I agree with Sid on this one Jason. Before reading up on barefoot running, running mechanics, and so on, I just went into the Foot Locker and said I wanted a running shoe, and the salesperson made up some pitch about overpronating or some other crap and told me which shoe I needed to buy, and I bought it, forgetting temporarily that all marketing is bs. I didn't want cushioning, I was told that I needed it. And I guess it was a sort of laziness that allowed me to willfully be suckered into it, instead of questioning the motives of someone trying to sell a $130 dollar shoe made by some exploited stiffs in Asia. I wonder if what is changing is that people have so much more information available to them now on the interwebs--forums, customer reviews, shoe review blogs--and are now better able to tell manufacturers what they want, or even demand it from them. I know when I want or need to buy something, I go to Amazon and read the customer reviews. I have almost no exposure to advertising anymore, except when I watch NFL games. Still, it pains me to know that almost everything I buy is based on some worker's misery in China or someplace. I just got a hydration belt for my longer runs. It's pretty neat, but I wonder under what conditions it was manufactured and sent to me at such great convenience and low price.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I believe that most consumers are still lazy, and will continue to enjoy being told what to buy based on some marketing lie or fantasy, but perhaps there's a growing segment that is exploiting the increase in available information for consumers to make more informed choices and greater demands on marketeers/manufacturers, and the latter, as you note, are responding.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I believe that most consumers are still lazy, and will continue to enjoy being told what to buy based on some marketing lie or fantasy, but perhaps there's a growing segment that is exploiting the increase in available information for consumers to make more informed choices and greater demands on marketeers/manufacturers, and the latter, as you note, are responding.