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Non-Tech : Just For Feet (FEET) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Dorsey who wrote (556)	3/25/1998 2:40:00 PM
From: Don Dorsey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 750

Retailers use fancy footwork to dump once-hip sports shoes Just discount it. That's the motto retailers of Nike sneakers are using these days. The shoes people just had to have last year, it seems, aren't cool anymore. Air Max models, for example, are going for 40% of the suggested retail price at America Mura shopping mall in Osaka's Shinsaibashi district. But it isn't just Nikes that are suffering. Just a few months ago, some pairs sold for several times suggested retail prices. Those days are gone, however. Osaka retailer Sports Takahashi Co. in January started offering 20% discounts on new models, and half-price sales on older shoes. Despite the bargain, sales are well down year on year, a company official reported. Americaya Co., a retailer of clothing and sporting goods with outlets in several major Tokyo shopping districts, also said sneaker sales have fallen from last year, in both value and volume. Prices for Nike shoes introduced in 1995 and 1996, including the Air Max, are rapidly falling, an official said. "The trendoids who gather in Tokyo's fashionable Harajuku district mostly stopped wearing sneakers last year," explained Koichi Tadano, chief editor of Boon, a youth-oriented magazine. "Guys sensitive to cutting-edge trends rapidly moved on once anybody and everybody was outfitted with what were once the most in brands of sneakers." Old favorites At the same time, conventional sneakers that haven't changed their design in 10 years or more are selling well. Consumers are now more interested in models that don't change and that they don't get bored with, one retailer said. Nike Japan Inc. now aims to prop up demand for sneakers by stressing their sports role rather than riding the wave of fashion, said a company executive, admitting the boom of the last few years is fading. It hopes the World Cup soccer tournament this summer will stimulate demand from wannabe athletes.