The shoe industry is currently witnessing one of the biggest new markets ever that of the ‘fitness’ or ‘toning’ shoe. Once a limited appeal product produced by a small number of manufacturers, this type of footwear has become the must have style of footwear.

One of the first manufacturers of this kind of shoe was MBT. Created in 1999, the company’s ‘Masai Barefoot Technology’ shoes mimicked walking on uneven, soft ground, with a view to promote the body’s ‘natural instability’.

For many years, MBT shoes developed jordan 6 a loyal following, however this remained a very niche product. Retailers were very carefully selected and all underwent training specifically on this product. Only traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ stores were allowed to become stockists of MBT.

In 2007, a new player emerged. FitFlops were the brainchild of Marcia Kilgore, who initially developed them as a solution to fight cellulite.

Skechers entered the market in the middle of 2009, with their ‘Tone Ups’ and ‘Shape Ups’ ranges. With similar looks to MBT and FitFlops, a marketing campaign like never before was unleashed. Previously mainly a fashion shoe retailer, the fitness part of Skechers range has now become a core part of their business.

Undercutting the traditional brands and welcoming online retailers, Skechers managed to take a large portion of the existing market and open up this kind of footwear to the masses. According to a survey published recently, Skechers now have around fifty four percent jordan 7 of the fitness shoe market.

Not to be left out, many other retailers jordan 10 have also developed their fitness shoes, including the Truebalance range from New Balance, the EasyTone from Reebok and Puma’s Bodytone.

Skechers and FitFlops have also greatly increased their offerings since launch, with the fitness platform now used on everything from Flip Flops to Ugg style boots.

From a niche product created by just a handful of manufacturers, over the last few years, the toning shoe has expanded into a huge part of the global footwear business. In 2008 this market was worth $17 million, it increased to $145 million in 2009 and an estimated $1.5billion in 2010.