Shoe stocks outpace Wall St.

Shoe stocks outpace Wall St. NEW YORK (FNS) -- Footwear stocks have easily outpaced the market so far this year as athletic issues continue to sizzle and several troubled companies have turned around.

In the first half of 1987, the Footwear News Stock Index is up about 44 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed about 28 percent in the same period. Only eight footwear issues are trading below their year-opening levels.

Reebok International Ltd., Canton, Mass., has seen its stock cool somewhat from its remarkable 1986 pace, but the issue is still one of the hottest around. Meanwhile, Nike Inc., Beaverton, Ore., whose stock languished last year due to market share lost to Reebok, has seen the issue bounce back.

Reebok's stock has leaped nearly 75 percent in the first half, but a year ago its stock price had grown by 249 percent. The big athletic shoe stock story this year is Nike, whose issue has rebounded 60 percent, as Nike Air shoes and an ad campaign …