off the shelf. Fully eighty to ninety percent of fashion aerobic shoe buyers wore shoes casually and for other recreational purposes (Gottfried, Hoffman, Porciello, 1994, 502).
Overall, the chief factors that determine a company's ability to compete in the athletic shoe industry are working capital, inexpensive skilled labor, promotion, and distribution. To a large degree companies like Nike and Reebok which are foreign-owned, obtained their prominent position in the athletic shoe industry by investing capital in a then low-tech industry. As the shoe industry developed it became widely adapted as a means for privately owned companies attempting to build capital with relatively low technology and large numbers of laborers (Gottfried, Hoffman, Porciello, 1994, 507). First-tier competitors like Nike, Reebok, and L.A.
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