That is your opinion and I respect that, but that opinion is a dangerous one. It means you would be willing to give up a free market to control the costs of everything regardless of what goes into the making of the product. This kind of control just flat out doesn't work.

What drives innovation and quality? Profit. The good ol' dollar. Take that away and tell everyone this is how much you can sell your goods for, and what happens? Everyone makes the same crappy shoe as everyone else which will also be the cheapest piece of crap they can get away with making and still call it a shoe.

So what have you accomplished by setting prices? Well, you've increased government bureaucracy, and we BOTH know how bad that is. You've taken away any incentive to either design a better shoe or build a high quality shoe. In fact, you would do more to create a monopoly, the very thing you hate, than anything else would. If your product is the same price as everyone else's and there's no money in it, why compete? Go find a niche where you can make some money. Pretty soon you have the ACME shoe company producing all the shoes because there is no reason to compete because there is no profit to be made.

Sports stores, especially the nice ones, are only going to show you the high end stuff... you know.... the "GOOD" stuff. They don't want to have no-name brands there that are much cheaper. Why? See above. Profit. Mass retailers such as Target and Walmart are more than happy to give you the shoes from less well known manufacturers at a fraction of the cost.

Too high compared to everyone else. I was just at Walmart for lunch today. I could have picked up a pair of generic running shoes for $10. In fact, I didn't see a single Reebok, NB or Nike shoe there. So people have a choice. If they want the image of the name brand product and are willing to pay that amount, they will pay it. If not, they will go to Walmart and buy something similar for a lot less without the fancy logos or air pumps or springs or lights.

Define "it". If you mean Nikes, you're right. Nike sets the price for Nikes and if you don't like the price, tough noogies. If you mean shoes, well, then you're mistaken. If I don't want to pay $150 for a pair of Nikes, I can pay $50 for a pair of Reebok's. If I don't want to pay $50, I can go pay $10 at Walmart for some generic white shoes.

Well, in many cases (not all!!) you get what you pay for. I've had friends tell me their high end shoes fell apart after a short while as well, but you're right. In general the more expensive shoes are made better. But this is true with just about everything.

If you buy a low end Hyundai, you shouldn't expect the same kind of build quality, materials and engineering that you would find in a Porsche. Likewise if you buy a Porsche, you are going to spend many times what the Hyundai costs, but you end up with something that is better than a Hyundai. Is it 8 times better? No. But then again, the price is set at what people are willing to pay. Some people are willing to pay the price of a Porsche to have something that is better and more prestigious than the average car.

Thanks for the heads up! I tend to go for the middle of the road shoes myself. Better than Walmart, but WAY cheaper than the Nikes.

Been a pleasure discussing this with you.