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Here’s why women’s sneakers sales are growing at a rapid clip in the US

Women have more shoe options across all categories and are increasingly choosing comfort

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Even in large metropolitan areas, women are choosing comfortable footwear. Women ride the subway in New York City wearing a variety of sneakers and flats. Photo: Kellie Ell/CNBC

By Kellie Ell

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Rhiannon Anderson has about 50 pairs of high heels in her closet. But she never wears them.

“We’re kind of in the countryside,” said Anderson, a stay-at-home mom in Alpharetta, Georgia in the U.S. “If you wear high heels people will look at you weird.”

Instead, Anderson, 39, spends most of her days in sneakers. And she’s not the only one.

As American fashion has slowly become more casual, so has footwear. That trend has become especially apparent in women’s sneaker sales, which have surged 37 per cent throughout the U.S. in 2017. Meanwhile, sales of high heels have declined 11 per cent during the same time period, according to the NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service.

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