As Aoyama Gakuin University was reestablishing its preeminence as the top collegiate team, this year's Tokyo-Hakone Intercollegiate Ekiden race also served to show that Nike Inc.'s dominance of the thick-soled running shoe market is on the wane.
Nike shoes were worn by 154, or 73%, of the 210 runners competing in the popular race on Jan. 2-3, but that marked a sharp drop from last year, when 201, or about 95%, of the competitors wore the company's footwear.
