 |
Nike Designs Shoes for Wal-MartAfter long arguing that its brand would be devalued if it sold in discount chains, Nike Inc. has made it to WalMart Stores. But you won't find its trademark swoosh anywhere.
Customers at more than 400 WalMart stores nationwide can buy a pair of $37.64 Starter sneakers engineered by Nike and introduced last month. The world's largest maker of athletic apparel bought the Starter brand last year with the specific aim of entering the value end of the retail business.
Consumers purchased about $1.5 billion worth of athletic shoes at discount stores last year -- a market Nike has been yearning to tap because it makes up the bulk of unit sales. Seventy percent of the athletic footwear sold in the United States in 2003 cost less than $45, according to market research from NPD Group cited by Nike.
The sneaker maker wanted a piece of the market, but feared jeopardizing the cachet of its core brand, said Scott Olivet, senior vice president of Nike subsidiaries and new business development.
"Nike's positioning is really as a premium performance brand," said Olivet. "And what you always worry about with a brand is extending it too far."
The Starter brand, which Nike acquired last August for $43 million, has a working-class image and has been one of the top-selling sneaker brands in Wal-Mart since 2000 when the partnership beg
more: www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a... (805)
bookmark: 
16/5/2005 | Viewed 15,217 time(s)
|
|
