Beep Beep Beep Beep, Yeah!
Cars are scary. They're big steel machines of doom. I do not trust that a car I operate won't just stop working as a drive it. I fear running over nails. I fear psycho people in lanes next to me losing their minds and making sharp turns of their steering wheels to crash into me...for no reason. No one (aside from Jeff) at all understands my fear of driving. Not just, "driving at night is a little creepy." We're talking nightmares. Every bad dream I have that I can remember involves me operating a vehicle careening out of control. Me driving a vehicle without brakes. Having to merge into traffic and not being able to maneuver the steering wheel. I drove a bit growing up (living in a Florida suburb, you kind of had to), but unlike the majority of my friends, I didn't have my own car. So I borrowed my parents' cars when necessary, to drive to and from my house and my buddies' houses, the mall, Borders, Friday's, and back home. I was terrified of chang...
do you agree that the adidas/reebok merger is such an unbeatable combination? Yes, they have increased market shares, but they're sacrificing price competition. with fewer price competitors, the value of existing competitors goes up, no? and it seems like the market kinda agrees--reebok's share price went up after the announcement, but so did nike's. whatever, i wear asics anyways.
ReplyDeleteross
I don't think price is an issue here. The insanely profitable portion of the sneaker market is a pretty well-defined niche on the high end–folks who will spend $150 for something that costs $5 to make, just because of the person who's name is on them. The demand in that market is relatively inelastic.
ReplyDeleteI think if anything the merger is about managing endorsements. Someone like LeBron gets $100 million from Nike in part because of the fierce competition for his services; one fewer separate shoe company means one less corporation to play off another by athlete's agents chasing endorsement money, though of course two giants are capable of bidding each other up as well. But Reebok and Adidas get to combine their existing rosters of athletes and celebrities and capitalize on those people, and will be in a better position to actually go after the LeBron's of the future without it being a foregone conclusion that he'll Just Do It.