Inside the Skechers Lawsuit and Verdict

Advertising can be an expensive, and dangerous, game to play. Not only in terms of dollars spent on the actual advertising, but with dollars spent after the effects of the advertising have been realized. Treading carefully is very important. Take, for example, the latest lawsuit in the footwear industry. Skechers Shape Ups, an exercise shoe line made by the company, are the centre of a recent lawsuit related to advertising and deceptive practices.

In a complaint filed Wednesday in US federal court, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says Skechers made unproven claims about their Shape Ups line of shoes. Skechers commercials claimed the shoes would “tone muscles, strengthen the core, and burn calories” - according to Brooke Burke and Kim Kardashian, the line’s spokesmodels. Taglines for the shoes claim that users would “get in shape without having to step foot in a gym,” and “lose weight, strengthen and tone leg, buttocks and abdominal muscles.” The FTC says the company violated federal law by misleading consumers and making false and unsubstantiated claims.  


According to the FTC lawsuit, Skechers has agreed to pay $40 million to settle the charges. In addition to Shape-Ups, Skechers has also made deceiving claims about their Resistance Runners, Tone-Ups and Toners shoes. As part of the agreement, consumers are eligible for refunds for any shoes from the toning lines.

The FTC claims Skechers’ “clinical studies” on their Shape Ups shoes were completely fraudulent, alluding to Dr. Steven Gautreau in a television ad. In the television ad, Gautreau, a chiropractor, mentions an “independent clinical study” in which he tested the shoes’ claims. Skechers, however, failed to disclose that Gautreau is married to a Skechers marketing executive and that he was compensated for the commercial. The study reported that eight people lost 3.25 pounds. However, there was no control group, which should have been comprised of people wearing regular running shoes for comparison, to prove any correlation between Shape-Ups and weight loss. The second study, which did have a control group, had “numerous defects” and “altered or incomplete” results. Several participants in the second study were employees of Gautreau, two participants were wives of the two of the co-authors of the study, and two were parents of a co-author of the study.

In the end, Skechers has been fined for eight counts of unlawful claims of the benefits of four lines of toning shoes.

Consumers won’t benefit from Reebok’s higher prices and new technology
The case is very similar to a lawsuit filed against Reebok last year for false claims that the company’s EasyTone and RunTone shoes. In a similar proceeding, the FTC asserted that the shoes provided no more benefits than regular running shoes, despite the company’s claims. After a report released by The American Council of Exercise, the FTC stated that Reebok’s claims that the EasyTone and RunTone shoes worked muscles more than regular running shoes were not backed up with evidence. Consumers that purchased the shoes can apply for a refund through the FTC.

No evidence of toning from New Balance’s Rock & Tone shoes
A Boston woman sued New Balance in 2010 claiming the company used deceptive advertising to promote the line of toning shoes. New Balance claims that the shoe is designed to “increase muscle activation” in order to burn more calories at the gym. The lawsuit states that the woman was injured as a result of wearing the shoes. According to the suit, there was a lack of any scientific testing to back up the shoe’s claims.

Toning shoe products, Skechers Shape Ups being the most recent, are being hit hard with claims that the shoes do no more good than regular exercise shoes. All three of the high profile cases fail to backup their claims with scientific evidence of any benefits of a shoe designed to tone muscles and improve weight loss. It is a lesson for marketers trying to find new ways of creating value for existing product lines to tread carefully. Rules around advertising are strict and attention needs to be paid to any claims made. In a society as litigious as ours, it’s important to cover all bases and be diligent in backing up your story without any conflict of interest.