Super sneakers vegan stan smith
The recent announcement by Sotheby’s that 200 pairs of Louis Vuitton and Nike Air Force 1 sneakers created by late American designer Virgil Abloh fetched a total of $25m literally stopped fashion in its tracks. The most paid for one of the pairs was more than $350,000 during an online auction.The sums dramatically exceed the initial estimates of Sotheby’s, which had started the bidding at $2,000 per pair and had predicted they would sell for between $5,000 and $15,000 each.
In the end, the sneakers, averaged more than $100,000 per shoe. The cheapest sold for $75,000. The brown, white and cream-coloured sneakers featured Nike’s famous swoosh logo with Louis Vuitton’s instantly recognisable monogram and Damier pattern, and were created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Nike Air Force 1, which was launched in 1982.
In the past two decades, New Balance, Nike, Off White, Yeezy, Adidas, Asics, Puma, Converse and Reebok have evolved to become mega-brands that dominate fashion and drive the athleisure boom. The crossover of the casual sport shoe from track to catwalk was accelerated by the pandemic, but the ascent of the sneaker to cultural symbol of our times was well underway pre Covid. Even Debretts, the snooty arbiter of modern manners has decided that trainers are now acceptable for smart casual occasions. Today they are worn by sportspeople, style queens, royalty, rock stars and fashion designers, young and old, rich and poor. Everyone has a pair, including the Pope.
Sneakers have now assumed a status in popular and youth culture that totally overshadows their humble origins. Trainers are an immense business – sales of the footwear were valued at $79bn by statista.com in 2021 and are predicted to rise to $120bn by 2026. Footwear is now the biggest selling category in the online luxury market which is why traditional luxury brands including Fendi, Gucci, Prada and Valentino are all schilling designer trainers for stratospheric prices. The sports shoe is fashion’s most profitable category.
Since Balenciaga launched their famous Triple S sneaker (aka the ugly dad sneaker) in 2017, the fashion sneaker has become a distinct sector for fashion brands and a highly lucrative one. Designer Barbara Bennett who customises trainers with her unique hand-painted designs, recalls the impact of that Balenciaga shoe: “My favourite pair of trainers would have to be the Balenciaga Triple S. I remember the first time I ever saw a pair, about 4 or 5 years ago. A man was wearing them on Grafton Street right outside Weirs. My heart stopped when I saw them.”
In the world of rare sneakers, dedicated “sneakerheads” are increasingly willing to spend on such cult designs.
The earliest sports shoes were manufactured by the Liverpool Rubber Company (owned by John Boyd Dunlop) in the 1830s with canvas uppers bonded to rubber soles. The growing popularity of recreational sports in the latter 19th century created a market for the new shoes. Dunlop’s Green Flash model of 1929 (worn by tennis star Fred Perry at Wimbledon) and the Converse All Star of 1908
(worn by Chuck Taylor from 1917) were the first models to get celebrity endorsement.
It was Adidas and Nike however that drove the sneaker’s evolution from sport to style. Founded by Adi Dassler in Germany in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik, the company rebranded as Adidas in 1949. It created the first track shoe, which was worn by Jessie Owens, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Nike was created by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports and became Nike Inc in 1971, as the running craze swept America. Nike’s first commercial design was the Cortez, specifically cushioned for running and famously worn by Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, a product placement which secured Nike’s cultural status and promoted its signature swoosh logo.
From origins for specific athletic activities, the sneaker category has now evolved with designer trainers becoming objects of desire. Celebrity collaborations across sports, cinema and music have shaped the status of the sneaker and elevated them from merely functional to extremely fashionable. Run DMC, Michael Jordan and Kanye West collabs have all contributed to their visibility while delivering financial dividends: Michael Jordan creator of the first €100 sneaker, still earns a $100m in royalties annually from his relationship with Nike, while Kanye West signed a $10m contract with Adidas to create his Yeezy sneakers and sportswear ranges. Trainers have also enjoyed celebrity status in their own right. From Marty McFly’s original Nike Air Mags in Back to the Future Part II to Kill Bill, where Uma Thurman’s Onitsuka trainers with “Fuck U” etched on the soles stole the show, each starring appearance has boosted their desirability. Spike Lee has regularly given sneakers prominence: see the famous scuff moment suffered by the pair of box fresh Air Jordan 4 “Cements” in Do the Right Thing when one of the crowd observes of the soiled shoes: “Your Jordan’s are fucked up!” Jordan cannily later created a replica of the exact sneaker, scuff and all, as a PR initiative.
