Adidas Unveils Newest Barefoot Shoe
Portland, Oregon - Adidas goes barefoot. The 2nd largest sports apparel and athletic company revealed Tuesday its much-awaited and highly-anticipated barefoot training shoe. The barefoot shoe has been designed to imitate the experience of doing exercise routines barefoot while providing durability, protection and traction of a shoe.
The barefoot shoe named as Adipure Trainer will be released in the U.S. market by the last quarter this year possibly in November as planned and will be priced at $90. Adidas, German based company, is optimistic in its current financial strategies that include the barefoot shoes in its planned expansion in the United States dominated by rival Nike. Adidas will try to penetrate the small but promising American market for gym-goers and fanatical runners.
Currently, Nike holds 65% of the total world market for sports apparels and has been receiving so much patronage from barefoot loyalists and exercise enthusiasts. Other big sports apparel companies such as Fila, Merrell, New Balance, Asics and Saucony have also their own version of the barefoot training shoes. The U.S. market has always been the mainstream for every latest offering in the sports apparel industry. Even though the barefoot shoes is just a small fraction of the whopping $22 billion United States athletic shoe industry, it has been the one of most promising and fastest-growing categories with sales at $750 million last year, doubling the past year.