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From: The Wall Street Journal
February 16, 2009

ATHLETIC SHOES
MATT POWELL
SportsOneSource
Analyst

LIGHTER THAN AIR: It's the age-old question in the sneaker business: How do you make the shoe lighter? Mr. Powell, an analyst at SportsOneSource, a Charlotte, N.C., market-research firm, says Nike Inc. has introduced a technology called Flywire -- thin, nearly unbreakable strings that run through the upper part of the shoe, holding the sneaker together while eliminating much of the bulk. After testing the technology at the Olympics, Nike is offering it to consumers, with commercial lines for basketball and tennis, among others.

GOING GREEN: Traditional midsoles -- the sole's middle layer -- are made of a chemical compound that might last as long as 1,000 years in a landfill. Brooks Sports Inc. of Bothell, Wash., developed a running shoe with a biodegradable midsole that decomposes in a landfill over 20 years. The company says that by the end of the year all its footwear brands will have biodegradable midsoles.

ASTROTURF: Shoes slipping on the artificial grass? Reebok, a division of Adidas AG, is working with the maker of AstroTurf to study the interactions between footwear and field surfaces. The goal is to get a grip on traction before new Reebok shoes are developed sometime in the near future.

—Nicholas Casey

LINK to the WSJ

NFL: Economics Affect the Big Guys

From: The Bleacher Report
by: Jonathan Williams

Sports teams are businesses no different from many others, they rely on their consumers to keep buying what they are selling. According to Matt Powell at SportsOneSource suggested that the league merchandise sales are down 15 percent from the previous year.

We will not know for sure until the next summer how the lost sponsors effect sports in general, the NFL is positioned to still be in good shape this coming year. Of course being the top league in the country helps to mitigate it.

LINK to The Bleacher Report

R/GA: Digital AOY 2008

The IPG shop's mantra of utility over gimmickry proves its relevance as the stakes rise

AdWeek Feb 16, 2009

The key to these platforms is that they sell products directly, rather than tell stories about them. In the case of Nike+, the proof is in the numbers. Since its debut, runners have logged 100 million miles worldwide. Most important, the company's global running-shoe sales are up from $8 billion for the fiscal year ending May 2006 to $9.7 billion for the year ending May 2008, a 21 percent increase. Market share has gone from 48 percent in the U.S. in 2006 to 61 percent in 2008, according to SportsOneSource.

Link to Ad Week

Fans immediately rush for championship gear

By Kim Leonard
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 3, 2009


After trailing the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants before the AFC Championship game here, sales of official Steelers merchandise surged to first place among the 32 NFL teams.

Steelers shirts, hats and other items represented 13.2 percent of about $25 million in sales the week of Jan. 18, the most recent figures available, analyst Matt Powell with SportsOneSource said. The Cardinals were No. 7, with a 4.9 percent share.

Those figures don't count dozens of businesses making and selling non-official items that appeal to fans.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_609977.html