In today's world of increasing costs many manufacturers are facing the need to raise prices. Some production costs are making previously used products prohibitively expensive to the average user. The obvious alternative is to trim down the product, and sell less for the same price as the former 'more' product. Of course users are likely to see this and bridle against the reduction in what they have come to expect. In some cases, manufacturers have looked back in history and come across old methodologies for overcoming such resistance. They have come up with the old ploy of branding their products in a way that associates them with a growing movement and makes use of their new products seem edgy and advanced.
The products I speak of are the new wave of minimalist running gear. The Movement is Ultra Running, and the manufacturers are the same people that brought you more for less just a few years ago. Ground braking 'research', slick ads, a plethora of magazine articles by running pimps and whores, and really neat looking 'gear' have been the method of attack. The major point is to convince the buyer that you not only need to buy less for more, but that it is your best interests, that it improves performance, that it shows you as a leader of the movement, and that if you are going to be among the elite you got to, got to, be out on the trails with this neat new gear.