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It seems people are freaking out about the availability of the Nike shoes (offering to pay $300, being angry, etc). I had an exchange with Craig last night:
 Originally Posted by erooMynohtnA Hey Craig,
I didn't want to derail the live chat [Craig was giving a play by play of the women's foil], so I thought I'd send you a PM. Rumours abound of the Nike shoes no longer being in production, and what was sold is all there will ever be. Can you confirm or deny?
Anthony Originally Posted by Craig Just called my guy. He told the ops people to go ahead and make 500/month for the next few months. He doesn't know if they did that, but $160 will be the perm price.
Craig I've also called Nike about this, and the customer service rep told me they don't have any information about how many will be made, when, what the price will be, etc. They're just people who deal with sales problems.
If one does tell you that more will/will not be made, remember that large corporations typically have poor communication between departments. There's no guarantee the information is correct either way, but I would go with what Craig says, as he has a direct line to their management.
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At least since they're selling out they'll hopefully realize that there is a real, albeit smaller than they're used to, demand for these. "When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and bearing a cross."
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ballestra bruhaha well AGAIN, I called Nike today checking on my order.. still have not heard back from them past the initial email.. ordered last pair of 4.5's and they are supposed to overnight them to me.. Called today since they are supposed to go out today and they said that fedex hasn't updated and they had no tracking number to provide.. but he said that I will have them tomorrow... ok, not holding my breath as I don't like to pass out... then I said because I am a glutton for punishment, "when are they going to get more sizes in?" he said that NIKE HAS discontinued the Ballestra and are NOT going to make any more.,...OK, confused... I thought that someone said they are going to make more?,.,,.,.,.,.,.,GRRRRRRRR.... I don't get it.... I love poetry, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick
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Lots of kvetching, not much doing. I sent the following along via Nike's customer service form:
I am inquiring about Nike's current plans for the Ballestra Fencing Shoe. The initial allocation of Ballestras at nikestore.com is nearly sold out within a very short amount of time, driven purely by word-of-mouth.
Fencing is a niche market, but generally an affluent one - adidas has generated goodwill by supporting the sport, but has squandered it by resting on its laurels and releasing inferior products compared to previous Olympiads. Because of a lack of retail channels devoted to fencing, fencers are quite used to purchasing goods directly or via small vendors.
20,000 members of US Fencing (and more worldwide) are waiting to see what Nike does - you've already invested in the Chinese Olympic team, members of the US medal sweep Women's Sabre team, and American World Class Athlete Program fencers. It would behoove Nike to not only leverage that investment, but to maintain communication with the fencing community regarding their plans, lest that potential revenue head towards a competitor.
Thank you -
Darius Wei
Coach, Northwest Fencing Center
Beaverton, OR
Those of you who would like to follow suit, feel free. Those of you who'd rather just kvetch on the internet, feel free. Remember, they don't necessarily have as much direct-to-consumer experience. Much of how big retail works is that they can't anger their main clients (the retail stores where you buy most of your mainstream products), so investing heavily in a direct-sales presence is probably not their main concern. It's important that they know that word-of-mouth and direct sales is a friendly place for them, but pitchforks won't be appreciated -- if you're going to talk to them, be gentle.
darius
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got em daughter #1 got hers today.. are they supposed to have 08-08-08 down the back seam? cool touch! plus they have a white heel and not the blue like the website shows.. but they are awesome and lightweight.. Daughter loves them, used them at practice tonight.. said "they are like buttah!" unfortunately daughter #2 is not happy with #1.. she didn't get hers, sold out.... 
from a mothers perspective, they are light weight, look put together well and are competively priced with the Viktoria's and Adidas.. I love poetry, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick
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Two reviews for the Ballestra have shown up on the Nike website. How about swamping them with reviews, too?
BTW I also sent comments on the customer service form. It couldn't hurt.
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I think some fencers are being a little unreasonable about Nike concern/motive for producing a fencing shoe. They had a marketing strategy to gain market share and over take Adidas in China. and to achieve this part of the strategy was to sponsor the Chinese Olympic team with shoes for every Olympic sport.
They have achieved their Chinese Marketing Goal with total Sales in China now at about 1.2 Billion Dollars.
So do the bean counters care about selling 2000 pairs of fencing shoes against their total world wide sales of 500.000,000 or so pairs of shoes? Probably not!
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Maybe they don't care. But that doesn't stop us from trying to make them! 
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A better idea... Do you think we could convince Shop-Foco to sell them at a cheaper price?  ↕ Embrace both lines.
