Once beleaguered footwear-apparel brand Skechers now has a bigger share of the US market than the massive sportswear giant Adidas. (NDP, the industry analyst, reported the lead in May.) That signals the completion of a comeback that saw the Skechers brand overcome an FTC ruling claiming it misrepresented health benefits of its Shape Up line of shoes. But Skechers, which burst onto the scene in the 1990s with a hipster streetwear style inspired by bowling shoe chic, and the Skechers brand is on the rise in the minds of consumers and investors. (Skechers Stock Doubles on Broad Appeal)
[Great selection of the latest, coolest Skechers can be seen here]
With a stable of endorsers that ranges from young singer Demi Lovato to the PGA Tour’s smiling Matt Kuchar (who could win a major any time now — a potential ad coup), Skechers has reestablished its broad multigenerational appeal. Nike still dominates the athletic-casual footwear category in the US. But Skechers at 5% (to Adidas’s 4%) makes it a distant but happy #2. Adidas’s recent signing of NBA star James Harden — who pals around with Skechers-endorsing Kardashians — is the brand’s newest push to penetrate the US market. Harden may have a tough opponent in Demi Lovato.
