IS OAKLEY LOOKING TO HOOP IT UP WITH NEW SHOE?

          Sporting goods analysts "speculated" that CA-based
     Oakley's new footwear product will be a basketball shoe,
     according to Kelly Barron of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. 
     According to friends of Oakley Chair Jim Jannard, he "is an
     avid basketball fan" who "seven years ago flirted with
     developing a shoe with interchangeable soles."  But since
     sales of athletic shoes "haven't grown" since '92, Barron
     wrote that Oakley "will have to steal market share from
     competitors to grow its business."  Athletic Footwear Assoc.
     Exec Dir Gregg Hartley: "It's not a market that's going to
     be easy to penetrate" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 8/14). 
     Sporting Goods Intelligence Publisher John Horan: "I haven't
     seen what Oakley is proposing, but the company isn't widely
     distributed right now in the sporting goods industry" (L.A.
     TIMES, 8/14).  Nike Dir of PR Lee Weinstein, on Oakley
     manufacturing its footwear in the U.S.: "We tried it here. 
     We couldn't do it.  We lost money" (OREGONIAN, 8/14).