City women fuel walking shoes market

A 32-year-old woman wears walking shoes for commuting between home and office. Walking a long distance to a bus stop in high heels used to be a painstaking labor for her, but commuting is not burdensome any longer thanks to her walking shoes. “When I’m too busy to set aside time for workout, I get off the bus a couple of stops ahead and walk to the office." said the woman. "I wear walking shoes with matching leggings. More stylish walking shoes are being introduced in the market, so I’m going to get two more pairs.”

Competition is getting fierce in the walking shoes market in spring, the high season of the footwear industry. The fever of the outdoor apparel market, which has seen a rapid growth thanks to people’s interest in health and outdoor activities, has now spread into the sneakers market.

According to the sporting goods industry, the domestic market for functional shoes including walking shoes and running shoes grew sharply from 50 billion won (4.4 million U.S. dollars) in 2005 to 100 billion won (88 million U.S. dollars) in 2007 and 600 billion won (530 million dollars) in 2010. It has since showed an annual growth of 30 percent to reach 1 trillion won (884 billion dollars) in 2012. Experts predict the functional footwear market will expand to 1.3 trillion won (1.15 billion dollars) this year.

Walking shoes, a new category of shoes, has pushed up the growth of the functional shoes market. In the mid 2000s, toning shoes activated the functional shoes market as the shoes were known to help shape bodyline. Nowadays walking shoes have replaced the toning products.

The increase in the number of city women wearing sneakers dubbed as “Woondonyeo” has fueled the rapid growth of the market. Women who focus on their health prefer comfortable shoes to fancy ones for commuting. The recent trend of traveling on foot has also fostered the market growth. As more women join the fever of trekking on Olle roads for travel, walking shoes are sold like hot cakes.

As walking shoes have turn out to be lucrative, marketing competition in the sporting goods industry has also become fierce. Companies are waging a war to entering into a contract with popular celebrities to model their products. Big brands have hired top-class female celebrities with healthy and sound images. Prospects hired figure skating queen Kim Yuna, Reebok actress Jeon Ji-hyeon, Asics actress Ha Ji-won, Fila Sports rhythmic gymnast Son Yeon-jae and LeCaf actress-turn-pro boxer Lee Si-yeong. As women want walking shoes not only for everyday life but also for commuting to work, design has also become very important. This year’s lineup comes with various colors to match the outfit everyday.

Recently, outdoor companies that used to produce only mountain gears jumped on the bandwagon. Blackyak has launched walking shoes name "Plasma" designed to wear for the light mountain trekking as well as for everyday activities. “We put a lot of efforts on design to cater to picky city women’s taste when producing Plasma, which is good for both outdoor and everyday activities,” said Kang Su-yeong, assistant manager at Blackyak Korea’s product planning team. K2 has also introduced walking shoes titled "Racer," which tightening the shoelaces and taking off the shoes are easy.

Outdoor goods companies are said to have joined the walking shoes market to find a way outside the already saturated outdoor market. “Women who don’t often go to mountains don’t want to buy hiking boots for the rare occasions. Those women prefer walking shoes. As the trend of traveling on foot is likely to continue, walking shoes will lead the outdoor shoes market down the road,” an industry source said.

teller@donga.com