The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced an agreement with the main manufacturers of sports shoes to lower an average of 15% in the prices in force as of December in the brands and models with the highest rotation in the market, and a path of increases in values up to 3% for January, February, March and April.
The agreement with the brands Nike, Puma, Adidas, Topper, Fila, Umbro, Asics, Kappa, Crocs, Reebok, Vans, Hush Pupies, Rip Curl, Lotto, New Balance, All Star, Converse, Le Coq Sportif, Jaguar, DC, Kioshi, Decker, Addnice, Head, CooperShoes, Kalwer, Joma, Pony, Bicontinentar and Ferli It was announced at a meeting with businessmen and the Secretary of Commerce, Matías Tombolini.
“Going to a production volume of 40 million pairs is important in terms of employment and investment; we have the challenge of caring for dollars, promoting employment and investment, and lowering inflation; the fact of agreeing on an average reduction of 15 % in sports shoes is important because the Holidays are coming and sports shoes are one of the most common gifts. In addition, because it is an Argentine job, it is even more important,” the minister said at the meeting.
“Beyond the fact that (the textile industry) requires imports and we have to have a managed regime, lowering 15% (the price) of sports shoes and for an important period in terms of time is a huge result for ordinary people” he added.
In this sense, Massa thanked the businessmen for participating in the initiative and remarked that one of the objectives of the agreement is to increase the production of sports footwear in the country in 2023.
“As a government we make an effort so that the dollars we collect go to Argentine production and work and you, who are a huge generator of work in Argentina, but we want people to pay less,” said Massa, while asking businessmen to have “the ability to comply with each of the things that we agreed on”.
For his part, Tombolini pondered that the agreement “forms part of the road map proposed to Argentina by the Minister” and pointed out that “it is a kick to rebuild jobs throughout the country.”
“We believe that it is very important and we hope that it can be on display as soon as possible because it is very important now that the Holidays are coming. We hope that when the school returns to the public, the prices for sale to the public will be lower than those of November of this year”, assured.
Present at the meeting at the Ministry of Economy, for the Secretariat of Commerce, were the Undersecretary for Trade Policy and Management, Germán Cervantes, and the Undersecretary for Policies for the Internal Market, Anastasia Daicich.
Meanwhile, present for the companies were Federico Tortora and José Papo (Nike), Gustavo Marques (Puma), Santiago Moreno Hueyo (Adidas), Diego Mohadeb (Topper), Brian Handley and Daniela Prado (Grupo Dass), Juan Pablo López ( Distributing), Hernán Grimoldi and Alberto Grimoldi (Grimoldi), Rodolfo Sotura and Fernando de la Sota (World Sport), Emmanuel Fernández and Juan Manuel Moreno (Grupo Pampeana), Jorge Roca (Christopher Columbus), Agustín Ramallo (Mariana SA), Jorge Coral (New Balance), Diego Vizcay and Claudio Cerruti (Addnice-Head), Markus Stefan Heydn (Coopershoes), Fernando De Vito (Ferli), Cecilia Marelli (ID Argentina), Elizabeth Guarino (Jaguar), Javier Khachadourian (Kalwe) and Juan Recce (Bicontinentar), among others.
