LA Gear
Encyclopedia
LA Gear is an American
shoe
company based in Los Angeles, California
. It is owned by ACI International.
-born Robert Y. Greenberg (1940-) in 1979 to market and rent roller skates in Venice Beach.http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/fin/dice/papers/2001/2001-7.pdf In 1985 after finding that less than 20 percent of athletic shoes were bought for athletic use, he closed his L.A. Gear apparel store and began importing Korean-made fashion sneakers for women to sell under the L.A. Gear name. His sales for 1985 were $11 million, which tripled to $36 million in 1986 as he introduced fashion high-top shoes for women; his 1988 sales hit $224 million, and by 1989 he came in third behind Nike and Reebok.
Although L.A. Gear marketed shoes to all ages and genders, the focus of their early commercials and advertising @majo was centered around young women. The earliest L.A. Gear shoes for men were almost strictly basketball-oriented, while the earliest women's shoes were high-top fashion models with a velcro strap across the middle of the foot. Unlike most high-top shoes the early L.A. Gear shoes' eyelets stopped at the ankle, a trend the company took pride in and noted in several ads (see link below). Two pairs of shoelaces were typically offered with these shoes, one almost always white and the other a different color. In the case of the women's line, as was the case with Keds
and the Reebok Freestyle
earlier in the decade, trends dictated that the shoes were usually worn with slouch socks (a recent addition to fashion in the 1980s and a trend L.A. Gear exploited by making their own specific line of slouch socks to be worn with their high-top sneakers, perhaps to further the recognizability of the brand).
The line expanded in 1989, with L.A. Gear adding other shoe lines. During this time L.A. Gear began marketing shoes with a flame design on the sides which is still recognizable today. Also during this time L.A. Gear began aggressively targeting its female demographic further by revamping their fashion model line. In addition to adding certain feminine accents to the shoe L.A. Gear also would typically add a pair of shoelaces that were lace-like in appearance (a far cry from the typical laces in shoes today). To distance the primarily for women-marketed shoes from the rest of the line, L.A. Gear began using a stylized script logo, as seen here.
, who ended a long association with Adidas
to sign with the upstart company toward the end of his playing career. Then-San Francisco 49ers
quarterback Joe Montana
signed an endorsement deal with L.A. Gear in 1990 and quickly became the company's feature athlete. Hockey star Wayne Gretzky
was also signed as an endorser while he was still playing with the Los Angeles Kings
, and eventually would have his own line of street hockey shoes before his endorsement contract expired.
In addition to Abdul-Jabbar several other NBA stars wore L.A. Gear shoes, perhaps the most notable being Karl Malone
who appeared in several commercials for the brand beginning in the early 1990s before he too left the brand. Hakeem Olajuwon
was another L.A. Gear-endorsed basketball player who after being signed stayed with the brand until 1994 when he was contracted by Spalding
to endorse a line of basketball shoes with his name and number.
Unlike other athletic shoe companies of the day L.A. Gear was not averse to going outside of sports to find endorsement contracts. One of the earliest celebrities to sign an endorsement deal with the company was singer Belinda Carlisle
, who appeared in a series of print ads for L.A. Gear when the brand first began to become popular (as seen in this ad). Two of the most notable celebrities to endorse the shoes were Michael Jackson
, who promoted shoes for both men and women, and Paula Abdul
, who was signed away from Reebok
in 1991 and whose shoe http://www.tias.com/stores/mspackratz/origpics/r1363a.jpg became one of the biggest sellers of the early 1990s.
, as the decade turned L.A. Gear shoes became easier and easier to find in other stores- in fact, discount retailer Caldor
began carrying L.A. Gear shoes designed specifically for the store and its clientele.
The improved accessibility helped L.A. Gear's sales, and the company responded by coming out with more and more shoe lines to accommodate buyers. As the decade continued L.A. Gear began aggressively promoting its performance athletic shoe line.
