Companies/Industries Weinberg says that after Shape-ups, the company learned to avoid spikes in inventory through weekly monitoring By Kyle Stock of retail sales. “We just watch more; we have more controls,” he says. Skechers also now has the clout with manufacturers to add or reduce capacity more quickly, he says. Shape-ups, in his eyes, ARE E were a black swan: a brand-new category for an industry that usually deals in vari○H○ Raises are proving costly at Wal-Mart ations on old themes. Nobody knew how OVE OVER ER 50? Stores. The retailer’s profit in its most recent quarbig it would get. “While we did learn from it,” Weinberg says, “we are still a You should buy Yo bu uy ter fell 15 percent, to $3.5 billion, and it lowered tarsomethin something! hing g! very aggressive company.” gets for the current fiscal year weeks after it raised The AARP advocacy Skechers is now the No. 1 brand for group launched a walking shoes in America and is seeing its minimum wage. Sales at U.S. stores open more marketing agency to brisk sales for its kids, comfort, and help companies sell to than a year ticked up 1.5 percent in the period, consumers over work footwear. The brand tops Adidas 50 years old, a and Under Armour in athletic shoes in though the company’s investments in e-commerce demographic it says has the U.S., according to NPD Group, and been overlooked by weighed on results. ○ ○ Petco Holdings filed to Madison Avenue. sits a distant second to Nike. Skechers was born from the wrecksell shares publicly almost 10 years after it was age of L.A. Gear, the sneaker brand that rose with the aerobics shoes trend, only taken off the stock market in a $1.7 billion private equity buyto collapse in the early 1990s. out. Last year the company made The number of alleged L.A. Gear founder Robert adulterers outed online a $75 million profit on $4 billion in Greenberg started Skechers in about a month after hackers claimed to 1992 and remains chief execsales, according to the prospechave stolen data from utive officer. The Shape-ups the website m misstep stoked fears that tus. Comparable sales among AshleyMadison.com, 23 which facilitates trysts. Skechers was a feast-or-famine Petco’s 1,400 stores have risen for brand as well. “You have some 21 consecutive quarters as Ameriinvestors that say leopards don’t change their spots,” Poser says. cans increasingly pamper their dogs and cats. ○ - ○ Comcast’s But this time the Skechers brand is NBCUniversal spent $200 million for a stake in BuzzFeed in a thriving by offering dozens of massmarket versions of popular styles. In deal that valued the new-media platform at $1.5 billion. Days 2010, for example, Skechers introduced a line of alpargata-style canvas earlier the media empire cut a similar deal with Vox Media, a flats called Bobs and promised to BuzzFeed competitor. ○s○ Sprint said it would scrap two-year donate a pair of shoes to needy children for every pair it sold. The name, the cell phone contracts by the end of the year in favor of a model style, and the one-for-one giving borin which consumers lease handsets, rather than buy them at rowed directly from Toms, a startup founded in 2006 that has given away subsidized rates. Its “iPhone Forever” plan offers the newest vermore than 35 million pairs of shoes. sion of Apple’s phone for $22 a month. Verizon CommuniWeinberg says Skechers is shedding CEO Wisdom its copycat reputation. “We’ve done cations made a similar shift earlier this month. that in the past,” he says, “but we’ve AT&T remains the only major U.S. carrier to become significantly more innovative over the last few years.” Whatever offer subsidized smartphone purchases. “I don’t think any adopting the the origin, Skechers knows how to sell. ○Å○ Sprout Pharmaceuticals became the company approach portrayed ed “They’re the best at commercializing could survive, good ideas in the marketplace,” Powell first company to win Food and Drug Admin- much less thrive,, today’s highly y says. “It’s not essential that you be first istration approval for a pill designed to boost incompetitive tech ch with an idea. You just need to be best.” —Ira Boudway women’s libido. Dubbed Addyi, but popularly hiring market.””
Briefs Paying Up at Wal-Mart
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FROM LEFT: MICHAEL BUCKNER/GETTY IMAGES; NICOLE CRAINE/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES; DATA: COMPILED BY BLOOMBERG
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The bottom line Skechers’ stock market valuation has risen from $600 million at the end of 2011 to about $8 billion today. Edited by James E. Ellis Bloomberg.com
referred to as “Viagra for women,” the pill can have a host of serious side effects, including low blood pressure and nausea.
EO Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos responding to a New York Times article criticizing his company’s pressurized culture
