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Designers turning to sportswear for market expansion

There was a time when the worlds of luxury fashion and sportswear were content going their own separate ways.

Not anymore. Today, top-flight fashion houses such as Chanel or Hermes are just as likely to produce labeled sports gear, as Nike or Adidas are to sell sneakers specially created by famous designers.

Initiated about 10 years ago by pioneers such as France's Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, who teamed up with Rossignol, or Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto's deal with Adidas, the phenomenon has proved popular in both business worlds.

Hip British designer Stella McCartney has a deal with Adidas until 2010, while the latest "marriage" prospect joins French luxury goods empire, PPR -- owners of Gucci and Yves Saint-Laurent -- with Puma.

Having been close to bankruptcy about 15 years ago, the German sportsgear maker has become a sought-after label, with style-conscious stars such as Madonna and Cameron Diaz sporting Puma apparel bearing the sleek and powerful big-cat logo.

Convinced it will become "an iconic brand" of luxury, PPR chief executive Francois-Henri Pinault has bought a 27 percent stake in Puma, the world's third-biggest sports items company behind Nike and Adidas.

And the French group says it plans to launch a full public takeover offer for the rest.

"The brand is the most glamorous of the market. The profit margins for its trainers [sneakers] are close to that for a luxury product by Gucci," said Eugenio Di Maria, of Sporting Goods Intelligence, a specialist publication on sports equipment.

Created around the first Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, sneakers gained respectability in the 1930s and 1940s.

Stars such as Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo slipped sports shoes on with their masculine-style suits.

Thirty years later, Rolling Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger would don a pair of sneakers on his wedding day.

At the start of the 1980s, sneakers became more technical when US basketball player Michael Jordan became involved in product endorsement and sports shoes gradually left the stadium to conquer the street.

Indeed, the sight of trendy young executives wearing sneakers with their smart work suits soon became a common sight, even in the leading fashion capitals of Paris or London.

Brands such as the tennis label Lacoste, le Coq sportif, dance wear company Repetto, or still, Reebok, Adidas and Nike took advantage of this swing towards sports wear worn as everyday street wear.

They expanded their product range, offering lines that were eagerly snapped up by die-hard lovers of sneakers.

But the trend equally inspired the big names of haute couture -- Chanel turned out labeled tennis shoes, as well as skis and a basket ball, naturally, complete with the house's iconic interlocking Cs.

Dior targeted golfers, while Hermes had its sights set on horseriders and British designer Alexander McQueen has just created a sports shoe for Puma, which will go on sale for more than 600 euros (US$811).

A pair of basic sports shoes sells for about 50 euros.

"While sales of sports shoes saw formidable growth between 1980 and 1995, they have tended to stagnate in volume and to lower in value in Europe for three years," Di Maria said.
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