NYTimes Article on Shoes

[JosephTree]

Did anybody else catch this article from July 28?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/business/media/appealing-to-runners-even-the-shoeless.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

What caught my eye was that Min running shoe sales have increased by 283% while conventional shoe sales have actually dropped. Wow! Seems like the landscape is a changin'!

 

[shock.absorber]

It's a shoe addicted

It's a shoe addicted society. Not surprising.

Barefoot runners in shoes is funny marketing though. Hey these shoe companies gotta sell shoes. So the marketing does not need to make any sense. Shoes better then barefoot, and you can run through coals on your run. Very functional coals are normally on my route. Hey it works ! The barefoot runners buy lots of shoes funny as it is. More shoes then normal consumers. So it works well for the shoe companies. Plus it is less shoe which is less cost to produce so revenue is higher. Who can complain ? Too funny.

 

[swanski]

yeah - how is it that a pair

yeah - how is it that a pair of Vibram KSO Treks cost $125.00? When I first ventured into minimalist running I justified the cost by considering that since there is no midsole to wear out, they would last a lot longer than normal running shoes -and they have (even though there is duct tape around the toes). I am still wearing them over a year later. Never had a pair running shoes last anywhere near that long.



I just got my first pair of invisible shoes - huaraches. 25 bucks is much more reasonable.

 

[ajw1970]

Yeah... "less is more"

Yeah... "less is more" certainly pertains to the cost of minimalist shoes... I've found that Steve Madden driving loafers work well for an affordable minimalist work shoe and canvas Van's work well for my casual minimalist needs. Both came in at around $50-75.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Did you notice how this

Did you notice how this so-called "news article" is classified as "Advertising?" New Balance must have paid a ton for this one-page "article/advertisement."


Now who said we couldn't change the running world? ;-)

Regardless, the most important part is at the top:



"UNLIKE the economy generally, sales for running shoes are sprinting along, with retail sales for the first half of 2011 up 18 percent over the same period last year, according to SportsOneS...ource, a market research firm that focuses on sporting goods.



Those gains come not from traditional models — which add stability and cushioning to cater to a variety of gaits, and whose sales are actually down as much as 18 percent over last year — but rather from a new crop of pared-down running shoes, whose sales are up 283 percent."

 

[DNEchris]

I read recently, in a trade

I read recently, in a trade paper, that minimalist shoes now account for 8% of the total running shoe market. That's rather a large change from even a year ago!