Most Expensive Tennis Shoes
Posted by ZA on June 2, 2008
There has been quite a few stories over the past year about Under Armour battling to take away market share from Nike. At the same time Nike and Adidas have been exchanging fire in their battle for new endorsement deals with Nike recently taking away the Yankees from Adidas. So I decided to look closer at the tennis shoe wars and see how these giants stack up on retail; I wanted to find out which are the top 10 most expensive tennis shoes.
Since running shoes today double as athletic footwear and fashionable casual wear, I decided to examine the Men’s Running Shoe category. The goal was to find which mainstream running shoes are the most expensive tennis shoes on the market today. I used three sources to make sure I was including all of the top brands, I checked Eastbay, Runtex and Nordstroms.
The resulting list of 14 shoes made up the top 10 most expensive running shoes. Of the 14 (top 10 + ties) there were 6 pairs of Nike, 3 pairs of New Balance and single pairs from Saucony, Karhu, Asics, Brooks and Mizuno. Interesting enough there were not one pair of Adidas or Reebok in the top 10. The results show that Nike’s strategy is to price high and command higher margins in order to offset the costs of their expansive marketing campaigns. That strategy works for Nike because they focused their brand message on their image, rather than the product itself. Their commercials, their sponsorships and the megastars they sign to endorse their product all help to convey that “image is everything” mantra. So it is not surprising that Nike offers so many high priced tennis shoes.
Top 10 Most Expensive Running Shoes – May 2008
(1) $164.99 – Saucony Progrid Paramount
(2) $159.99 – Karhu M-1
(3) $144.99 – Nike Shox Saya
(4) $144.95 – New Balance MR 1123
(5) $139.99 – Nike Air Max 360 III
(5) $139.99 – Nike Experience +
(5) $139.99 – Nike Air Max TL IV Premier
(5) $139.99 - Nike Shox R4
(9) $135.00 – New Balance MR 992
(10) $134.99 – Nike Air Equalon+2
(10) $134.99 – New Balance 1223 ST
(10) $134.99 – ASICS Gel-Kayano XIV
(10) $134.99 – Brooks Trance 7
(10) $134.99 – Mizuno Wave Nirvana 4
Just for kicks (no pun intended) I looked up the most expensive tennis shoes, and discovered that Sak’s 5th Avenue offers Gucci sneaker at $875.00 per pair. I can’t imagine what would possess someone to want to buy these shoes.
jennifer said
o my god those are some outragusly priced tennis shoes
Takumi said
These are the best shoes that I have ever owned. I am a over-pronator and need the right shoes. I have used many but have found these shoes to be the best for me. I wear a B width and New Balance is the only company that offers a complete line of widths in all of their shoes. Kudos to New Balance.
chumpman said
Gucci for $8XX?? a shoes with that price tag, i won’t dare to do anything in it, not even walk in the park! so expensive!
ZacharyJ said
i am assistant manager at a shoe store called tradehome shoes. i own a pair of Asics called the Kinsei. the are going for 179.99. there are no prices that you can show me that surprise me.
good shoes will run quite a bit. and nike shocks should not be used for running. ask any podiatrist.
dillon said
hahhha i have the number 1 shoe…yay…they are not the most expensive pair i own though