For the newer shoes, some of the designs included:
Catapult: The LA Gear equivalent of Air Jordan
s, a high-end basketball shoe and training shoe line. The original spokesman for the line was Karl Malone, as noted above.
Regulator: The inflatable shoe craze of the early 1990s spawned this shoe, L.A. Gear's answer to the Reebok Pump
. The shoe featured a large pumping button on the tongue (much larger than the Reebok Pump's was) and a switch on top that deflated the shoe when pushed to the right.
L.A. Lights: was one of L.A. Gear's most successful lines, which came out in 1992. The line of kids LA Lights was launched at Foot Locker and Kids Foot Locker at $50 retail by LA Gear national account manager Jim Stroesser working closely with New York based BBC International, who owned the original patent for the light technology. LA Gear was selling over 5 million pairs of Kids "LA Lights" per year in the 1990s despite other brands selling lighted technology in the lower distribution channels. Light technology for kids has been one of the most successful launches in the athletic shoe industry with over a 100 million pairs sold in all distribution channels.
LA Tech - In 1992 L.A. Gear began marketing "Light Gear" CrossRunner shoes with red LED lights in the heels, and once a wearer's heel hit the ground the lights would light up and continue to do so with every step. L.A. Gear went further in 1993 by introducing the Leap Gear line of performance basketball shoes, which would light up when the player would jump off the ground. LA Tech's lighted technology was launched at Foot Locker by LA Gear national account manager Jim Stroesser, and at Champs by account manager Kyle Coburn. The program's success led to an exclusive national television advertising campaign with over 2000 doors at Foot Locker Inc.
Flak: A brand similar to popular Nike
and Adidas
products during the mid-1990s.
Although they had de-emphasized them by this time, L.A. Gear continued to market shoes towards women. One of L.A. Gear's more popular lines during this time for women was the Dancer line, which was a high-top shoe almost identical to the Reebok Freestyle
in design. In addition, L.A. Gear consolidated one of its other sneaker designs into a complete women's design and renamed it Street Shots, featuring both high top and low top sneakers sold primarily in white with silver trim (although other colors were featured).
As part of this change L.A. Gear once again changed their logo for their women's line, using a gray diamond shape with the company name inside it.
In 1994, L.A. Gear abandoned their men's performance footwear line and began marketing the lifestyle brands for women and children more aggressively. They also tried to acquire the Rykä
brand of women's shoes, but the deal failed as Ryka, which was struggling as much as L.A. Gear was, continued its downward decline.
In 1995 Wal-Mart and L.A. Gear agreed to a three-year contract where the shoe company would design lower-valued and specific-to-store shoes for Wal-Mart. Since Wal-Mart was such a large retailer L.A. Gear felt they could not pass up an opportunity that lucrative (despite an apparent contradiction in strategy), but the venture failed as sales for L.A. Gear shoes at Wal-Mart had declined.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1998, in the process greatly reducing the lines of shoes it was selling.
In 2004 L.A. Gear again went through a relaunch, this time with an emphasis on men's performance footwear as the Catapult line was reintroduced. Los Angeles Laker rookie Luke Walton
was signed on as the brand's spokesman, but his contract eventually ran out and he never appeared in any advertising for the brand. (Ron Artest
also was endorsed by L.A. Gear for a brief period of time in 2004 and 2005 in conjunction with his "Tru Warrier" persona, but the company dropped him as spokesman following the infamous Pacers–Pistons brawl.) L.A. Gear primarily marketed fashion athletic shoes for women and continues to do so to this day, although a recent relaunch of the brand has result in the de-emphasis of these lines (with L.A. Gear discontinuing the new Catapult line for men altogether).
LA Gear rereleased its Stardust women's fashion line in 2009 and later released a new version of the popular L.A. Lights. LA Gear also joined the rocker bottom shoe
craze that year by releasing the Walk N Tone sneaker line for women.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
shoe
Shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function...
company based in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. It is owned by ACI International.
