Sneakers In The Past Belong To Low-End Sports And Leisure.

When luxury brands begin to enter the stadium, sports shoes may not be totally carnival.

It was a headache for him to move to Hongkong from Beijing, but the only thing he did not hesitate about was to bring nearly 20 pairs of sneakers. "Full of boxes, washed from Beijing, brought home, and then taken to Hongkong."

Jerry began to chase sneakers from junior high school, which became his most precious thing.

When he was little, he liked the Nike sb shoes. Now his favorite is Yeezy 500, who just grabbed her hand.

But in his pursuit of more than ten years of sneakers, he rarely started with the brand shoes introduced by fashion brands.

"At that time, when Balenciaga launched Triple S, I really thought about buying it, but the biggest problem with fashion brands is that they won't wear much better, plus a few days they are all shoes on the street, and I give up."

He said.

Jerry's consideration is also a worry for many shoe enthusiasts.

When luxury brands begin to enter the stadium, sports shoes may not be totally carnival.

Luxury brand shoes

If the emergence of T-shirts and hoodies in luxury brand fashion is the adaptation of high-end brands to sports and leisure fads, then the real juncture of luxury and sports can be realized through sneakers.

In the Nike store, a pair of Nike black leather Air Jordan 5 Retro Premium sports shoes sell for more than 400 euros, but a few steps away, Gucci also put their sports shoes in the most prominent position on the shelf. At the same price, you can buy a pair of Gucci ACE plate shoes with double G logo.

What's more, customers who enter Nike store have many people who carry luxury brand bags. The consumers of both sides have begun to coincide with each other.

This is another positive confrontation between luxury brands and sports brands. They need to compete for the same group, the fans of shoes. It means that there are new competitors in Louis Vuitton and Dior, such as Nike and Adidas.

In recent years, major luxury brand groups are indeed increasing investment and market budgets to deal with these new competitors.

Sales of sports shoes in the global market increased by 10% to 3 billion 500 million euros last year, exceeding the 7% increase in handbag sales, according to consulting firm Bain.

As the menswear director of Neiman Marcus, an American department store, said, compared to ten years ago, this is no longer a trend and has become an independent category.

Luxury brands have spared no effort to launch sports shoes in the past two years. Among them, Balenciaga is the most popular consumer among consumers.

However, Balenciaga is not the first luxury brand to make sports shoes. Italy luxury goods company Tod "s" has launched the first Hogan luxury sports shoes in 1986. However, in the prevailing market background, it did not have enough influence.

Balenciaga is a lot of luck. With the familiar trend of creative director Demna Gvasalia and the mature market, many sports shoes have been launched. In the eyes of young people, Balenciaga is probably "

Pronoun.

Other brands are catching up.

Gucci launched the small white shoes also in the street shot in a high degree of appearance, Alessandro Michele on the white shoe body to replace all kinds of materials and decorations, forming a series of sports shoes, the overall style has not changed much, in addition to, but also follow the wind launched a dad shoes "Rhyton", although the shoes are not too much, the shoe recognition degree is only one side of the Gucci classic Logo, but it is still a strong competitor like shoes.

Maison Margiela's "Future" high sports shoes and "Replica" low efficiency sneakers are the most classic two sports shoes; Louis Vuitton released Archlight Sneaker in the 2018 spring and summer series, which is a new member of the "Daddy shoes" team. It has become a hot trend in the circle. Prada introduced the sports shoes section Cloudbust in 2017 autumn and winter, and the shoelace style shoes were fitted with mesh, and joined the slender belt in the middle foot. According to the staff of the staff, the shoe has become the top beam column supporting the brand sales.

Sports shoes have become the Qian Shu of luxury brands.

According to Ernst & Young accounting firm, tide shoes are the fastest growing field of fashion industry.

Meanwhile, consulting firm Rui once pointed out last year that the high-end sports market will surpass the Chinese luxury market by 2020.

Luxury brands are being sneakers and luxury brands are luxurious. This is the state of the moment.

Reuters reported in its report last month that the current phenomenon is "sneakerisation", and cites the industry's point of view that this trend is likely to win market share from traditional and professional sports brands.

The threshold of sports shoes Market

But it can not be overlooked that the fashion industry and sports industry will have a running in period in the process of integration, but the most direct consequence of crowding in is to lead to bad competition.

"The shoe market is not healthy at all, fried shoes, fake shoes, no shoes."

Leaves are also crazy for girls as shoes, but she increasingly feels that sneakers are really hard to buy.

The leaves also revealed that her friends in Quanzhou told her from time to time that "I have a factory to make, no difference, but I really can't see it". Although this is a very common thing in China, it still leaves the leaves feeling helpless.

In addition to Adidas or Nike long queued fans in the two tier market, many treasures have already flowed, which is more like a brand new ecological chain of shoes.

According to statistics, the annual resale profits of sneakers are close to 400 million US dollars. In 2015 alone, over 9 million pairs of second hand sneakers were sold in the US.

Because Flight Club, Stadium Goods and StockX are similar to the existence of electronic business platform, the sale of sports shoes has become something everyone can do, let alone the attractive profits brought by the high price difference.

Probably ten years ago, those who sold shoes in the trunk of their own cars now sell their venues to the Internet.

Nowadays, the frequency and volume of shoe sales have made this market perhaps the most active stage. More and more people just want to make money on it instead of retaining it.

In the middle, the market risk of the sneakers is rising when the fake shoes infiltrate. Buyers may encounter the problem of fake selling and high price in the course of buying, and sellers may also make mistakes in the judgement of large quantities of data, or the phenomenon that the buyers are being unpackaged.

Lack of standardization of operation and pparency of market prices became the Achilles heel of the whole shoe market.

"My purchasing friends probably have sixty or seventy pairs of sneakers at home, but some of them are collected, some are worn, and some are bought and found to be inappropriate or disliked before they are sold. This is the person who really loves sneakers."

Jerry said.

But I have to admit that those two night dealers who queue up all night, buy up shop assistants and stir up high prices are the direct stimulators of the sports shoes market. They will let some shoe enthusiasts who are unwilling to spend a lot of money try their best to get shoes when they sell them. Even a lot of brands have already sold the long queue as a marketing tool, making use of the consumer's conformity mentality, even if there are not many gimmicks of shoes, they can create a welcome scene.

"In the Yeezy sale site queuing to pick up the number, the number only represents the qualification of draw lots, and then waiting to be pumped to buy, this probability is too small."

The leaves indicate that the shoe grabbing process is too ill, so that they will not be willing to act on their own, and "sell so many shoes around". So it can be seen that from the brand to the consumer to the resale of the third party, there is a closed industrial chain with a demand for supply. Most of the fans are willing to pay extra money for their favorite sports shoes. Then someone will benefit from it. In the final analysis, "like" is the most primitive driving force.

But is there really no barrier between the fashion industry and the sports industry? I'm afraid it's not easy for the hobbyists who have long been buying sports shoes to pull them out of the campaign brand.

As Jerry said, the biggest problem of sports shoes designed by fashion designers is that they are technically not professional enough.

The shoe enthusiasts can not be simply attributed to the millennial generation. In this young group, they also need to be further subdivided according to different buying purposes. The same old powder as Jerry, the practicality of the shoes is still in the first place.

Obviously, sports brands such as Nike and Adidas have formed the industry threshold with many years of technology research and development, which can not be broken by the more fashionable appearance.

Women, history and the continuous progress of American culture

In fact, when the two industries begin to merge, the greatest cohesion comes from culture.

There has been no change in the culture of sneakers in the past one hundred years, but now it is undergoing a new gender equality baptism.

"It's just that some girls buy a bag and are not happy, but for me, they buy sneakers."

There are more and more girls like leaves. They love sports shoes, T-Shirts, baseball caps, not bags, short skirts and high-heeled shoes. The increase of female sports shoes fans has broken the gender barriers for the expansion of the market of sports shoes, so we can say that resistance has been further weakened.

Data show that in 2017, the sales of female sports shoes in the United States jumped 37%, to $2 billion 300 million, and correspondingly, the sales of high-heeled shoes dropped by 12% during the same period.