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1 for syrup 0 for none.
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Ratings I agree. Anyone who bought them - please post ratings. At the very least it will show interest in the product. I just posted a rating, it takes like 2 minutes.
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Originally Posted by Barry Paul  I think some fencers are being a little unreasonable about Nike concern/motive for producing a fencing shoe. They had a marketing strategy to gain market share and over take Adidas in China. and to achieve this part of the strategy was to sponsor the Chinese Olympic team with shoes for every Olympic sport.
They have achieved their Chinese Marketing Goal with total Sales in China now at about 1.2 Billion Dollars.
So do the bean counters care about selling 2000 pairs of fencing shoes against their total world wide sales of 500.000,000 or so pairs of shoes? Probably not!
Maybe this was their goal, maybe not, but you can't really blame people for caring. Frankly if all Nike wanted was larger market share in China they could have done so without sponsoring the Olympics (the WHOLE Olympics, not just the Chinese team....the shoes for every sport were actually for everyone). They could have just sponsored China. They could have signed endorsement deals with all of the major NBA schools or NCAA teams for sports the Chinese watch etc....wait... I now dangle to the left....my tassle. Get your minds out of the gutter.
"Martin was not an optimist; he was a prisoner of hope." Optimism is about assuming there's evidence that justifies your outlook while hope is about creating the evidence and procuring your own happiness or vision of the world. - Professor West
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Originally Posted by bigdawg2121 Maybe this was their goal, maybe not, but you can't really blame people for caring. Frankly if all Nike wanted was larger market share in China they could have done so without sponsoring the Olympics (the WHOLE Olympics, not just the Chinese team....the shoes for every sport were actually for everyone). They could have just sponsored China. They could have signed endorsement deals with all of the major NBA schools or NCAA teams for sports the Chinese watch etc....wait... What do mean by 'if Nike wanted a larger market share' they are not a charity they are in business to make money.
Nike did not sponsor the Olympics, Adidas did, I presume they were out bid, leaving Nike to pursue a different marketing strategy.
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Last edited by rac; 08-24-2008 at 08:32 PM.
"Kleptomania. I have that but it's O.K.; I take something for it  --Anonymous "I exercise religiously. I do one push-up and say, “Amen.” "Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!" "Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati (When all else fails play dead)" — Possom Lodge Motto
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going, going GONE! well, the Ballestra's are off of the Nike website.. what happened to the 500 per month they were supposed to start making?
Was at a tournament yesterday, and they were the talk of the town! it was nice to see the interest in the shoe but its truely dumb to pull these... I love poetry, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick
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gother than thou
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Originally Posted by hologramqueen well, the Ballestra's are off of the Nike website.. what happened to the 500 per month they were supposed to start making?
Was at a tournament yesterday, and they were the talk of the town! it was nice to see the interest in the shoe but its truely dumb to pull these... http://www.fencing.net/links/ballestra.php ? Thru the darkness of Future Past
the magician longs to see
one chants out between two worlds
Fire walk with me.
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Originally Posted by TooLoftheDeviL True, but try searching for "fencing" or "Ballestra" and you don't get anyway near the actual items location.
rac "Kleptomania. I have that but it's O.K.; I take something for it --Anonymous "I exercise religiously. I do one push-up and say, “Amen.” "Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!" "Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati (When all else fails play dead)" — Possom Lodge Motto
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because they just went completely out of stock
they had always had at least one size of the pinks so you could search for it
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So whatever happened with these? Wasn't Nike supposed to make more? They havent been in stock for awhile.
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Hi Craig and people with contacts,
do you have any further news on these little glass slippers?
I found this article on the AP site and have extracted a worrrying quote http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g...ekzhQD93C4T600
it would focus on six key categories to reach a $23 billion revenue goal by 2011. Those categories are running, soccer, basketball, men's training and women's training and sportswear.
I don't remember which category they fell under, but sure it was not any of these.
The main article talks about withdrawing from swimming, but I was concerned about the niche markets.
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I read the article and interpreted it as Nike didn't want to spend high levels of research and development money on sports other than those you mentioned. It seems to imply that they aren't going to stop making those "other" products. Since the Ballestra shoes have already been designed and made, there's still a chance of production. I don't, however, think they will be making any new models to compete with Adidas.
What really makes me sick is this quote:
Morgenstein said the current monthly stipend of $1,750 to top-level swimmers is "absurd."
That's "absurd" as in way too little. Do our athletes even get a stipend? I doubt it.
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