Economics of Sneakers: How It Became a Cult | Between the Lines with Palki Sharma

Sony vakaro claims he met Michael Jordan just once it was the early 1980s vakaro was a Nike salesman the company's basketball Division was struggling profits were nil the NBA loved converse that's America's basketball league NBA top players only wore Converse shoes so Nike needed a breakthrough and vakaro had a plan he had seen tapes of a rukie Michael Jordan vakaro decided to meet up with him but the 21-year-old NBA rukie was stubborn the first thing he said at the meeting was this I love Adidas vakaro was not offended though and he too was stubborn Jordan may not have wanted the deal but vakaro kept pursuing he contacted Jordan's coach he tracked down his family he kept convincing Nike that this was the right bet and finally a deal was made at that point the best NBA players earned around $100,000 from deals but Nike was ready to disrupt this Market the deal they gave Jordan was worth $2.5 million but it had one crucial Clause all thanks to Jordan's mother the player would get a share of profit for every pair sold the rest as this says history in 1985 the Air Jordan was born priced at $65 within 12 months it made over $100 million Jordan the player became the biggest name in basketball Jordan the brand became one of the most popular sneakers of all time even in 2022 Jordans made Nike over $5 billion but our story is not about Nike or Air Jordans our story is about the shoes they have become a way of life from babies to billionaires Tech bosses and theyy Brides they're all sporting sneakers what has made them so popular how are sneakers born how big is the sneaker economy which are the biggest markets and where does India figure I'm py Sharma and this is between the [Music] lines sneakers go way back to the 1830s and the credit goes to this man John Boyd Dunlop he was an innovator he discovered how to BN rubber to Canvas it gave birth to sand shoes victorians wore them to the beach by the end of the century they were known as plim Sals they were mostly worn by Sportsman it made it easy to move on tennis courts Fred Perry was a plimsol loyalist he was a triple Wimbledon champion and he did that by wearing green flash plims so they were quite popular in Britain but it was the US that gave them a new life where they became known as sneakers why sneakers because the rubber sold made little noise so the person wearing it could sneak up on people hence the name sneakers by the 20th century sneaker Brands were popping up everywhere Converse was the first it was founded in 19008 by 1917 they made a pair of shoes just for basketball the Converse All Stars it became one of the best selling shoe of all time but this was just in the US soon sneakers went International and the credit goes to the dler brothers Addy and Rudolph dler in the 1920s they set up the dla shoes us Olympian Jesse Owens wore them at the Olympics it was a perfect endorsement the brand grew but it only lasted until the second world war the brothers split in 1949 they went on to set up their own companies Addy dler set up Adidas it's an acronym of his name Rudolph tried to do the same so he set up a brand called Ruda but Ruda did not sound so good so he renamed it as Puma that same year in Japan kihachiro onitsuka started onitsuka tiger then came Nike it was created by Bill Bowman and Phil Knight it was first called Blue Ribbon sports but in 1971 it became Nike Inc do you know the popular Nike Swoosh they paid just $35 for it and their slogan just do it it was the famous last words of murder Gary Gilmore he said let's do it ahead of his 1977 execution so that's where it came from Nike's rise coincided with America's running craze people wanted to go jogging they needed shoes and Nike was a popular choice then came the Jordan brand and today Nike is the biggest footwear company in the world so sneakers were meant for running in sports but when did they become cool when did they become the IT thing the rise of sneakers can be broken into three distinct waves the first came in the 1970s it was linked to the emergence of Hip Hop bands wore sneakers they got deals with sneaker Brands it was the new commodity to have then came the end of the80s the Jordan brand had grown it became a status symbol the third was the digital age sneakers were marketed more they were resold everywhere they became cool again today the global sneaker Market is worth $91 billion by 2028 it could be worth $139 billion so the market is growing and the rise is linked to society itself take China for example in 2015 it overtook the US with the largest middle class as the middle class grew there was more disposable income more leisure time and what did they focus on Sports and Fitness among other things between 2008 and 2016 gym memberships doubled in China and that meant sneakers flew off the shelves Nike Adidas Puma they all took notice they invested in the market and made money in 2019 Nike sales grew by 19% in China adid sales were up by 13% but it wasn't just sports that Define sneakers a 2016 survey says 75% Americans do not use their sports shoes for sports purposes then what do they use them for for comfort so the fashion industry is also embracing sneakers now H&M Zara Gucci Balenciaga from Fast fashion to luxury everyone wants a share of the sneaker market and for some consumers these are not just shoes they're an obsession introducing the sneaker heads they collect sneakers they trade sneakers they give sneakers a cult status and they go to extreme lengths for it in 2019 Adidas announced its new Yeezy it was going on sale overnight thousands of people queued up they wanted to grab the first pair the shoes sold for around $240 do you know the resale value around $6,000 that's a a rise of 2,400 and that's not all people are even mugging and killing for sneakers one estimate says 1200 people die over sneakers every year and that's just in the US so you get the craze now India too is embracing it in 2022 India sneaker Market was worth $2.6 billion it's expected to grow by 11% every year there are resellers there are Indian Brands there are sneaker cons that's conventions for sneakers people are wearing sneakers to office models are wearing them on runways there are Bridal sneakers there are sneakers for every occasion it's a huge market now and it's dominated by Millennials in genz they're willing to spend a lot of money on it by some estimates sneaker heads are willing to pay up to 4 lakh rupees for a rare pair the US vice president is a fan of sneakers the 4050 US president has a sneaker line the most expensive pair ever sold is the Nike moon shoe it was sold for $437,500 in 2019 $437,500 but is this craze all good well not for planet Earth sneakers are a bit of an environmental disaster they take years to disintegrate the Rubber Soul takes 80 years at least to biodegrade Plastics take even more time so it's definitely not sustainable so sneaker companies are exploring Alternatives like Visa sneakers a favorite of Megan marle they're said to be made of sustainable material I guess the point we're making is this sneakers have evolved and created a massive Market they were once menant for sports then for comfort and now a cult so much so that high fashion has embraced them and for many people across the world they become a way of life [Music] oh

Channel: Firstpost

Views: 141,266

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Id: LX2L4BP8qhs

Length: 9min 30sec (570 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2024