Trainers as a fashion phenomenon first occurred in the late 1970s when an underground sneaker culture combined with the emergence of hip-hop. In 1986, Run-DMC released the song “My Adidas,” leading to a high profile sponsorship deal with the brand. Since then, trainers have assumed a unique place at the centre of black music. There have been sneakers designed and/or influenced by a who’s who of rap’s elite: Nas, Wu-Tang, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Kanye and others. Nike Air Jordan’s endorsed by basketball player, Michael Jordan sent sneakers into overdrive as a must have status symbol from 1985. Nike’s expectation when the deal was signed, was for sales of $3m by end of year 4, Instead in year one, they sold $126m.
The internet which has spurred growth in sneaker marketing and resale culture in the past 20 years has now propelled fresh levels of demand, with sneakers traded not as mere footwear, but as investments. There is even a platform called RARES that allows you to buy shares in rare, high end shoes in sneaker IPOs. The global sneaker resale market is forecast to be worth $30 billion by 2030. The rise of “sneakerheads” who collect and trade sneakers has ensured that they appreciate in value, often dramatically. Brands like Nike and Adidas (who have their own SNKRS App) routinely drive demand by limiting distribution: the Nike Air Yeezy 2 “Red October” and Air Jordan x 1 Off-White “Chicago” being prime examples.
Die-hard fans and dealers go to extreme lengths to obtain rare models, queuing through the night or buying multiple tickets in retailer’s raffles. The lucrative resale market has created a generation of sneaker entrepreneurs who make serious money reselling shoes. As Barbara Bennett observes: “Many people nowadays make a living off re-selling limited shoes like that on eBay, StockX and GOAT. You can make a nice profit off certain Yeezy’s - the Yeezy Boost sneakers can hold an average resale of up to 500% I think, which is nuts!” She continues: “I find very few luxury brands are worth the price you pay nowadays seeing as nearly every pair of trainers are made in China. Real or fake, they’re pretty much all made in the same factories. I bought a pair of designer trainers in BT’s over the summer and as I got home I noticed on the inside of the shoe it even said ‘Made in China’ even though that brand claim they’re made in Spain.”
Dubliner, Philip Kendrick who owns 300 plus pairs, has been collecting since he was 17, and has a purist approach: “I would only be interested in stuff I’m going to wear and stuff that I want to own to wear.”
As someone who got into trainers via the clubbing culture of the late ’80s and early ‘90s, exclusivity informed his collecting: “For lads my age, it was about having a pair that no-one else had.” He continues: “I got a pair of Air Max 95s which would have been quite rare at the time, it would have been maybe Autumn ‘95 and a friend of mine lived in New York and he sent me over these rare yellow ones ... and I remember a guy stopping me in Grafton St and going, ‘Jesus, where did you get them? ’” “You, don’t really get that now because of course, you have the internet. .... Now, it’s click of a button. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it does it water it down slightly.”
Of the frenzy around limited editions he says: “The internet is feeding it a lot more now as well. Now with the Internet and Instagram ... at the flick of your thumb you can see what looks are coming through or what brands are hot, and you can pick up on that.” “When I was into it is was very much a sub-culture ..... But it’s different now. Kids now get it. They’re into it from an early age - very much so.”
Peter concludes: “I don’t know whether longevity is there with some of these kids but at the moment they’re into it 100% and they really do love it.” And that is just how the sneaker titans like it.
Read MorePlaying it cool: Ten ways to wear neutral tones
The best food, health, entertainment and lifestyle content from the irishexaminer.com, direct to your inbox every Friday.
Writing on issues that matter to you
The best food, health, entertainment and lifestyle content from the Irish Examiner, direct to your inbox.
© Irish Examiner Ltd, Linn Dubh, Assumption Road, Blackpool, Cork. Registered in Ireland: 523712.