Early days
L.A. Gear was founded by BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
-born Robert Y. Greenberg (1940-) in 1979 to market and rent roller skates in Venice Beach.http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/fin/dice/papers/2001/2001-7.pdf In 1985 after finding that less than 20 percent of athletic shoes were bought for athletic use, he closed his L.A. Gear apparel store and began importing Korean-made fashion sneakers for women to sell under the L.A. Gear name. His sales for 1985 were $11 million, which tripled to $36 million in 1986 as he introduced fashion high-top shoes for women; his 1988 sales hit $224 million, and by 1989 he came in third behind Nike and Reebok.
Although L.A. Gear marketed shoes to all ages and genders, the focus of their early commercials and advertising @majo was centered around young women. The earliest L.A. Gear shoes for men were almost strictly basketball-oriented, while the earliest women's shoes were high-top fashion models with a velcro strap across the middle of the foot. Unlike most high-top shoes the early L.A. Gear shoes' eyelets stopped at the ankle, a trend the company took pride in and noted in several ads (see link below). Two pairs of shoelaces were typically offered with these shoes, one almost always white and the other a different color. In the case of the women's line, as was the case with Keds
Keds
Keds is a brand of canvas shoe with rubber soles, introduced in 1916 by U.S. Rubber , later acquired by Stride Rite, and currently owned by Collective Brands....
and the Reebok Freestyle
Reebok Freestyle
Reebok Freestyle is a women's athletic shoe style that was introduced in 1982 and designed for aerobic exercise. It quickly surged Reebok into the mainstream athletic wear market and fashion scene along with becoming one of the most popular athletic shoes of all time. In 1984, the shoe accounted...
earlier in the decade, trends dictated that the shoes were usually worn with slouch socks (a recent addition to fashion in the 1980s and a trend L.A. Gear exploited by making their own specific line of slouch socks to be worn with their high-top sneakers, perhaps to further the recognizability of the brand).
The line expanded in 1989, with L.A. Gear adding other shoe lines. During this time L.A. Gear began marketing shoes with a flame design on the sides which is still recognizable today. Also during this time L.A. Gear began aggressively targeting its female demographic further by revamping their fashion model line. In addition to adding certain feminine accents to the shoe L.A. Gear also would typically add a pair of shoelaces that were lace-like in appearance (a far cry from the typical laces in shoes today). To distance the primarily for women-marketed shoes from the rest of the line, L.A. Gear began using a stylized script logo, as seen here.
Endorsements
One of the original athletes to endorse L.A. Gear shoes was NBA legend Kareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers from 1969 to 1989, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season...
, who ended a long association with Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
to sign with the upstart company toward the end of his playing career. Then-San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
quarterback Joe Montana
Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford "Joe" Montana, Jr. , nicknamed Joe Cool, Golden Joe, The Golden Great and Comeback Joe, is a retired American football player. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with the San Francisco 49ers, where he played quarterback for the next 14 seasons...
signed an endorsement deal with L.A. Gear in 1990 and quickly became the company's feature athlete. Hockey star Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. Nicknamed "The Great One", he is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League , and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters,...
was also signed as an endorser while he was still playing with the Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles Kings
The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League...
, and eventually would have his own line of street hockey shoes before his endorsement contract expired.
In addition to Abdul-Jabbar several other NBA stars wore L.A. Gear shoes, perhaps the most notable being Karl Malone
Karl Malone
Karl Anthony Malone , nicknamed "The Mailman", is a retired American professional basketball power forward who spent the majority of his career with the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association . Malone spent his first 18 seasons with the Jazz and formed a formidable duo with his teammate...
who appeared in several commercials for the brand beginning in the early 1990s before he too left the brand. Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon is a retired Nigerian-American professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played the center position in the National Basketball Association for the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors. He led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. In 2008,...
was another L.A. Gear-endorsed basketball player who after being signed stayed with the brand until 1994 when he was contracted by Spalding
Spalding (sports equipment)
Spalding is a sporting goods company founded by Albert Spalding in Chicago, Illinois, in 1876 and now headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The company specializes in the production of balls for many sports, but is most-known for its basketballs...
to endorse a line of basketball shoes with his name and number.
