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Basketball Womens Mariano Rivera Jersey Shoes

When Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls basketball team began advertising basketball shoes a few years ago the Air Jordan line by Nike Inc. he was selling high tech style as much as performance. Unlike their low tech, black and white predecessors, today's basketball shoes are made of light weight leathers and synthetics dyed in a dazzling array of colors with vivid, high contrast, graphic designs. They are also constructed with sophisticated cushioning devices and fitting systems.

And they are expensive. Keds, the standbys of a generation or two ago, rarely cost more than $10 or $15 a pair roughly $20 Kids Mickey Mantle Jersey now. Today's popular styles can cost as much as $160.

High style and higher prices have made basketball shoes big business. They are now the largest niche in the $7.6 billion wholesale market for sport shoes. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, an industry group in North Palm Beach, Fla., wholesale sales of basketball shoes high tech as well as canvas totaled about $1.7 billion in 1990. Gear and Adidas.

The market for basketball shoes has been growing rapidly, too. Between 1986 and 1990, the market grew at a rate of about 19 percent a year, according to Sporting Goods Intelligence, an industry newsletter in Glen Mills, Penn. Last year, largely because of the recession and market saturation, the market expanded by just 4.1 percent.

But industry analysts are hopeful that 1992 will show strong growth. "With excitement building around the Olympics, I expect 1992 to be a peak year for basketball shoes," said Dick Silverman, associate publisher of Footwear News, a trade newspaper in New York. Venerable Converse The Canvas Sneaker Fades Away

When it comes to breeding, Converse Inc., the North Reading, Mass., athletic shoe maker, is the original. Converse has been making its popular All Star canvas basketball sneaker since 1917. In 1923, it renamed the shoe the Chuck Taylor All Star after Chuck Taylor, a popular basketball player of the time who joined the company as a spokesman in 1921. Converse has sold more than 500 million pairs of All Stars.

But despite Converse's early start, the market is now dominated by Nike, of Beaverton, Ore. and Reebok, of Stoughton, Mass. Nike, which sells about $500 million worth of basketball shoes a year, has about 40 percent of the market. Reebok, which does not disclose sales figures for specific shoe categories, has about 16 percent of the market. Converse retains 9 percent of the market.

Nike and Reebok spent about $130 million each in 1991 on television advertising for their products, in what was called the "sneaker wars." The commercials feature players from the National Basketball Association and claim the companies' high tech shoes gave the players an edge.

"I can't deny http://www.officialyankeesproshop.com/WOMENS-MICKEY-MANTLE-JERSEY.html that a lot of this is about marketing," said Peter Ruppe, Nike's manager for basketball marketing. "But the key thing is to make a great product."

While the companies' advertising appeals may be pitched to athletes, 80 percent of the sporting shoes purchased are never used in play. "A large majority of these shoes are being worn as street wear," Mr. Silverman said. "The companies don't want to own up to that," he said.

Even so, play related advertising sells shoes. According to John Horan, publisher of Sporting Goods Intelligence, which surveys retailers, in 1990, 37 percent of all basketball shoe buyers based their purchases on advertising; 25 percent based their decisions on technology and 23 percent were motivated by fashion. Only 10 percent bought basketball shoes on the basis of information about quality and price. Nike Nonpareil Wear the Shoe, Be Like Mike?

Even its competitors admit that when it comes to marketing and promotion, Nike is without peer. Mickey Bell, executive vice president of Converse, credits Nike with changing the rules of the game in the early 1980's by focusing on marketing rather than manufacturing issues.

The breakthrough came when Nike signed rising superstar Michael Jordan and introduced the Air Jordan line in 1985. "That changed everything," Mr. Bell said. Building brand recognition by tying it to a single star athlete fueled Nike's success.

Along with Mr. Jordan, Nike features National Basketball Association stars like David Robinson, www.officialyankeesproshop.com/WOMENS-MARIANO-RIVERA-JERSEY.html Charles Barkley and Scottie Pippen to sell its Air Force and Air Flight lines. It pays John Thompson, coach of Georgetown University's Hoyas basketball team, $200,000 a year to endorse its shoes.

Mr. Ruppe acknowledges that Mr. Jordan, who is paid about $6 million annually by Nike, was the "paradigm" for today's advertising. Television ads featuring Mr. Jordan and film maker Spike Lee continue to win awards and drive Nike sales. Nike's overall slogan is "Just Do It." But its other slogan, "It's gotta be the shoes!" is now frequently heard on the nation's basketball courts after a stirring play is made in a pickup game. Mr. Ruppe said that Air Jordans, which sell for about $130, make up about 10 percent of its basketball shoe sales.