Back Bay New Balance to add glitz to sneaker sales
By Donna Goodison
Thursday, January 5, 2012 - Added 5 hours ago
Running shoe maker New Balance is planning a retail store just strides from the Boston Marathon finish line and less than two blocks from NikeTown.
The Boston company is developing a New Balance Experience store at 583 Boylston St. in Copley Square.
A spokeswoman for the company, which has an outlet store around the corner from its Brighton headquarters, confirmed it was planning the new full-price store, but offered no details.
“As we celebrate 40 years of Jim Davis owning New Balance in the spring of 2012, we are excited to open New Balance Boston,” spokeswoman Amy Dow said.
It will be the second Experience location in the United States for New Balance, which opened a 4,000-square-foot store in New York City in August that sells its clothing and footwear. That store has a two-lane Mondo running track along a perimeter wall and a sunken treadmill for gait/form analysis. Workers assemble sneakers in a demo area, and there’s a live video feed from New Balance’s Lawrence manufacturing facility.
The Boston store is planned for the first-floor, roughly 2,500-square-foot space formerly occupied by the Copley Flair greeting card and gift shop.
Branded stores are very important for athletic shoe makers, said Matt Powell, a SportsOneSource Group analyst. “It allows them to display the real breadth of their line,” he said. “Most retailers will (only) buy a portion of a brand’s line.”
New Balance, which expected to break the $2 billion mark in sales last year, lost traction in 2011. Sales dropped 17.7 percent and its market share fell to 5.8 percent from 7 percent as of Dec. 24, according to SportScanInfo.
“They’re doing OK,” Powell said. “Nike, Adidas and Reebok are all doing much better in the U.S. right now, but they do expect a nice turnaround in 2012.”
It’s unlikely Nike will worry about New Balance giving its NikeTown, which has occupied a prominent Newbury Street spot since 1997, a run for its money. Nike has an estimated 42 percent market share, and its revenue hit $20.9 billion in fiscal 2011.
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dgoodison@bostonherald.com
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