No business like shoe business
Three millennials take us inside the growing sneakerhead subculture in India
It is no coincidence that India is home to the second-largest footwear industry in the world: we take our shoes very seriously. So, it isn’t surprising that sneakers are also becoming a growing passion. And not just any sneakers—some are collector’s items priced more than most people’s monthly wages!
But for many millennial and Gen-Z Indians, what is ‘valuable’ is not always gold.
Hype machine
When Thar actor Harshvardhan Kapoor, 31, the founder of sneaker and apparel resale store, Mainstreet Marketplace, Vedant Lamba, 23, and YouTuber Karan Khatri (age withheld), who creates content about all things sneakers, get together, their conversation is a whirlpool of all things cool—the extravagant world of Air Jordan Diors where each pair goes up to ₹8 lakh, the secret world of trading and reselling, why Yeezy still makes the cut, the contacts that will get you access to the most inaccessible tracks… Is the subculture just a clique of rich kids?
Karan refuses to concede that being a sneakerhead is just another form of vanity. “It’s the same as asking people why they spend so much on food or travel,” he says.
The way Harshvardhan sees it, being a sneakerhead is about associating a unique memory with each pair. “I attended the screening of Bhavesh Joshi (2018) in a small, obscure town in Switzerland,” he says. “I remember exactly which sneakers I was wearing.”
Vedant believes the appeal of sneakers can be summed up in three broad markers: “There’s the narrative of where it comes from; the hype of how it’s perceived by others because we are a status-seeking species; and the price point.”
Sneaker savvy
A critical aspect of the sneakerhead subculture is that of reselling—buying limited-edition shoes at retail prices and then reselling them for a higher price.
“Sneakers are like gold and real estate; they hold value and provide status at the same time,” Vedant says. “Harshvardhan’s collection is now worth five times more than what he originally paid for it. So, it’s possible to scale at every stage.”
Ultimately, it’s a sense of community that unites sneakerheads across different spaces. “When you meet someone wearing sneakers, it’s like you instantly know you speak a different language,” says Vedant.
Harshvardhan’s collection is worth five times more than what he originally paid for it. So, it’s possible to scale. VEDANT LAMBA, Footwear entrepreneur