Sneaker Summit speaks to hearts and soles of Houston shoe lovers
Bryan Angelle is doing his best to keep Kanye West’s Yeezy sneakers in stock, but the demand is fierce.
The $800 sneakers, the product of a collaboration between West and Adidas, sell from his Sneaker Summit store on South Shepherd as fast as Angelle gets them in.
The shoes are a reminder of how celebrities, such as West, Drake, Rihanna and even Pharrell Williams, have changed the sneaker game in recent years, said Angelle, who also is the founder of The H-Town Sneaker Summit, which will be held 3-8 p.m. Sunday at the Bayou City Event Center. The event, in its 14th year, will have around 100 vendors, with as many as 5,000 in attendance.
Angelle said it used to be the only sneakers that had mass appeal were tied to professional athletes, such as basketball great Michael Jordan and his famous Nike Air Jordans. Nike, which has had 30 iterations of Jordans since they were intro-
duced in 1985, sells the shoes for between $100 to $200.
Times have changed, though, since the days of watching Spike Lee hawk Jordans on TV commercials. These days, there are more brands, more celebrities and seemingly endless opportunities on social media to promote new sneakers.
And it’s reaching an audience. In 2015, the athletic footwear industry in the U.S. grew by 8 percent, generating $17.2 billion in sales, according to The NPD Group, a market research company. Millennials are driving the growth, spending $21 billion on footwear in 2014, a 6 percent increase from the previous year, with the biggest category being footwear over $100.
Just this week, the Creeper sneaker from Rihanna’s Fenty Puma collaboration was named shoe of the year by Footwear News. And you don’t even have to be a major celebrity to get your own shoe. Even R&B star Teyana Taylor, the svelte dancer in Kanye West’s “Fade” video, is slated to have her own exclusive Reebok shoe.
“Kids today identify more with entertainers and social-media stars, so their sneakers are more popular,” Angelle said. “The market is definitely oversaturated now, but it’s still an exciting time.”
Angelle, 42, started the summit in 2002 with a few dozen sneaker fans — or “sneakerheads” as they are called — with whom he connected through online message boards (pre-Facebook). They bought, sold and collected sneakers. Many were introduced to the sneaker world through skateboarding.
In 2013, Angelle quit his day job as an electrical designer to work on the Sneaker Summit full time with business partner Adrian Sanchez, who previously worked in retail.
“We started this because we wanted a fun and safe place to gather and celebrate the sneaker culture,” Angelle said.
“There are a lot of different avenues for people to have a passion for sneakers. It transcends generations. It doesn’t matter where you come from or your age, you instantly bond over sneakers. People bring their kids now.”
The Sneaker Summit store was opened in September to sell mostly used shoes on consignment. Retro styles by Adidas, Puma and others are big sellers.
Nationwide, retro sneakers are having a resurgence, said sports industry analyst Matt Powell with NPD Group.
“We’re having a good year, with the hottest categories being the classic retro styles from the ’80s and ’90s. I don’t see it tapering off any time soon. The athleisure trend in fashion has spurred more demand for sneakers, so virtually every maker of apparel is trying to get a piece of the business.”
Sales for athletic classic (or retro) shoes are up 25 percent, he said.
At Premium Goods sneaker store in Rice Village, owner Jennifer Ford doesn’t see the demand for sneakers tapering any time soon. In fact, the store’s 2015 sales were the highest its been since opening in 2004. Early on, sneaker fans were known to camp out overnight at her doorstep to ensure a place in line when a particular shoe went on sale.
That’s changed, she said.
“We still sell the same amount of sneakers, but people are more conservative about what they are willing to spend on sneakers,” she said. “This younger generation isn’t waiting in line and sleeping outside for sneakers, and they aren’t willing to pay as much for them, with exception of a Kanye West shoe or a Jordan.”
To the point, Jose Armando Bustamante, 18, a student at Houston Community College, has become a YouTube star with his Retro Snickers channel, in which he posts videos of how he restores old sneakers. His channel has more than 450,000 subscribers. He started in middle school with a pair of Nike Air Jordan Hare sneakers he bought for $7.
Bustamante will be at Sneaker Summit meeting fans, he said.
“What’s great is that you have all these people who are interested in the same thing. Shoes are just awesome and a lot of people are attracted to that. Shoes make the entire outfit.”
He boasts about the Rihanna Fenty Pumas he wears around the house.
“They are just fly,” he said.