Alan Lugo is an old friend of Shoe Bizness and we’re happy he’s back! I love hearing different perspectives on the hottest topics in the footwear industry. Toning sneakers have been such big hit and there has been so much buzz around all the different brands that carry them. But what about the first person to come up with this innovative idea and the designers who create something new only to have ten other people follow them? Mr. Lugo brings up some great points from a designers perspective.

-Mary

This is a story about design and originality, not necessarily business, I accept the fact that lots of money wouldn’t have been made if everyone felt the same as me on this topic, and that would be terrible.

I cant’ go anywhere these days without seeing some sort of “toning and shaping” shoe at retail.  TO my knowledge it all started with MBT and their anti-shoe, which trickled along for a few years like the dorky kid in school that everyone picked on and laughed at, never imagining that that look would ever be taken seriously or even desirable.  Then all of the sudden there was the Mephisto Sano, fit flops, the Sketchers Shape-ups…. Oh man the sketchers shape ups.

First off, its not blasphemy for anyone to come out and say that sketchers rips off many companies concepts and designs, so I wont even really go into that designers tirade.  Or maybe I should go into the tirade about how MBT deserved it for having their shoes so ridiculously overpriced, and that they were asking for it.  But somehow by some sort of planets aligning and tipping point type of effect sketchers absolutely caught fire with this and started selling TONS of pairs. 

Now, there are too many companies with this same type of footwear out there to even begin to list them, and im not even talking about the ‘other types’ of toning footwear, im just talking about the big, chunky, ugly, squishy in the back type shoes, and every sales manager and CEO in the industry wants a piece of the pie.  Cant blame them, all the “analysts” are talking about how much bigger its going to get, and heck, the men’s market isn’t even fully saturated, so jump right in everyone!

Obviously this presents a sticky situation for designers that want to create “the next thing” or something truly original that will get knocked off by someone else because its so great.  There are many reasons to introduce new product into this industry, but its interesting to watch as companies jump in this shape-ups category and try to put a story together that makes their version seem relevant, like it was done for any other reason than to snag some of that money that Jane Consumer is out there basically giving away in this category, when most of us know that its such a stretch for the company to be doing this type of footwear.

So now let me get back to my nerd in high school analogy.  Have any of you reading this seen hipsters walking around your neck of the woods?  Remember the prototypical ‘nerd’ from high school?  Notice any similarities?  At one time this look was a joke, and now so many companies are completely bought into it and trying to recreate this look, oh how things change. 

That’s part of the luxury of NOT being a sales maneger or CEO though, I can have my opinions and think stuff is ridiculous and bash and badmouth it and not care how much money is being made by ‘the other guys’.

But not everyone is jumping on this bandwagon! There are some companies out there that it would seem almost a natural fit for them to be in this category but they aren’t jumping in to these bloody waters.  I’m taking note, its not going un-noticed, these companies silent actions are sending a message to me that is stronger and louder than any website animation claiming to increase my gluteus activity by 15% ever will be able to.  To quote one of my favorite movies of all time, White Men Can’t Jump; “Theres a Man (or in this case, a company) with integrity!”