USA: Oakley Fall Footwear Receives Strong Early Retail Response

Oakley Inc (NYSE:OO) Monday announced it has reached an agreement with Footlocker, the world's largest athletic specialty retailer, to expand distribution of Oakley's footwear line into approximately 150 US locations by year's end. A 10-store test programme, which began in June, showed enthusiastic consumer response leading to the chain's request to increase Oakley's retail presence to approximately 40 US Footlocker stores by September 1, 2000, and nearly 150 stores by early November 2000. "We're encouraged by the success and outstanding support Footlocker has provided since the launch of our fall footwear program in early June," said Link Newcomb, Oakley's chief operating officer. "These plans to expand Oakley's presence within Footlocker during the critical back-to-school and holiday 2000 seasons provide us with the initial momentum we have been seeking since first launching our footwear program and provide consumers greater visibility and accessibility to our innovative footwear line. "As we indicated in our second-quarter earnings release, our footwear programme achieved profitability for the first time in the month of June, and the increased orders from retailers add to our optimism that we will maintain profitability during the second half of 2000."In addition, the company reported that its fall footwear line has experienced strong sell-through rates in domestic specialty accounts other than Footlocker and, based on initial, limited introductions, the company is also encouraged about similar response and early demand in key international markets, including Canada, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom.