Pumped up kicks
Luxury sneakers are all set for world domination, thanks to celebrities.
New YoRk: Christian, aged 10, has 20 pairs of high-end sneakers in his closet at his home in the suburbs of New York.
Maxance, who just turned 14, asked his parents for an US$800 (RM3,211) pair of Adidas shoes for his birthday. He did not get them.
“We live in a world where sneakers are basically works of art,” the teenager said.
The world is also one in which luxury sneakers – often limitededition collaborations between the big names in sportswear and fashion labels, rappers or famous athletes – have become coveted accessory for everyone from tween boys to middle-aged men.
Some pairs fetch tens of thousands of dollars – the super-rare Derek Jeter Air Jordan 11, named for the New York Yankees superstar, were going for about US$50,000 (RM200,702) in recent weeks. Only five pairs were released.
Such shoes are bought second – or third-hand, mainly on the Internet but also in chic boutiques or pop-up stores, packaged in plastic wrap to protect them.
New York is one of the capitals of this flourishing high-end sneaker culture, though the trade in trainers is hardly new.
It began in the 1990s – when Nike made it big with the first Air Jordans, made for the legendary basketball star Michael Jordan, those shoes quickly became musthave collector’s items.
Then in the 2000s, the market grew as the Internet boomed, especially on auction sites like eBay.
Today, boosted by celebrities, social media influencers and the mainstream influence of rap culture, the sneaker biz has gone global.
It’s particularly big in the United States, Europe and Asia.
Since 2016, it even has its own “stock exchange” – the StockX website.
Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst for the NPD Group, says the actual size of the luxury sneaker market is hard to estimate, but one thing is clear – “that market has had nice growth”.
Even if it’s centred on a few key industry players, the market is fed by a mass of small-time vendors – many of them sneaker addicts themselves looking for a quick way to make extra cash.
“Estimates of the resale market is that it’s at one billion dollars,” Powell says, explaining that it’s still a “pretty small sliver” of the overall athletic shoe market, which hit US$38bil (RM152.52bil) in the United States in 2017, and US$100bil (RM401.39bil) worldwide.
But for John McPheters, the president and co-founder of Stadium Goods – mainly a web business, but which opened what has become one of New York’s most popular sneaker stores in Soho in late 2015 – these estimates are way too low.
Stadium Goods sold more than US$100mil (RM401.39mil) in shoes last year, M McPheters says.
And sales s have at least doubled this year, in n what he says is a healthier market now that certificates of authenticity y have become the norm.
“What we e are doing today is really just scra atching the surface of what is goin ng to be an even bigger business in the years to come,” the 38-year-old says.
The futu ure plans of McPheters and Stadium Go oods are a go ood indication ofo the luxur ry sneake r market’ s potentia l and also its worldw ide appeal.
While Internet sales accou unt for 90% of the firm’s total for now, they plan to open several more actual stores in the US and abroad.
China is its largest market outside the US, followed by Britain and Canada, McPheters explains.
Thanks to a partnership with Britain-based online fashion plat- form FarFetch, Stadium Goods is hoping to soon break into the Russian market.
Matt Troisi, 29, is a regular customer at Stadium Goods
– he owns about
300 pairs of sneakers – and is also an experiencedp buyer and seller online. He is convinced the market is huge and about to explode. Troisi says that he earns US$25,000 to US$35,000 (RM100,352 to RM140,500) a year in the sneaker trade – about half of what he makes as a manager for the Tao restaurant group, where he rubs shoulders with celebrities who help him get access to limited-edition treasures. “Men – sometimes we doon’t have the best fasshion.
“We don’t really know wwhat the cool stuff is,” Trroisi says. “We can wwear all black and have noo style whatsoever in clothhing and just throw on a cool pair of sneakers and that’ss your outfit!” he adds with a laugh.
On his feet? A pair oof Nikes markingg the 1969 Moon lannding that are worth about US$1,000 (RM4,014). McPheters says one key to the future growth of the luxury kicks business will be to attract more women.
“That’s one of the problems in the industry, one of the areas brands need to focus on,” he says.