Place to get last year's models? (Read 2065 times)

Does anyone know a good running shoe site that specializes in (or just happens to have a lot of) last year's shoe models?

I want to pick up another pair of the Saucony Kinvara in red and white, not the new colors.   

I recently bought a new cycling helmet for my wife, it was normally $199 but I got it for $79 because it was last year's design.  The only change (I called and asked) was the color scheme.  So, that got me thinking about shoes too, since I sometimes see last year's shoes on sale in running stores, and they're always marked down.

So, really it's about price AND the fact that I like last year's kinvara colors better 

I just google the exact shoe and see what's available.  I don't think any store focuses on selling closeout shoes.  Lots of stores have closeouts but finding the size you want can be tough if you have a common foot size.  My search turned up that shoe at foot locker for $60.

  Are the shoe companies really making that much profit by continuously eclipsing all of their popular models with new ones?  Seems like a risky business model.  If people are happy with a shoe, why not just keep the price point high and keep selling it for a while? 

 

There is probably a rational answer for this... that's why I'm not in business, I guess.

You know, I was listening to NPR (maybe car talk, I forget) a week or so ago and they had a feature on car companies and said that "back in the day" companies like Ford and so on actually released "updated" versions of their models each year specifically because smaller companies could not compete with their "updates" and went out of business.  They listed several companies that were forced out because of this.  Even though most updates were minor tweaks, the consumer thought it must be a much better model than the last year's model.

I wonder if shoe companies did this years back, and now are forced to keep doing it to maintain the appearance of innovation.  

16 models of a shoe?! I agree, that's crazy.   I'm sure shoe tech changes so drastically each year to account for the need for these updates 

As to whether or not it is a risky model, well, it seems to work as they make money hand over foot (no pun intended).

I do remember in high school XC (a long time ago) I HAD to have the updated version of the best shoe each year (which, btw was the Nike 180, which I'd probably never run in these days!).  But really, I bet if we polled people on this site or any running site (maybe not HS kids, ha!) we'd all agree we don't care about the most recent color, we just want a good fit at a reasonable price.

There are Kinvara in red at clearance prices, depends on your size.  Eastbay has many interesting Kinvara colors...

http://www.eastbay.com/product/model:144044/sku:3200723/saucony-progrid-kinvara-mens/?cm=GLOBAL%20SEARCH%3A%20KEYWORD%20SEARCH

Not as many color choices, but better size availability in red

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/descpageMRS-SKINM1R.html

MTA:  click through the RunningWarehouse Facebook page, click promotions, and click Men's Sale Shoes to knock another 15% off.  Don't forget your free reusable shopping bag.

Not sure what size you are, I am a 10 (also have white/red) which is nearly impossible to find now in last years model. 

Endless.com is about the only place I have found that has anything larger than a 7 and the have white/red.

http://bit.ly/jIjWJL

Good luck...

Not sure what size you are, I am a 10 (also have white/red) which is nearly impossible to find now in last years model. 

Endless.com is about the only place I have found that has anything larger than a 7 and the have white/red.

 

http://bit.ly/jIjWJL

 

 

Good luck...

At the moment, runningwarehouse.com still has all sizes of the white/red Kinvara available for $64.88, which comes down to $55.15 (includes free shipping) if you use the "mens sale shoes" click-through from the Running Warehouse promotions page on Facebook.