The share is less than 20%, less than half of that in 2011.

Beth Goldstein, an analyst with fashion footwear and accessories industry, told CNBC that sports shoes sales in the next few years will continue to grow at a rate of two digits, of which Nike and Adidas have promoted almost half of women's sports shoes growth.

Selma Kaci sebbagh shoe cabinet

The emergence of sneakers is not a global phenomenon. This change is the fastest and most obvious in the Chinese market. It has suddenly appeared in the past two years as a "new player". But in the United States, the culture behind the sneakers was born and gradually penetrated in 1900s, and is already rooted in the American culture.

In 1917, Converse, the brand of rubber canvas shoes, ignited the culture of sneakers, and became the starting point of Converse Chuck Taylor All Star after several years. This is why today's simple, seemingly ordinary rubber canvas shoes are still one of the most popular footwear styles of this era.

In the future development, we must say that the popularity of the sport of sneakers is largely stained with the light of basketball itself. Countless great basketball players have plated a layer of gold for their shoes equipped with their own legends.

Among them, the most influential non Michael Jordan is the Air Jordan, which is the classic brand of basketball shoes. When a large number of fans imitate the style and technology of Michael Jordan, they are also dressed as objects of imitation. Even the bald sculpt that he was the first to leave in the League was also imitated by a crowd in the NBA field afterwards.

When Air Jordan played in Jordan, almost every pair of shoes had its own special story.

Ben Osborne, editor in chief of the US basketball magazine SLAM dunks, once commented on Air Jordan1: "unless you really experience that era, it is hard to explain to you the fanaticism caused by Air Jordan 1.

This experience is not just oral, but not only do you really love a sport, but also really love the person who is engaged in sports, and the fashion trend led by that sport and that person. "

AJ11 and legendary 72 wins and 10 defeats, AJ12 and flu wars, AJ13/14 and Jordan's last season and last throw, these classic scenes on the court are permeated with a part of the shoe culture. Consumers bought a pair of shoes and bought the story behind them, which is a collection of classic history.

"Street culture in the United States is derived from several sports, such as skateboarding, street basketball and hip-hop. During the period from 1998 to 1999, the whole environment of street culture has begun to show itself."

Sneakerhead Steven Cui, a sports shoe sales platform, said in an interview with interface news.

Therefore, from this level, the sneaker culture is essentially one of the typical and earliest cross-border cultures.

The traditional definition of a pair of basketball shoes is that they can only appear on the basketball court.

And a pair of shoes that can form their own shoes culture must be confined to the basketball court. He can satisfy the rigid demands of basketball without losing the fashion and design sense through his own design.

The design of sports shoes is interlaced with popular culture such as street, hip-hop and so on. For example, the classic Air Force 1, as the first pair of basketball shoes with cushioned cushioning, is still a sign of existence in today's sports shoes, or high or low band, or bandage design, or Fuse shoe upper or suede upper, making the classic sneaker culture permeated into ordinary people's life in a variety of forms.

"But such a culture has just begun in China."

Steven said that with the iteration of China's entertainment industry, variety shows such as hip-hop in China began to emerge, bringing a strong cultural trend. "China is now replicating the popular culture of the late 1990s and early 2000s."

However, the current Chinese environment of fast food consumption is quite different from that of the US in the late 1990s. The special nature of China's fashion industry environment will inevitably bring about many problems.

The sale of styles is the most direct embodiment.

For example, Nike Hyperdunk shoes, which is the most basic basketball real shoes, but according to "SIZE" magazine reported that the basic color matching such as team basketball in China's stores will not be sold, mainly because the dealer is limited in the level of goods, that Chinese shoes fans all like garish color matching, which makes people who want basic money can only buy through the two level market.

In addition, Chinese consumers are still not aware of sports shoes at the present stage. They also stay at the same level as buying other fashion products. What is the practice of buying a lot of fake footwear fans, making many shoes and reselling prices rise high? It is reported that the price of Air Jordan 1 doubled after the broadcast of hip-hop in China.

