Foot Locker Chair & CEO Ken Hicks on Friday said that the company is "seeing the impact of a Nike policy to strategically increase its footwear prices," and pointed to an overall 30% price bump on Nike Basketball Air Foamposites to illustrate his point, according to Allan Brettman of the Portland OREGONIAN. He said that Foot Locker "worked with Nike to determine pricing." Hicks: "We talk to them about what we think appropriate price points are for shoes. We've seen Foamposites go from $200 and $220 to deuce and a quarter, all the way up to $260." Foot Locker COO Richard Johnson on Friday was asked "about Foot Locker's plans for a new store-within-a-store concept called 'Nike Fly Zone.'" He said that with one store open, two other stores also are "near opening." The first opened two weeks ago at Palisades Mall in West Nyack, N.Y. Johnson: "It's a transformational space in the Kids Foot Locker store that's really focused on Nike and Jordan basketball product. If you think about it as a junior version of a House of Hoops, I guess, is the best way to put it, both from a square footage and a product perspective" (Portland OREGONIAN, 11/23).
THE WORLD STAGE: The field for the '14 FIFA World Cup is now set, and the OREGONIAN's Brettman wrote the "edge at this early stage of the game goes to Nike," as it will have 10 teams wearing its kits at the competition. Adidas and Puma each have eight, and there are six teams wearing jerseys from other companies. Adidas "can claim the top four ranked teams in FIFA, with Spain, Germany, Argentina and Colombia" (Portland OREGONIAN, 11/23).
