participation in women's tennis may finally be growing. He pointed to a slight increase, during the last year, in junior-level racquet sales as one possible sign.

By working with national tennis organizations and other companies in the industry, Wilson is determined to make tennis one of the top 10 most popular participation sports in the United States by 2002. At present, it is about number 22, said Kerpsack.

For the sport to grow that rapidly, however, it will need to become a part of the popular culture, similar to its standing in the '70s and '80s, when several charismatic professional athletes, both male and female, rose to the top of the game, Kerpsack said.

According to Lee, the sport needs to reach a level where women's tennis players are once again perceived as icons. "You need younger girls seeing the older girls on television then saying, 'I want to be like her,' " he said.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

IAC-CREATE-DATE: May 29, 1998

LOAD-DATE: May 30, 1998