Female entrepreneurs in the women's sports equipment
and apparel market are featured by Brad Wolverton of
BUSINESS WEEK. Moving Comfort founder Ellen Wessel, who
manufacturers running wear, and Title Nine Sports founder
Missy Park, who oversees a catalog business, are just "part
of a savvy group of female entrepreneurs who are setting the
pace in the fast-growing $21 billion women's sports
equipment and apparel market by listening to their
customers, hiring women athletes as advisers, and paying
attention to female physiology." Their success "has been
due, in part, to past neglect by the Nikes and Champions of
the world." Nike GM of Women's Footwear Marla Murray: "We
might have had more insight into what women needed if we had
(hired) more women in the past." Taking notice of the
"popularity of women's pro sports and facing a mature men's
market," Nike recently said it plans to double its sales of
women's gear to $2B in the next five years, and "has hired a
dozen women for its new women's sports marketing division"
(BUSINESS WEEK, 9/1 issue).
SWOOPING IN: Nike announced that its third Sheryl
Swoopes signature shoe, the Air Swoopes Zoom, is set for a
Holiday '97 release, and will retail for $125 (Nike).