The sneaker industry has been right under our noses and we never looked down.
Sneakers are an everyday choice of footwear for millions around the world whether that’s for comfort, accessibility or the lack of accessibility. Rare and limited shoes are a sneakerhead’s gold in this almost $2 bn market where resell of such shoes make up most of it. Nike (or nikEY) is the number one brand for such investments and has ingeniously curated such a market simply by controlling supply and distribution according to demand to Nike’s own benefit. This is no different to any other collectible market such as the ‘Birkin’ bag by Hermés or contemporary art or watches and jewellery. It has provided thousands of people with a lifelong passions fuelled by todays celebrities. For example, rapper Travis Scott may simply wear a pair of Jordans to an event or in an instagram picture and the once low resell point of perhaps $200 - $300, all of a sudden shoots up to $1000 + or even just under $10,000. It’s no secret that the shoe industry loves Jordans. Jordans came about when famous 90’s basketball player Michael Jordan was made a pair or Jordan 1’s exclusively for his games in 1984 but was then later released that same year. Many different popular variations of the shoe include, air Jordan, Jordan 4s , 6s, 3s etc. The basketball player very nearly signed a deal with Adidas but was refused due to the company thinking no one could relate to a 7 foot tall man. Nike pounced at the chance and a deal was signed with the soon to be best NBA player ever (arguably).
Nike did originally have the famous outlandish Kanye west for a while selling some crazy popular shoes that changed the game but he did leave to set up yeezy in Adidas instead. Yeezy’s market was and still is an incredibly huge and profitable place but now it seems to have slowed down due to lacklustre products and constant releases bringing down the rarity. A large social media influencer is Kylie Jenner, no doubt. She was an Adidas ambassador until 31st December 2019 and was finally free to wear clothing and shoes by popular athletic brands. It was no surprise she was drawn to Nike and with her large following of 159 million people on instagram, this just increased Nike’s popularity and demand.
Many designers have taken plenty of Nike’s shoe designs such as the SB dunks which has made a come back. Virgil Abloh, Louis Vuitton’s creative director and off-white’s chief executive officer (a company he founded in 2013) took the dunk design and added his own artistic flair and unique statements such as the signature zip tie and quotation off white laces. He produced 3 colour ways with contrasting cords wrapped around the top of the shoe retailing at $170 (around £136) which sold out extremely quickly. This is only the latest shoe and Virgil has created many more designs such as the Jordan 1, air max, waffles, vapomax etc. Another more underground brand is SACAI, a Japanese designer founded this in 1999 and created the LD sacai waffles in 2019 which was nominated the best shoe of the year overall. It’s resell prices are still high to this day many months after its release. Again, there were 3 colour ways and the statement design of his shoe was double everything. Two layers of soles, two layers of laces, two nike ticks and even two shoe tongues. This may sound overwhelming but the final product is an incredible piece with large attention to details, colours and the mixing of mesh and leather . A final new highly anticipated collab was that with the luxury high end Dior company. A more simple design but yet still clean version of the Jordan 1 was made with the Dior monogram on the tick and jelly light blue sole with Dior lettering underneath. The light grey and white colour way leaves the shoe with endless styling potential. However, only 8,500 pairs were set to be released to the public. Dior and nike set out to send the shoe to celebrities and athletes instead, boosting the press around the shoe.
The sneaker world will continue to grow as new designers take on their version on the shoe and I don’t see the Nike brand stopping its profit and produce anytime soon
