Growing cost of feet credibility: Trainers are 'too dear' but teenagers still pay. Kathy Marks reports

(First Edition)

TEENAGERS in Britain have not quite reached the point of mugging each other for their designer training shoes, as has happened in the US. But they are increasingly resentful of the high price of joining the street-credibility war being waged in playgrounds and in youth clubs.

A survey of more than 100 teenagers published yesterday in Check It Out, the Consumer Association's youth magazine, found that nine out of ten thought that trainers were too expensive and that prices were inflated because of the designer name.

Fewer than a quarter said that they would pay more than pounds 50 for a pair, even if their parents were footing the bill. Only six people surveyed thought that a price tag of pounds 70 was reasonable.

But on the streets of London yesterday, the picture was different. While teenagers interviewed by the Independent agreed that trainers were too expensive, most were prepared to pay a high price for being cool.

Darren Higgins, 16, saved up his pocket money for 'absolutely ages - months and months' in order to buy his pounds 99.99 Reebok Pumps. 'I like the way they look and I had to have them,' he said, gazing into the window of an amusement arcade near Leicester Square.

Darren is unimpressed by the fact that the technological features which partly account for the price he paid - such as a pump that inflates an air chamber in the shoe for a customised fit - were designed to help sporting performance and are irrelevant to everyday wear.

According to marketing surveys, only 4 per cent of Nike and 11 per cent of Reebok owners under the age of 18 wear their training shoes purely for sport.

In Tower Records at Piccadilly Circus, Steve Harris, 13, was wearing a pounds 70 pair of Adidas shoes. 'I know I paid for the name, but you get slagged off at school if you've got a naff pair of trainers,' he said. 'The girls are the worst, they call you all sorts.

'You hear all this talk of recession but the prices keep going up. It's a lot of hype but I suppose we go along with it.'

Sue Harvey, editor of Check It Out, said that when five popular brands of training shoe were tested blind for comfort and cushioning, the most expensive models came out best.

'It's not that surprising - you pay more for a better-made shoe,' she said. 'But even so, it is not necessary to pay top prices for a comfortable pair of trainers.'

A spokesman for Olympus, the sports retailer, said yesterday that a retail mark-up of about 50 per cent was usual for sports shoes. But he added: 'It is very difficult to justify the price of some of the shoes at the top end of the market.'

(Photograph omitted)