Posted by: trumpstinyhands
Playing Devils Advocate (as I own six pairs of Five Ten shoes (!) so am set for the next 3 years, and I don't work for a business that sells Five Ten but....), I'd be pissed if I owned a business selling Five Ten. Not only will their faces get rubbed in the dirt by people going into the store to try shoes on for size and then not buying, they'll also have the issue of Adidas selling current product at significantly less than the dealers paid for the same product through distributor channels.
I see a future where the only face-to-face retail businesses will be farmers markets where you can purchase 'artisan' carrots.
I had similar thoughts to this as well.
LBS going to need to survive on hard good sales and quality service going forward (be harder with SWerx/S4/RMR/Ion2 doing suspension servicing/sales.) Seems like the brands/distributors LBS carry are actively against the LBS; yet these same brands/distros are also against product being bought out of country.
5.10 offered free shipping/return shipping during this 50% off sale as well. I ordered many pairs; and passed the deal onto friends.