Techie sneakers

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Nov 22, 1999

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Starting in December, there may be a new sound at recess: electronic beeps emanating from a new line of children's sneakers by Reebok. Called Traxtars, the shoes attempt to go one better than the ever-popular sneakers with flashing lights in the soles. They can measure, record and signal a child's running or jumping ability.

A microcomputer encased in what Reebok calls a pod is attached to the tongue of the left shoe. This pod includes three buttons represented by symbols for a sprint, long jump and high jump. Press the button for the long jump, and a series of beeps, accompanied by flashing lights, provides an electronic countdown of ready, set, go. That's when the shoe tells its wearer to, well, take a running leap.

As soon as the child lands or stops running, sensors embedded in the pod take note. The child then receives a score of one to six, again in a series of beeps. By checking that score against an information card that comes with the shoes, children can find out approximate measurements for how fast they ran or how high and far they jumped. The shoes can also remember previous scores and will signal when a new level of athletic skill has been reached.

"It's very much in the spirit of getting kids off the couch, not playing video games," said Matt Feiner, director of children's products for Reebok. The shoes, which go on sale in selected markets listed on the Traxtar.com Web site, will sell for $55 and $65, depending on the shoe size.

Feiner said the shoes were just the first in a line of Reebok footwear and accessories (like sunglasses) that would be endowed with intelligence. No word, though, on when or if smarty pants may make it to market.

Back in the lead

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- It looked like salsa had ketchup right where it wanted it. It was pounding away at ketchup sales -- cutting into profits at H.J. Heinz Co. in the process -- and threatening to win the battle of the table-top sauces in America. But pounding on a ketchup bottle doesn't guarantee success. Ask anyone who's tried while sitting before a plate of french fries.

Since a low period in the mid-1990s, when salsa sales eclipsed ketchup, the old standby has retaken the lead -- and Heinz is back, too, controlling 51 percent of the ketchup market in the United States. "We decided to get serious about rebuilding the brand," said Casey Keller, vice president of retail marketing for Heinz, recruited about a year ago from Procter & Gamble's food and beverage group. The company's strategy has been to reverse two decisions that hurt ketchup's sales. Heinz cut prices and resumed advertising its best- known product.

The company lowered the price on a standard 24-ounce bottle from $2.09 to $1.49. Keller said that has sliced Heinz's name-brand premium from a fat 60 to 70 percent to 28 percent, but Heinz's first quarter profit rose 8 percent, mainly on a 12.7 percent rise in sales from the unit that includes ketchup, condiments and other sauces. Heinz also is a month into a new worldwide ad campaign aimed at positioning ketchup as the choice of condiments for hip teen-agers. The campaign, by the ad agency Leo Burnett, is exactly the strategy Heinz CEO Bill Johnson expects will breathe new life into the 130- year-old company's food brands.

The new way to give?

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Electronic commerce companies have long been accused of wishful thinking. Now it appears they're selling it. Wishlist.com, Wishclick.com, and OhIWish.com have joined a lineup of other e-commerce start-ups in the suddenly cluttered field of online gift registries, where people post lists of their preferred gifts in hopes that friends and relatives will take their not-so-subtle hints.

The element of wishful thinking in this trend goes beyond the obvious pun, however. For these sites to succeed, they will have to convince consumers to scrap the traditional mode of receiving mystery gifts gracefully -- no matter how awful they are -- and instead announce to the world exactly what gifts they want, down to the sizes, colors and retailers. Purveyors of gift registry sites argue that consumers are, in fact, ready to make that change -- are prepared, in effect, to push present-giving closer to barter, as in "give me this, and I'll give you that." But they also admit that consumers will need a bit of monetary incentive to test this new approach. And the amounts gift registries are shelling out to users are testimony to how much they and their e-commerce partners stand to gain if this bit of consumer behavior can be altered.

AG slaps A&F

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan's attorney general has ordered Abercrombie & Fitch to stop selling its clothing catalog to minors because she said it is sexually explicit. Attorney General Jennifer Granholm sent a letter to the clothing retailer, saying its Naughty or Nice Christmas catalog contains descriptions of sexual material that cannot be distributed to minors under state law. "It's fine to push the envelope for adults or for college students over 18, but not when a large part of your market are 10- to 18-year-olds," she said. "This is off the charts. This is unacceptable."