Menu
Marketing and Sponsorship

Demand For Barefoot Shoes Cools Considerably, With Sales Down 47% This Year

Italy-based footwear brand Vibram's FiveFingers shoe that "had weekend warriors ditching sneakers to jog with little or nothing on their feet ... is falling out of favor," as sales of "so-called minimalist shoes with ultra-thin soles have plunged 47% so far this year, even as total running-shoe sales have risen slightly," according to SportsOneSource data cited by Sara Germano of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Data shows that minimalist footwear last year "was the only major category to shrink," dropping by a third to $220M, while the running-shoe market as a whole "grew slightly" to $7B. Mainstream brands that "got into" the minimalist footwear game include adidas, New Balance and Fila. Experts said that one reason for the downturn is the concept was "pitched as a panacea for common injuries from knee pain to shin splints," but the results "didn't meet expectations." Not all minimalist models "are expiring, especially the ones that are evolving." SportsOneSource analyst Matt Powell said that the Nike Free is "excluded from the minimalist sales totals compiled by SportsOneSource, because the shoe ... appeals as much to the fashionable as the athletic" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/9).

EARNING ITS STRIPES: THE FADER's Matthew Schnipper writes a "shift in style that coincided" with the '10 hiring of Creative Dir Dirk Schönberger has made adidas "not only one of the most popular brands on the planet, but one of the coolest." Schönberger has brought adidas "a wealth of diversity, often in the form of high profile collaborations ... that are as pretty as they are profitable." He said adidas "broke all the rules by working with fashion designers on sneakers." Schönberger: "I’m thinking about our collaborators as a virus injected into our company that mutates the company into something else" (THE FADER magazine, April/May '14 issue).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2014/05/09/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Barefoot.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2014/05/09/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Barefoot.aspx

CLOSE