On the other hand, fans are also following the stars, and many Chinese celebrities are just trying to imitate overseas celebrities. Because in the market of China's many kinds of sports shoes, AJ has become a history and is no longer popular among the Millennials. But AJ for American shoe fans is a shoe that can never be abandoned.

Nevertheless, Steven Cui still believes that the culture of sneakers can be developed to the same degree as overseas, which is one of the reasons why he brought Sneakerhead to China earlier than other competitors.

Steven Cui and his two friends founded the shoe selling platform Sneakerhead in 2002. It started online, including Yeezy, Supreme, Off-White, PALACE, Air Jordan and other brands. In 2012, it entered China and opened Tmall flagship store. It is the first brand to bring the concept of tide shoes to China.

From Tmall sales data, from 2013 to 2017, Sneakerhead is the first category of sports shoes.

Steven Cui also revealed that Sneakerhead has always been a research case of Tmall.

Because North America is the birthplace of sneaker culture, and also the market place of sports brand, with more than $1 billion sports shoes collection market, many high-end and limited brands will choose to start in North America, which will enable Sneakerhead to take advantage of product differentiation and take the lead in the Chinese market.

At the beginning of this year, Sneakerhead launched the electronic business platform APP "Sneakerhead X". At this point, Sneakerhead already has 10 online sales channels in China.

In the view of Steven Cui, the main tool to promote the spread of sneakers culture in China is the social network. At this stage, more penetration and growth will happen in the future.

The data show that users share 31% of the tide brand equipment on social media Instagram. "Step by step, sharing the tide brand equipment has a strong display function, which is a widespread psychology of young people". Fragmented information cut off the loyal customer loyalty of luxury brands, and tide brand products innovate quickly and conform to the trend, which is more in line with the propagation logic of social networks.

From the United States across the ocean, the shoe salesmen who come to China not only Sneakerhead, but also Stadium Goods, a shoe salesman invested by LVMH group's private equity fund, has officially entered China in 2016. It has launched an overseas flagship store on Tmall platform, and the front page has printed the word "direct shipment from the United States without any third party".

Compared with Sneakerhead, Stadium Goods was founded only two years ago, but it developed rapidly. Stadium Goods has raised $5 million 600 thousand before LVMH Luxury Ventures joined, and the total paction volume in fiscal year 2017 exceeded 100 million US dollars.

Among them, the electricity supplier channels occupy 90% of sales, while the only entity store in SoHo district is more of a marketing tool.

Unlike brand retail shops, Stadium Goods is a consignment shop for collectors' sports shoes and street clothing, and the most expensive shoe enthusiasts are their main consumers.

When the consignor needs to sell his collection, he can come to Stadium Goods shop.

The salesperson will identify the authenticity of the consignment shoes. After the authenticity is identified, the shoes will be photographed and added to the sales system of Stadium Goods. After the price is determined according to the market price, the shoes will be placed in the warehouse of Stadium Goods, and left foot shoes are displayed in the shop for consumers to purchase.

After the successful sale of sneakers, Stadium Goods will charge 20% of its selling price as a consignment fee to achieve profitability.

So far, 15000 pairs of sneakers have been sold in Stadium Goods.

The overseas mature third party shoe shoe resale platform enters China one after another, is another threat to the luxury shoes.

Tmall international operations expert Yue Yan told the interface news that at present, luxury brand shoes account for a relatively small proportion, and Tmall international specially held the first wave shoe exhibition in Losangeles locally, in order to convey the zero distance between Tmall international and the origin of sneakers. Stadium Goods and Sneakerhead in the Tmall international flagship store can provide first-hand shoes for domestic consumers.

From a market perspective, HSBC analyst Erwan Rambourg once said: "the intensification of competition is unlikely to erode profitability, because the market for shoes is still expanding."

Because of the high price space, the luxury of sports shoes will have a positive impact on profit margins.

Therefore, the admission of luxury brands is not a bad thing for sports brands. Puma CEO Bjorn Gulden once said: "if luxury groups take the sport route, it is a good thing if this trend can promote sneakers.

Rising is also good for us. "

Puma's self-confidence is not unreasonable. After all, they are professionals in this field.

The first thing young people think of is Nike ADI, not Dior or Gucci.