Does a Roller Shoe IPO Signal that this Market is Too Hot?

By Chad Brand of Peridot Capitalist

As you may have noticed, 2006 has been the year of the consumer IPO. Familiar and popular consumer brands have debuted on the public market to much fanfare. Names like Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), Crocs (CROX), Mastercard (MA), and UnderArmour (UARM) have all made investors a lot of money. Of that group, Crocs is really the only one that I looked at and said to myself, “Boy, that will be a great short when the fad dies and the stock’s momentum dies down.”

Well, that is until we learned that a roller shoe company called Heely’s (HLYS) was going public at $21 per share on Friday, putting the firm’s value at more than half a billion dollars. Shoes with wheels on them? Wall Street can’t be serious.

I am not saying the company isn’t selling a lot of shoes right now, and retail investors are going to bid the stock up a lot just like they did with Crocs as soon as it starts trading. That said, I can’t believe this company is going public. It must say something about the overly bullish stock market environment we find ourselves in right now.

While I won’t be buying any Heely’s shares, I hope they go through the roof. Maybe the company’s market value even hits a billion dollars or two when it’s all said and done. What an excellent short candidate that would make it.

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