Sneakers have always been the centre of the fashion and lifestyle industry but lately have taken the world by storm. Though there isn’t a specific definition for sneakers, they are widely used for casual outfits. There isn’t a dearth of big sharks supplying this ever-growing demand for sneakers, with Nike and Adidas leading the line. These brands have collaborated with artists, sports persons, designers and other big names to gain the upper hand in this vicious competitive market. Celebrities and social media have been the epicentre of this widely promoted sneaker culture.
The sneaker culture isn’t limited to people buying a pair of shoes and creating new outfits for themselves. It encircles a whole new dimension of re-sellers and sneaker collectors. Re-sellers are people who essentially purchase the sneakers at their retail pricing and hoard them until people come calling for those exact pairs, and then they cash in on these sneakers with sweet amounts of profit. It can be considered a paradigm shift where people have forever paid large sums to gain luxurious and desirable materials, but the newer generation is not only paying these large sums of money but also ready to queue up outside the stores that sell these coveted pairs of shoes. While we expect that obtaining these heftily priced sneakers would be a matter of luxury when you sit back and enjoy the show, it is actually quite the opposite.
Charting this newfound territory, which had Nike and Adidas at its epicentre, has swiftly gained momentum in the uber luxurious brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Channel, etc. These brands, which were always associated with opulent silhouettes and fashion statements, suddenly started displaying sneakers in their latest collections. This could boil down to the fact that ‘By 2025, millennials will represent 40% of luxury sales clients’ according to the survey done by Bain & Co consultancy.
Keeping this in mind, luxury brands also dived head first into this sector to tap into the style quotient of the millennials, who would potentially become their biggest clientele in the future. Due to this factor, Nike and Adidas have come up with a varied collection of sneakers while collaborating with widely famous personalities. Though they are known for their affordable price tag, by collaborating with big names, they offer these exclusive products for thousands of rupees that could go into lakhs.
Keeping this as a strategic gameplay, Nike has collaborated lately with the famous rap artist Travis Scott, and two of the most expensive sneakers come from this collaboration, keeping in mind how these weren’t remotely gainable at the retail markets for people and the secondary markets provided people who wanted to pay hefty amounts for money with these.
Off-white, which is an Italian luxury fashion label founded by the late American designer Virgil Abloh, collaborated with Nike, with their designs being standout. Adidas have their famous Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West, which netted him a whopping $191 million in royalties in 2020. This is another way that luxury brands, in collaboration with brands with sneaker goodwill, aim to monetize their brand for limited edition pieces of art.
Even brands like Balenciaga reported a surge in their profits, with 52 per cent attributing to luxury sneaker sales, which is a colossal profit booking item. Though the designs by these luxury brands can be a hit or a miss, it is worth noting that sneakers have become the rage in the fashion industry to the extent that you can even see the older generation adorning the white sneaker trend. It is safe to say that until the consumer is willing to go to lengths to acquire their favourite pairs of sneakers, the luxury sector will keep on chasing them.
