Cesar Millan and LandRolllers, roller-blades, and why they've missed the boat

I've been a fan of Dog Whisper and Cesar Millan for years. I credit him for my having a fairly obedient German Shepherd. Realizing that I may not have an hour a day to walk him, after reading Cesar's new book which tells me I better walk my dog twice a day for a half hour, it made sense to speed up my dog's level of exercise. How? By getting those cool roller blades, called LandRollers, that Cesar Millan uses on the show.

So I started with a search and found the official makers of the LandRollers. My expectation was that I'd find a retail store nearby and get my hands on a pair. The problem is there are only five retail stores in the country and none withing 500 miles from my house. The next option is to buy them online. That's fairly simple, until you realize that not all shoes or skates or whatever fit the same or have the same size. My Adidas are sized 9 and my Nikes are 9.5. My Cole Haan shoes are 9. While my skis are size 10. Different manufacturing companies produce different sized shoes.

So what size do I pick?

This leaves a lost opportunity for LandRoller. If it were me I'd tell the user if you wear a size 9.5 Nike sneaker you'd wear a sized X LandRoller. Or Adidas, etc. This doesn't just go for Land Blades, but all shoes. I remember going to the mall to try on a pair of Adidas which were on sale online. The problem is that I had to go to the mall then home to buy them online to save $20. By the time I drove to the mall and wasted all that time it probably cost me more than $20. But I had to figure out what size to wear. Adidas could have told me on their web site that if I wore a sized 9.5 Nike than I'd wear a 9 Adidas.

Long story short, I won't be buying LandRollers. Bummer for me, joy for my wife.

The other issue is that LandRoller isn't capitalizing enough on the publicity Cesar Millan brings them. You couldn't get better product placement--because Millan isn't forcing the product into the show. He genuinely loves LandRollers and uses them as part of his training. LandRoller should have put together a deal with Dicks, REI or some retail stores to get Land Rollers out nationally. Then get the retailer to help pay Millan to promote their product. LandRollers could/should be on the feet of a million Americans. LandRollers missed the boat because if I could have gone to REI or Sears and tried these on and rolled around the store than I would have dropped $200 today. Not to mention the extra cash I'd have to spend on a helmet and elbow pads.

Moral of the story, I should been skating around the neighborhood on my shiny new LandRollers right now rather than complaining about them.