Adidas unveils shoe
stores in November priced at $90. where rival Nike dominates. market of fanatical runners and gymgoers who swear by shoes designed with as little material between the wearer and the ground as possible.
"They want to spread the message. It sounds religious but some of them are evangelical about it.''
The athletic shoe and clothing business has been fairly resilient during the US economic downturn, but it is an industry that thrives almost entirely on new products. customer.
While barefoot shoes make up a tiny fraction of the $22 billion US athletic shoe industry, it is one of the fastgrowing categories. Sales have more than doubled in the past year to roughly $750 million, according to SportsOneSource.
The barefoot shoe movement has been fueled by the barefoot running culture, which has long had proponents, but caught on more widely in 2009 after Christopher McDougall's book "Born to Run'' explored the history and benefits of it. The theory is that running barefoot enables the body to move naturally and optimally, while traditional shoes inhibit that.
The movement gained more traction last year when Harvard biologist and runner Daniel Lieberman published a paper in the journal Nature that concluded that running barefoot seems to be better for the feet,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], producing far less impact stress compared to those in traditional running shoes.
The practice of running in barefoot has been a somewhat controversial topic, though. The odd appearance of the shoes sometimes causes heads to turn in parks. Some races across the country will not allow people to run in them. And some barefoot shoe wearers themselves have reported injuries after using them.
Shoemakers and health professionals say many of the injuries are a result of people using the shoes too quickly. They suggest people trying to make the switch from traditional shoes to barefoot ones do so gradually increasing distance over time to let the body adjust to how it naturally is meant to move,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
"A lot of engineering went into making your foot a high performance machine,'' said Mark Verstegen, founder of Athletes' Performance, a training and performance organization for elite athletes that works with Adidas.
"Using your foot's natural power and movement will help you strengthen muscles you never knew you had in your feet, lower legs and throughout your core.''
Athletic companies have rushed to jump on the growing barefoot trend. Big companies such as Merrell, Fila,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Saucony, Asics and New Balance all are offering their own barefoot or socalled minimalist shoes.
Nike, the world's biggest athletic company,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], has roughly 65 percent of the market and appeals to barefoot loyalists and mainstream exercise enthusiasts alike with the traditional runningshoe look of its "Free'' line.
Vibram has about 10 percent of the market with its FiveFinger shoe, which encases each toe separately and has come to define the style.
The design of the Adidas barefoot shoe strikes a balance between the two styles. The brightlycolored trainer, which features the trademark Adidas three stripes, covers the foot as a shoe would but with a socklike fit and toe compartments to allow more natural movement.
"The Adipure Trainer is a unique piece of equipment for elite level athletes that we're bringing to our core consumer,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],'' said Patrik Nilsson, president of Adidas North America. customers. The company runs a close race with Nike globally, but the gap is much wider in North America.
In their most recent fiscal years, Nike generated $7.58 billion in revenue in North America. Adidas, meanwhile,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], had roughly $4.05 billion in revenue when translated to US dollars.
Nike holds 48.2 percent of the market share in US, while Adidas comes in at a distant second with 11.7 percent.
Adidas, which recently has seen its sales improve in North America, has implemented a growth strategy that relies heavily on gaining market share in the US.
The company said it is trying to connect better to US consumers through new products and marketing.
"It's not just basketball or having Derek Rose or Tiger Woods, or whatever. It's a lot of different things all the time and connecting right with the consumer.''
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