Word: nike
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When the jogging and fitness craze began in the mid-1970s, athletic-shoe manufacturers were dubbed "Adidas and the Seven Dwarfs." But by the early 1980s, while West Germany's Adidas remained No. 1 outside the U.S., fast- rising Nike dominated the American market. The company was started in 1972 by current chairman Philip Knight, 52, a University of Oregon graduate, and Bill Bowerman, 78, his former track coach, who used a waffle iron to make their first soles. (The now famous Swoosh trademark on the side of the shoes was designed by an art student for $35.) Nike...
Jennifer the Valley Girl, whose most strenuous exercise consists of cruising the local shopping mall, favors $64 pink L.A. Gear athletic shoes with Western-style, imitation-silver buckles. Arthur the accountant, who bicycles ten miles before picking up his calculator in the morning, wears TC Lite, Nike's $85 cycling model. His weekend tennis partner rushes the net in Reebok's $80 Italian-made Cosenza tennis shoes, with the brand name discreetly scrawled in the corner...
...satisfied to sell only shoes, companies are diversifying into T shirts, sweaters and shorts emblazoned with their names. All told, the market for athletic shoes will reach $9 billion in retail sales this year, up about 15% from 1988. In a grueling race for market share, once sagging Nike is racing back with revenues of $1.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended in May. Analysts estimate that Nike now claims a 26% share of the market for brand-name athletic shoes. Based in Beaverton, Ore., the company is nosing ahead of its archrival Reebok, which controls about...
...Nike faltered, Reebok galloped ahead. Beginning its life in the U.S. as a subsidiary of a British shoemaker founded in the 1890s, Reebok, based in Canton, Mass., is now a publicly held firm that owns its former parent company. Its mid-'80s success came from inventing and persistently exploiting the market for women's aerobic shoes, a shift in the business that Nike had completely missed. Reebok's revenues zoomed from $4 million in 1982 to $900 million...
This year Nike, which Knight has invigorated by decentralizing decision making and encouraging innovation, has gained a second wind with dozens of new models in 24 footwear categories. Nowadays any top contender in the industry must constantly upgrade its products (almost all of which are designed in the U.S. but made in Asia) just to stay in the race. Though industry analysts estimate that 80% of all sneakers are used for nothing more taxing than taking out the garbage, consumers want the illusion of having a competitive edge...