Nike is Struggling to Catch Up
Jul 01 '02
The Bottom Line I definitely recommend the shoes, but the other items offered by And 1 are not really superior to what is out on the market.
I am currently on my 4th pair of And 1 basketball shoes. I got involved with this product line at the very outset, due to my dissatisfaction with the quality of both the current Nike and Reebok products on the market. The reason I switched to And 1 rather than the likes of Converse or such was the background behind the company.
And 1 was started by several friends who were MBA students at the prestigious Wharton School of Business. These friends played a lot of basketball, and were extremely unhappy with the quality of the footwear on the market, specifically Nike and Reebok. Upon finishing school they managed to obtain some capital to start the company. The business plan of the corporation was to make shoes that were better researched than the bigger competitor’s, with input from actual people who use them normally (your playground baller), not just superstars with their own shoe lines. And 1 also saw an opportunity in the urban areas where they felt that Nike’s marketing strategies could be exploited to steal market share, hence the logo and design of many of their products. After making a decent splash in the market at the outset, And 1 continued to grow and diversify into more apparel lines. In response to this threat Nike has recently (within the last year and a half) revamped its marketing campaign to attract back to Nike much of the urban market that it lost through And 1’s growth period. Specifically, many of us remember the Nike ad’s with the fancy dribbling, passing, basketball tricks performed by various playground artists, not NBA superstars.
Now, turning to the shoes. First, I have felt that the durability of the shoes has been far superior to any of the other products I tried. Secondly, a lesser known element is that And 1 designs their shoes for different types of players. Some of the shoes are meant only for indoor use, other for outdoor/indoor. Also, shoes are designed to the style of play that one is used to – i.e. low post, slasher, perimeter player, etc… I do not know exactly what modifications are made in the actual design of the shoe, but I do know that the shoes are tailored to be unique to different styles of play. I have been extremely happy with all of the shoes that I have purchased, as I often feel like they look better, last longer, and are somewhat cheaper than comparable shoes offered by Nike, Reebok, etc…
I have not been as big a fan of the apparel offered by And 1, as some of it is overpriced in my opinion. The shirts often boast loud logos and slogans, which often are appropriate for the in-your-face type of person, but not necessarily that great for a more average mannered person. I think that the material used by And 1 is not superior in terms of its quality or durability, and so for me the real issue when buying any basketball apparel become price (so long as everything else is equal, which I feel like it is in this case).
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Epinions.com ID:
coresponger
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Location: Los Angeles,CA
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
27 year old attorney.
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