LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - That pair of scuffed running shoes you wear to the gym may not look like much, but they represent a battleground between a sports apparel upstart and the industry Goliath over a newly minted market.
By Alexandria Sage
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - That pair of scuffed running shoes you wear to the gym may not look like much, but they represent a battleground between a sports apparel upstart and the industry Goliath over a newly minted market.
This spring, Nike Inc <NKE.N> and fast-growing Under Armour Inc <UA.N> will both launch next-generation cross-trainers that are a quantum leap from the multi-sport sneakers that have descended from trendy to tired in the past few decades. The new shoes are designed to handle various training activities, from sprinting to pumping iron, within a specific sport.
Running shoes, often the default training footwear, aren't properly cushioned and don't maximize propulsion or allow for side-to-side movement, experts say.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Under Armour's new cross-trainers mark the first step in its conversion into a footwear company that also makes popular sports apparel instead of vice versa.
Under Armour, which began in 1996 by making snug clothing that wicks sweat away from the body, is essentially throwing down a glove on Nike's playing field.
"It's not waving a flag and saying, 'We won, aren't we great?' as it is, 'This is Under Armour!"' Chief Executive Kevin Plank told Reuters. "We're sticking that flag in the ground and saying, 'We're going to be here a long time."'
Under Armour's men's and women's apparel sales grew about 35 percent in 2007, and its cross-trainers are the next step up from the cleated shoes it started making only in 2006.
Analyst Matt Powell of research firm SportsOneSource said Under Armour -- which is taking preorders before its shoes arrive in stores in May -- knew it needed to make both footwear and apparel to become a major industry player.
MOMENTUM
Nike, which will launch its "performance" shoes on Wednesday, intends to head off Under Armour's momentum and assert its dominance in all things footwear -- something at which the $16 billion-plus giant over 26 times Under Armour's size in sales is an expert.
In the late 1980s, Nike tapped athletes John McEnroe and Bo Jackson for its first cross-trainers. But the category later fell into disfavor and became, as Powell explained, "the kind of shoes your Uncle Tony wears to a barbeque on Sunday."
Young athletes today want shoes that help them improve as they train for one specific sport, said Joaquin Hidalgo, Nike's vice president of global marketing.
Nike, based in Beaverton, Oregon, dominates the category, which represents 5 percent of all branded U.S. footwear, followed by New Balance, according to Susquehanna Financial analyst John Shanley.
The new campaign, which Hidalgo called the "second revolution," is the first major launch since the creation of Nike's men's training division in 2006. On offer are new apparel, equipment, and the ability to download drills, talk with trainers, or even visit a training center.
Under Armour's three "Prototype" styles will sell for $80 to $100. The Baltimore-based company plans this year to make 1 million pairs that purport to add strength, explosiveness, speed and agility.
Nike's three styles priced between $70 to $90 include the Air Zoom SPARQ TR Elite, the lightest training shoe Nike has made.
MARKETING COSTS
Plank said Under Armour's footwear business is poised for better margins even as marketing costs, including for its first Super Bowl TV ad, have cut profit for the first half of this year.
"You can make money in footwear. We can continue to expand margins," Plank said.
Shanley said he believes Nike will spend more in marketing than it will generate in shoe sales from its launch, "but they can afford to do that since they're sitting on $3 billion in cash."
And Nike's earlier launch may help. "What they're trying to do is come out with really compelling product earlier than Under Armour to take the wind off their sails," said Powell.
For Under Armour, the risks are steeper.
"They're betting the farm," Shanley said. "If this thing doesn't work for them, they're in big trouble."
Shoe retailers are getting nervous, Shanley said, worried if the upcoming launches fizzle, they'll be sitting on too much inventory.
But "sports is immune to economic downturns," said Nike's Hidalgo. Under Armour's Plank sounded a similarly bullish tone: "The other brands can be beaten. It's our job to win."
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Richard Chang)