Unlike other athletic shoe companies of the day L.A. Gear was not averse to going outside of sports to find endorsement contracts. One of the earliest celebrities to sign an endorsement deal with the company was singer Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Jo Carlisle is an American singer who gained worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, one of the most successful all-female bands and the first such group whose members wrote their own songs and played their own instruments...
, who appeared in a series of print ads for L.A. Gear when the brand first began to become popular (as seen in this ad). Two of the most notable celebrities to endorse the shoes were Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, who promoted shoes for both men and women, and Paula Abdul
Paula Abdul
Paula Julie Abdul is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, choreographer, actress and television personality.In the 1980s, Abdul rose from cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers to highly sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era before scoring a string of pop music-R&B hits...
, who was signed away from Reebok
Reebok
Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
in 1991 and whose shoe http://www.tias.com/stores/mspackratz/origpics/r1363a.jpg became one of the biggest sellers of the early 1990s.
Into the '90s
As the 1990s began L.A. Gear's popularity continued to rise as more and more people began to buy their shoes. Although the original lines were typically featured in high-end department stores such as Macy'sMacy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
, as the decade turned L.A. Gear shoes became easier and easier to find in other stores- in fact, discount retailer Caldor
Caldor
Caldor was a chain of American discount department stores headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, operating throughout the northeastern United States. At one time, the company was a subsidiary of May Department Stores; Caldor was among the country's largest discount retailers.Despite being a popular...
began carrying L.A. Gear shoes designed specifically for the store and its clientele.
The improved accessibility helped L.A. Gear's sales, and the company responded by coming out with more and more shoe lines to accommodate buyers. As the decade continued L.A. Gear began aggressively promoting its performance athletic shoe line.
For the newer shoes, some of the designs included:
Catapult: The LA Gear equivalent of Air Jordan
Air Jordan
Air Jordan, also known simply as Jordans, are a brand of shoes and athletic apparel produced by Nike originally designed for and endorsed by NBA Hall of Famer and Six Time NBA Champion Michael Jordan. The Air Jordan line is now sold by the Jordan Brand subsidiary of Nike...
s, a high-end basketball shoe and training shoe line. The original spokesman for the line was Karl Malone, as noted above.
Regulator: The inflatable shoe craze of the early 1990s spawned this shoe, L.A. Gear's answer to the Reebok Pump
Reebok Pump
The Reebok Pump is a line of athletic shoes that was popular in the early 1990s. It was the first shoe to have an internal inflation mechanism that regulated a unique fitting cushion in two versions: the lower tongue; and also in the upper to provide locking around the ankle.-History:The original...
. The shoe featured a large pumping button on the tongue (much larger than the Reebok Pump's was) and a switch on top that deflated the shoe when pushed to the right.
L.A. Lights: was one of L.A. Gear's most successful lines, which came out in 1992. The line of kids LA Lights was launched at Foot Locker and Kids Foot Locker at $50 retail by LA Gear national account manager Jim Stroesser working closely with New York based BBC International, who owned the original patent for the light technology. LA Gear was selling over 5 million pairs of Kids "LA Lights" per year in the 1990s despite other brands selling lighted technology in the lower distribution channels. Light technology for kids has been one of the most successful launches in the athletic shoe industry with over a 100 million pairs sold in all distribution channels.
LA Tech - In 1992 L.A. Gear began marketing "Light Gear" CrossRunner shoes with red LED lights in the heels, and once a wearer's heel hit the ground the lights would light up and continue to do so with every step. L.A. Gear went further in 1993 by introducing the Leap Gear line of performance basketball shoes, which would light up when the player would jump off the ground. LA Tech's lighted technology was launched at Foot Locker by LA Gear national account manager Jim Stroesser, and at Champs by account manager Kyle Coburn. The program's success led to an exclusive national television advertising campaign with over 2000 doors at Foot Locker Inc.
Flak: A brand similar to popular Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
and Adidas
Adidas
Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
products during the mid-1990s.
