Kanye or LeBron?
Style winning over sneaker fans
“Everyone wanted to be like Mike. ... (Now), everyone wants to be like Kanye.” Yu-Ming Wu, publisher of Sneakernews.com
The most coveted sneakers this holiday season may be more suited for the runway than a basketball court.
Athletic shoe aficionados are being courted by an array of styles, celebrity collaborations and innovative experiences as the $17 billion industry sweats to win fickle shoppers.
When it comes to the most popular shoes, fashion and celebrity often matter more than function. Superstar rapper Kendrick Lamar is collaborating with Nike. Producer and singer Pharrell Williams has a line of shoes under the Adidas banner. Fenty, a sneaker partnership between Puma and pop icon Rihanna, is among the hottest fashion-focused shoes at the moment.
And rather than a single, signature shoe dominating the scene like Nike’s original Air Jordan did in the 1980s, Adidas UltraBOOST, Nike’s Air Force 1 and Puma’s Blaze are among the many athletic shoes currently sharing the spotlight.
“It’s a time where every sneaker company out there is doing something interesting and there’s so much variety available when you walk into a store,” says Yu-Ming Wu, publisher of Sneakernews.com.
While shoes that boosted athletic performance were the sales champions just a few years ago, the all-stars this holiday season are predicted to be sneakers focused more on style than improving a jump shot or boosting a runner’s speed in the 30-yard dash.
Sales of fashion sneakers are expect-
ed to grow 15% to 25% from last year, says Manik Aryapadi, a principal in the retail practice of A.T. Kearney, a consulting firm. Sales of athletic sneakers “will see a downward dip, and their overall share of the sneaker segment will continue to decrease,” he says.
Sales of basketball shoes, in particular, have been sliding, says Matt Powell, sports industry analyst at The NPD Group. Sales plunged 20% in August alone, with Nike, Under Armour and Brand Jordan all experiencing a sales slump in that category. Slower sales of basketball shoes were one of the factors that led to Under Armour’s 4.5% third-quarter revenue decline and less optimistic outlook for the full year.
Jason Cacho, 34, a registered nurse in San Francisco who has been playing basketball since he was 7, still likes sneakers that have an athlete’s stamp of approval. But, he says, “while athletes have been the pinnacle of advertisements for sneaker brands, the recent involvement of celebrities, especially musicians, have propelled the popularity of sneakers by tapping into different demographics.”
That’s in sharp contrast to the sneaker scene that emerged when Air Jordan debuted in 1985. The collaboration between Nike and legendary Chicago Bull Michael Jordan dominated industry sales for years. Since then, players from Shaquille O’Neal to LeBron James have entered lucrative deals to launch their own lines.
But today, it may be the Yeezy, rapper Kanye West’s collaboration with Adidas, that comes closest to the type of frenzy that greeted the original Air Jordans a generation ago.
“Everyone wanted to be like Mike,” says Wu, adding that “Air Jordan was and still is ... the ultimate goal line for any partnership between an athlete or even a musician.”
Now, “everyone wants to be like
Kanye,” he says.
Still, Nike, which became the standard bearer for partnerships between sneakers and athletes, says those relationships remain central to its brand.
“Our connection to the athlete will always be our most important asset,” says Nike spokesman Matthew Kneller, who added that the company’s Kyrie 3 line, made in partnership with Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving, is the top selling shoe in the basketball category. The KD 10 is also selling well, and the LeBron 15 is getting positive buzz. “We know it’s Nike and Jordan that create the trends in basketball and the culture around it.”
Wu says that sneakers tied in with an athlete can still sell, but a marquee name is not enough to move shoes off the shelf. It “has to have the right look,” he says, and, if parents are the ones paying, often the right price.
Golden State Warrior Steph Curry learned that the hard way when his signature Curry Two Low “Chef ” sneaker from Under Armour debuted to derision in June 2016. Critics took to social media to make fun of the shoe’s generic, dated look.
Adidas says sneaker fans aren’t so much choosing fashion over athletic performance, as they are demanding a blend of both.
Consumers “want an authentic, high-performing product that does its job on the field or the court but they also want it to look great,” says Si- mon Atkins, brand director for Adidas America. “The products and concepts and brands that have tapped into that are the ones that are doing the best.”
Adidas appears to be delivering. As of August, the brand had 11% of market share, second only to Nike, according to NPD. And while sales of basketball shoes made by several major brands tumbled in August, Adidas’ sales during that month spiked more than 40%.
Ameer Taylor, 35, a maintenance worker who lives in Brooklyn, is a fan of Adidas. But he believes that the hottest sneaker right now is the LeBron James line made by Nike.
Mostly he just appreciates a shoe that feels good and aids him on the basketball court. “I like to have a pair of sneakers that have good ankle support and are comfortable,” Taylor says.
The sneaker industry had $17.4 billion in sales last year, up from $16.1 billion in 2014, says NPD. But there are headwinds, as sporting apparel chains like Hibbett Sporting Goods and Foot Locker, which have traditionally been key to selling athletic shoes, struggle.
Through “social media ... you can see a celebrity changing to a new sneaker, and you want that,” says Jane Hali, CEO of Jane Hali & Associates, LLC, which does research and consulting for retail and other industries. “That happens overnight. That didn’t happen before.”
Foot Locker’s second-quarter net income plunged 36.2% to $81 million from $127 million during from the same period the previous year. The company pinned the decline partly on some recent styles failing to break through.
“Sales of some recent top styles fell well short of our expectations and impacted this quarter’s results,” Foot Locker’s CEO Richard Johnson said in a statement at the time.