Read with interest about the new Giro Cycling Shoe line and it sounds interesting. Not that anyone should enter the shoe market thinking it's not going to be a hyper competitive smackdown of ultimate fighting proportions. Giro knows from past experience. If anyone can pull it off it might be Giro. Greg Shapleigh is smart, understands high quality product development and their current distribution and brand strength speaks for itself.
However, despite the BRAIN headlines calling for a cage match with the likes of Shimano, Sidi and Specialized? I think the ones that should feel threatened are the secondary players that have never been able to go to head to head with the big boyz. Think Lake, Pearl, Garneau, Keen, Mavic, Diadora, etc. These are old and new players that will always try desperately to stay out of the closeout pages and shelves of retailers and mail order channels. Even the private label brands like Scattante and Forte could be feeling the hot foot on this one.
As many suppliers have discovered open to buy and number of vendors has already been slimmed by buyers in many industries and categories (let alone shoes) over the last few years Personally? I'm a Sidi guy and have been for 20 years. Switching costs are one thing but fit is the real deal. If Giro can play the game wisely they might pull this one off. We'll be watching closely.