Although they had de-emphasized them by this time, L.A. Gear continued to market shoes towards women. One of L.A. Gear's more popular lines during this time for women was the Dancer line, which was a high-top shoe almost identical to the Reebok Freestyle
Reebok Freestyle
Reebok Freestyle is a women's athletic shoe style that was introduced in 1982 and designed for aerobic exercise. It quickly surged Reebok into the mainstream athletic wear market and fashion scene along with becoming one of the most popular athletic shoes of all time. In 1984, the shoe accounted...
in design. In addition, L.A. Gear consolidated one of its other sneaker designs into a complete women's design and renamed it Street Shots, featuring both high top and low top sneakers sold primarily in white with silver trim (although other colors were featured).
As part of this change L.A. Gear once again changed their logo for their women's line, using a gray diamond shape with the company name inside it.
Popularity fades
By 1993 L.A. Gear's popularity was beginning to wane. Within a year the company began restricting access to the shoes, returning to higher-end department stores and such to market the brand. By doing this L.A. Gear hoped to gain a more upscale clientele for their shoes. However, in doing so the company was so desperate to sell the remaining inventory that L.A. Gear shoes began showing up at flea markets, swap meets, and supermarkets.In 1994, L.A. Gear abandoned their men's performance footwear line and began marketing the lifestyle brands for women and children more aggressively. They also tried to acquire the Rykä
Ryka
-History:Rykä was founded in 1987 by Sheri Poe, who had the idea of designing a better-fitting athletic shoe for women. Today, the company is now owned by American Sporting Goods, who also owns the Avia line of shoes...
brand of women's shoes, but the deal failed as Ryka, which was struggling as much as L.A. Gear was, continued its downward decline.
In 1995 Wal-Mart and L.A. Gear agreed to a three-year contract where the shoe company would design lower-valued and specific-to-store shoes for Wal-Mart. Since Wal-Mart was such a large retailer L.A. Gear felt they could not pass up an opportunity that lucrative (despite an apparent contradiction in strategy), but the venture failed as sales for L.A. Gear shoes at Wal-Mart had declined.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1998, in the process greatly reducing the lines of shoes it was selling.
Comeback
Since the bankruptcy filing L.A. Gear has made three concerted attempts at coming back. The first was in 1999, with an emphasis on casual shoes for men and women and the return of the popular L.A. Lights line for children. However, the brand failed to catch on.In 2004 L.A. Gear again went through a relaunch, this time with an emphasis on men's performance footwear as the Catapult line was reintroduced. Los Angeles Laker rookie Luke Walton
Luke Walton
Luke Theodore Walton is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . His primary position is at small forward. After the 2010 NBA Finals, Walton and his father Hall of Famer Bill Walton became the first and only father and son to...
was signed on as the brand's spokesman, but his contract eventually ran out and he never appeared in any advertising for the brand. (Ron Artest
Ron Artest
Metta World Peace is an American professional basketball player and rapper who is currently with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. World Peace gained a reputation as one of the league's premier defenders as he won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2004...
also was endorsed by L.A. Gear for a brief period of time in 2004 and 2005 in conjunction with his "Tru Warrier" persona, but the company dropped him as spokesman following the infamous Pacers–Pistons brawl.) L.A. Gear primarily marketed fashion athletic shoes for women and continues to do so to this day, although a recent relaunch of the brand has result in the de-emphasis of these lines (with L.A. Gear discontinuing the new Catapult line for men altogether).
LA Gear rereleased its Stardust women's fashion line in 2009 and later released a new version of the popular L.A. Lights. LA Gear also joined the rocker bottom shoe
Rocker bottom shoe
A rocker sole shoe or rocker bottom shoe is a shoe which has a thicker-than-normal sole with rounded heel. Such shoes ensure the wearer does not have flat footing along the proximal-distal axis of the foot. The shoes are generically known by a variety of names including round bottom shoes, round/ed...
craze that year by releasing the Walk N Tone sneaker line for women.