Lady Foot Locker - Athletic Footwear Industry

ATHLETIC FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

Lady Foot Locker serves as a retail channel that belongs to the athletic footwear industry. Lady Foot Locker "partners" with Reebok regarding the proposal of launching the Lobo project. This advertising project/ celebrity athlete endorsement deals with Rebecca Lobo, a female basketball player who recently got a gold medal and is a member of the U.S. Women's Olympic Team.

Being quite a dynamic industry, the athletic footwear caters to the needs of not only to professional athletes, but also to individuals who have their sporty and fitness lifestyle. This industry is characterized by the offering the market with the respective athletic footwear that caters to their specific sport and due to the high technology even in this footwear, it offers various designs in the foot shape of the consumer. Athletic Footwear is generally athletic shoes, offered in various types due to different sports that an individual is engaged to. It first started with basketball, tennis, running and fitness, which were the most common sports that people were basically engaged to. Athletic Footwear retail channels offer retailing of these athletic footwear from the various brands. Fast-food restaurants are also known as quick service restaurants, owing to the quickness of their services and delivery of orders. This industry is divided into the Male and Female Segment of athletic footwear. The athletic footwear industry sales are declining. Their monetary sales might have a small difference from their previous sales performances, but we can see that there has been a drastic change in the sales based on units.

The industry is particularly characterized by trends such as the product innovation for a better design and quality, capturing of the sales and market share both in the U.S. and Global through market segmentation, increase brand image and brand awareness of consumers, and product differentiation.

b. Analysis of existing competitors

Reebok's faces tough competition in the athletic footwear market, though they managed to be in the second place with a 17.7% market share in the U.S. Athletic Footwear, next in line with Nike, 34.7%. Fila managed to gain third place with an 8.5%, close to adidas with 5.4% market share in the U.S. Athletic Footwear in the year 1996.

Reebok manages to be next in line with the market share leader in this athletic footwear industry. Their product offerings range to sports, fitness, and casual footwear, apparel and equipment. Reebok products are sold in approximately 170 countries. Their strengths are the "Classics" - comfort-based shoes, walking women's fitness and aerobics categories targeting 25-44 years old, female consumers. It was only in the year 1990 when Reebok began to open in targeting the male-oriented footwear categories. They also managed to renew product development