The Rise of Sneaker Culture
The newly coined term ‘Sneaker Culture,’ is so much more than anything we’ve seen before, it’s a pop culture phenomenon that’s taken the fashion industry by storm. In the way people are obsessed with Science Fiction movies, enough to have huge conventions and dress up as their favourite Sci-Fi character. People are equally as obsessed with sneakers; doing just about anything to get there hands on a pair of vintage Nike’s or limited edition Adidas’. At first glance it may seem a little shallow and pointless, but looking into it a little more is so much more complex than that.
First off, let’s set the scene a little. Right now, Transparency Market Research estimates the sneaker industry will reach a whopping value of USD$220 billion a year by 2020. The secondary sneaker market alone has just broken USD$1 billion a year, that’s just for people re-selling sneakers. The biggest question that’s always raised when discussing ‘Sneaker Culture’ is quite simply: Why? Why have sneakers crept out of being a niche, subculture market into a mainstream trend dominating the fashion industry? As one of my favourite online writers, Evan Glazman says, “We have transformed sneakers into a language that we speak by using our feet.” Sneakers have become the new status symbol for millennials. It is reaching the point where you’ll nearly turn more heads if you’re rocking vintage Nike Air Mag’s, the highly coveted sneaker Michael J Fox wore in Back To The Future, than you would climbing out of a Ferrari.
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Before anything else, it’s impossible to discuss ‘Sneaker Culture’ without discussing the impact the internet has had on it and is still having on it to this day. It was the internet’s impact that eventually led ‘Sneaker Culture’ to move from a sub-culture to pop culture. In 1999, at a time when there was no mainstream sneaker blogs and the internet itself was still being figured out by the masses, NikeTalk was born. It was and still is the ultimate online sneaker community, discussing everything sneakers and sneaker collecting. However, with the internet’s growing dominance and social media in the forefront, ‘Sneaker Culture’ has also greatly expanded. There’s never-ending niche sneaker blogs, Facebook campaigns and now Instagram auctions of limited edition sneakers. When talking about the internet’s impact on ‘Sneaker Culture,’ Jones explains it took “a once nuanced and underground street culture and turned into an emerging mass-consumer market.”
Although, it would be naïve of me to think I could sum up ‘Sneaker Culture’ in a sentence, I’m going to try anyway, or more accurately, Nicole Cappelleri is. Cappelleri, a designer, entrepreneur and co-founder of the streetwear brand, Poetic Gangster, defines ‘Sneaker Culture’ as “the design, trade and art of collecting and procuring sneakers,” and explains that to her “they are more than shoes they are art and expression of ones-self.” Sneakers popularity could be attributed to the shift of designers and brands designing sneakers that give the consumer “permission to dress up in sneakers,” as footwear designer Annie Abbot explains. Abbot further clarifies it was also a shift in categories that gained the trend momentum. “Sneaker culture has grown out of its previous ‘lifestyle’ category into a category of its own that is much more closely related to fashion than any type of active pursuit.” So let’s go back, back to a point that’s debated to have changed ‘Sneaker Culture’ forever.
1921, that was the year that for the first time a sneaker company collaborated with a high-profile person, resulting in the Converse Chuck Taylor. The collaboration was so popular that by 1923, Chuck Taylor’s name and signature was on every Converse shoe. The saying, “You’re only as good as you’re last deal,” could be applied here. As Melanie Jones, owner of Melanie Jones PR, a boutique Lifestyle PR Company based in London that specialises in streetwear brands says, “The success of sneakers is more reliant on what star is wearing, designing or endorsing it than any other product. Sneaker brands only did and do as well as the stars they are tied to.” By 1966, Converse had an 80% share on the US sneaker market, such success and popularity is being mimicked today by another brand, Nike. As of today Nike has a 48% share on the US sneaker market, although that’s a 32% difference it’s just as impressive, due to the markets growing competition.
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Nike’s dominance in the industry is frequently attributed to it’s clever collaboration choices, the most iconic being Michael Jordan. “Working with America’s most well-loved heroes at the time, like Michael Jordan, this can be seen as setting the ultimate precedence of what is possible with the right celebrity,” explains Jones. Although Nike has set the precedence for collaborations, it’s definitely a staple for all sneaker brands. Some of the most recent successful collaborations have been Adidas and Kanye West, along with Puma and Rihanna. Ensuring you have the right celebrity associated with your brand is key. As Cappelleri observes it’s something that can make or break a campaign. “Celebrity endorsements and influencers are crucial. What they stand for and what they have achieved needs to be considered. Sneakers represent not only the customers values and beliefs but the companies.”
It’s these past and present collaborations that have really made ‘Sneaker Culture’ a mainstream trend. With sneaker brands choosing popular and well-loved people to represent their brand, they’re straight away tapping into their customers on an emotional level. A smart move according to Jones, “Tapping into consumer’s emotions is the most powerful tool there is.” ‘Sneaker Culture’ has recently seen a huge shift into the music world, moving the emphasis from the public’s most beloved athletes to music’s biggest stars. As already stated, the most recent successful sneaker collaborations involved Kanye West and Rihanna, arguably two of the biggest stars in the music industry at this time. It’s this success that has been a major game-change for ‘Sneaker Culture,’ with Kanye West’s Adidas Yeezy’s reselling for upwards of USD$2,500. “As sneakers were made originally for athletes and sports it’s a big deal that it no longer require the credibility of an athlete,” says Jones. Which is ultimately opening the door to ever-changing sneaker collaborations in the future.
I’ve explained that is ultimately due to celebrity collaborations with sneaker brands that solidified ‘Sneaker Culture’ as more than just a trend, but I’ll allow a scholar to confirm my argument also. According to research conducted by Andrea Rubini, for a thesis exploring how sneakers have turned into status symbols, it is in fact these collaborations that cause people to pay ridiculous prices and line up for hours. Rubini explains that when someone is buying a pair of Nike’s they are not just buying a pair of sneakers, “at that moment they are not just purchasing shoes. Or better, not only shoes, they are purchasing experiences, emotions, trend and style. Something that even the most similar sneakers (same shape and colours but without the swoosh) cannot give them."
So, can we expect ‘Sneaker Culture’ to continue growing? Well, yes, if the estimations and predictions aren’t enough to convince you. ‘Sneaker Cultures’ evidently growing succession of the mainstream market and its long history of booming growth should. With a growing number of collaborations and the Internets widening impact there’s no sign ‘Sneaker Culture’ will be slowing down any time soon. However, with luxury brands like Dolce and Gabana, Chanel and Gucci now integrating sneakers into their collections, in an aim to grab a piece of the multi-billion dollar cake too. It is leaving many die-hard ‘Sneakerheads’ wondering, is ‘Sneaker Culture’ still what it was? Or has it become so a part of the mainstream market, due to its growth, that it’s now just another cog in the fashion industry machine? But that’s way too complex to start discussing now, so I’ll leave you to ponder that question.