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Keds younger girl sneaker observations...

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I have been doing some intense research in this area. In my nonscientific study in SF and around the UC berkeley campus. I would say that the hot sneaks among the young hot chickies (~16-22) are the adidas (white with stripes), the various new balance styles (which are also podiatrically correct) and the reemergence of the converse chuck taylor standard (especially among the very young 14-16 year olds and the asian and hipster set).

Keds have taken a back seat (way back) and are practically never seen on any girl under 40. The wedge heel was the death sentence for the old champ. It may take a decade or longer for their return.

The department stores (such as target, walmart etc) and payless, have also copied many of the earlier keds styles and sells them for next to nothing. Only a genius or member of seekers basement could lead the keds corporation out of this mess.
 
How about a genius from Seeker's Basement?

I am sure out of the hunderds of people who are members of this site, we have a few marketing types? I am of the engineering type bent, and not much use for this kind of work.

It is obvious that Keds is trying to maintain market share by introducing new styles to compete with other companies' styles. Is this a good strategy?

-- opinion on ---
At one time, Keds Champion was synonymous with quality. Then manufacturing was moved "off shore" to Korea. The quality too a step down. Then the Koreans sent the work to Taiwan, and another drop in quality took place. Now they are made in the People's Republic of China (thanks to some overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom), and the quality is on par with something you can buy at K-Mart for about $5.
-- opinion off --

So, should Keds try to make a wide variety of mediocre sneakers, or should they try to concentrate on a few product lines and make them well?
 
Quality <opinion on>Over the last few years I've heard a lot of members bitch about Keds quality and while there has been some (ok a lot of variation) the quality has not really changed that much. I have a pretty good collection of Keds dated back to the 50's and the US made Keds were no better made than the Korean. Yes I agree the Korean are better than the ones from some of the other places they were made but in no way do they compare to Walmart or K-mart knock-offs.</opinion off>

Marketing <opinion on>Here is a topic I could dig my teeth into but for today I won't except for a couple points. I think one of the main problems Keds have is the fact that when they come out with a winner all the knock-off companies jump on it and pound out cheap imitations. If Keds could in some way protect the designs they make then you might see styles stay around for awhile. Take the RTW's as example, Keds brought then out and sold them for 19.99 to about 39.00 for leather then Payless came out with a copy that they sold for 9.99. They were crap and gave me blisters, I should have stayed with Keds, is that another reason why they get hurt in the long run, the copies are bad and in turn hurt the sales of the real thing?</opinion off>
 
Just had to give my 2 cents

Just had to give my 2 cents

I have always held the opinion that the Stride Rite people are retarded! Their marketing plan has not only lost their focus, THEY DON'T EVEN SEEM TO HAVE ONE!!

They have sat back and watched Sketchers, Adidas, and other ugly ass shoes steal and grab some of their marketshare. I think it started with the lower quality. I really thought the Korean shoes were awesome. Their quality seemed far superior to the crap now. On the new shoes the canvas seems thinner, the soles wear faster, and when you wash a pair of white ones the glue ALWAYS turns the canvas yellow. Between Kedsmama and I we have washed 5-6 of the new pairs in the last year and they all yellowed horribly. We tried washing them in both hot and cold, we dried them in the dryer and in the air, Kedsmama even hand washed them without soap and they still yellowed!! One of the great things about Keds I always thought was the fact you can wash them, but I guess we can't even do that anymore. 😢

Back to their marketing plan. Except for my lovely Kedsmama, I have to agree that the only people wearing keds are the older ladies and the 30-40 soccer moms. And the reasons these 2 groups still wear them is because they wore them as kids and liked the shoes. Young girls today DO NOT wear Keds at all!! Any first year marketing student knows about brand loyalty and how early it starts. Keds needs to get these teenage girls back into Keds so that they can sell them shoes throughout their whole life. Why do you think the tabacco companies target kids?? BRAND LOYALITY!! They get them young and keep them for life. (Until the cancer rots away their insides, but that is for a different soapbox).

So how do we get them younger kids back? Marketing, marketing, marketing!! Get Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera or one of these teen idol pop goofballs to pitch your shoes. Run these ads during Dawson's Creek, Buffy, saturday morning cartoons, and place ads in magazines like 17, teen beat, teen pop and focus on the teenage girls. Keds has to make their shoes cool again!! And I think we can all agree that the first thing to do I lose the wedge heel. I have never heard 1 peoson say they liked it. I just think they look like my grandma's orthopedic shoes from the 70's. I am still not sure why they changed it. I mean, Keds had a classic style thay was tried and true for 70 plus years so why fix it if it aint broke? They need to change their other approaches and leave the shoes alone. One exception is the whole glue yellowing thing.

Knockoffs are always going to happen. They can't keep other companies from stealing their styles but if they had a better name with people I think the whole brand loyality thing would keep people buying their shoes. I mean, if you have ever worn a pair of payless shoes for more than an hour your feet kill!! You slide on the pair of Keds and walk all day. There really isn't a comparison and for the extra 10 bucks, I'll take the comfort everytime!!

I have to also agree that all I see in So. Cal. are the shell toe adidas, nikes and the ugly ass converse. Seems the cons are making a huge comback with all the teen crowd. Especially with the gothic freaks and the asians girls. Lots of ugly freaks but they surewould look beter in Keds!!

Oh well, my soap box is due back at the shop so goodbye, until we meet again and yes Seeker, "LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR UGLY SHOES"!!!!!
 
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