Word: gearing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Jennifer the Valley Girl, whose most strenuous exercise consists of cruising the local shopping mall, favors $64 pink L.A. Gear athletic shoes with Western-style, imitation-silver buckles. Arthur the accountant, who bicycles ten miles before picking up his calculator in the morning, wears TC Lite, Nike's $85 cycling model. His weekend tennis partner rushes the net in Reebok's $80 Italian-made Cosenza tennis shoes, with the brand name discreetly scrawled in the corner...
...ended in May. Analysts estimate that Nike now claims a 26% share of the market for brand-name athletic shoes. Based in Beaverton, Ore., the company is nosing ahead of its archrival Reebok, which controls about 22% of the market. Striding into the No. 3 position is trendy L.A. Gear, which has grabbed about 13% by selling shoes designed more for fashion than performance. Among the runners-up: Converse, Adidas, Keds and New Balance...
...every manufacturer is chasing the perfect technology. L.A. Gear has become a major contender by selling shoes mostly for show, not sport. Adorned with bright-neon trim, buckles and rhinestones and worn by svelte blonds in the company's TV commercials, L.A. Gear's shoes suggest sex and Southern California. One of the brand's top sellers is Street Brats ($60), with contrasting-color laces, marbleized leather and tongues that stick straight up. L.A. Gear was started in 1979 by Robert Greenberg, 49, a hairdresser turned entrepreneur who keeps his finger on the pulse of California shopping culture. Says...
...Reebok's recent "Let U.B.U." ad campaign, which starred eccentric characters in surrealistic situations, was considered a bust. All the major manufacturers have hired celebrity pitchmen. Nike pays multitalented pro athlete Bo Jackson to sell its cross- trainer shoe, and Joan Benoit Samuelson to advertise its running line. L.A. Gear keeps retired Los Angeles Lakers star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on its payroll; his former coach Pat Riley is under contract with Reebok...
...Other jets came in for their share of problems. A Trump Shuttle 727 skidded to a stop in a shower of sparks at Boston's Logan Airport after its nose gear failed to drop for landing. An American Airlines 767 flying from Phoenix to Chicago landed in Albuquerque after a valve burst in its hydraulic system...