• Ad Age, Monday, December 3, 2007 12:15 PM

Cross-trainers--the versatile if clunky sneakers that grew explosively in the late 1980s and early 1990s--are on their way back into the mainstream if Nike and Under Armour have anything to say about it. Both marketers are planning to launch lines of cross-trainers during the first half of 2008 and have indicated that they will be supported with robust marketing efforts.

Cross-trainers were derailed by at least two forces: First, a surge in one-sport specialization among young athletes fueled a boom in specialty-shoe sales. Second, the surging popularity of so-called retro or non-performance shoes put fashion above functionality.

The category has "basically been in a death spiral since the heyday of Bo Jackson...declining every year for at least the last 10," says Matt Powell, an analyst at VNU's SportsOneSource, which tracks sporting-goods sales. "These guys are betting on a reversal."

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