Original title: marked by Ye's ancient Roman sandals, is "de footwear" the current industry trend?
Reprinted from: Chaoren
Perhaps the sneaker market has never been so chaotic and disordered as it is today. People who are around or watching are aware that today's industry is going through a painful but necessary gap, and everything that once made the public crazy has cooled down with the naked eye. Euromonitor Information Consulting, in the name of consumer market research, claims that the global sales of sports shoes will be 152.4 billion dollars in 2022, The growth rate of 2.7% is significantly slower than that of 19.5% in 2021 - it seems that in just a few years, the grand occasion of various shoes with amazing premium increases has quickly fallen into desolation, replaced by a rational and restrained overall market.
Admittedly, the sneaker culture, or fashion sneaker culture, is a new topic still to be proved. Its starting point comes from the creativity and topic of brand marketing, so as to establish a system with strict logic and efficient operation, which has triggered the fashion desire beyond the rigid demand for shoes, and also presents an unprecedented miracle in the past decade.
Travis Scott
However, with the suspension of Kanye West Virgil Abloh died and a series of opinion leaders left the scene, but the backbone of the past consumer groups could not escape the fate after time. The supply and demand game of the sneaker market is doomed to reduce dimensions. Brands and leaders are seeking to tell a new story - because the elimination of the old template will be a nail in the nail, and continuing to repeat is nothing but drinking poison to quench thirst, We can only wait for the birth or return of the next phenomenal leader, the breeding of the next phenomenal creativity, and the proving of the next phenomenal mechanism.
Kanye West
Kanye West, who was immersed in the Japanese holiday life after being troubled, enjoyed 15% of the profit and about 85 million dollars of dividends after adidas brought back YEEZY goods for replenishment, and shifted the focus of his career to the creation of sneakers again. First, inspired by ancient Roman sandals, he was laughed by netizens as "Never let Kanye see this" The full black shoes of the Sample version that he resolutely imitated;
via Google
This also echoes the news that he met Salehe Bembury, the creator of Crocs cave shoes, in Tokyo not long ago.
Salehe Bembury and Kanye West
Later, the first shoe type AQUA50 came out after the separation from adidas. It generally adopts integrated molding and thin sole design, and its appearance is similar to the outline of YEEZY KNIT RNR in the adidas period. In fact, in recent years, Kanye has constantly emphasized its concept of ignoring the midsole, footwear integration, and footwear removal in the selection of shoes designed for finished products and warm-up of the upper foot.
AQUA50
A few months ago, Mascotte Holdings under Kanye applied for the trademark "YZY SOCK SHOES" and marked "Socks" in the column of "Goods and Services"; Socks with leather soles”， That is, "socks with leather soles";
via Google
Later, during the warm-up of "Utopia" and the subsequent album release, Travis Scott, who showed great respect for Kanye, went on foot, and the sale of this pair of shoes may be just around the corner.
Travis Scott
Kanye West has repeatedly proved that he is far ahead of the times, but in general, the ancient Roman sandals The thin soles and de footwear of AQUA50 and sock shoes are indeed an industry prospect road worth exploring at present. The addition of design languages such as accessories, graffiti and deconstructive splicing in shoe design has been pushed out of the mainstream discussion scope, and the proposition of "how to make sneakers not like a pair of sneakers" has been replaced, Not only is Kanye West a well deserved leader, but also a number of fashion brands at the head are following.
Kanye West
This logic is still true even if it is proved in the opposite direction: during the so-called blue ocean period of sneakers in the past, at first glance, a hundred flowers bloomed. In fact, the development of this industry almost only depends on the few people who have the most fashionable voice, and a huge social circle layer network has spread around them, thus giving birth to the public impression of "eating old bread" and "cooking cold rice", Because the shoe design of popular sports brands such as Nike and adidas can only be limited within the fixed frame, it has become meaningless repetitive operations such as color matching, accessories and patterns of classic shoe type changes over time.
Although adidas is replenishing YEEZY and starting after-sales service, the data of about 4 million orders on that day can still reflect the popularity of the sneaker market, but this is ultimately due to the stable creative output and influence of Kanye West in the past decade. In addition to this, today's sneaker market still lacks a clear benchmark.
adidas
Not to mention, the blue ocean period of sneakers encountered unprecedented epidemic factors of fashion. Before that, there had never been a force majeure that really limited creative output, which seemed to tear the shame cloth of sneaker games.
Kim Jones and Travis Scott
Take Nike as an example. The death of Virgil Abloh broke the bridge between Virgil Abloh and the luxury structure of his head Travis Scott's tragedy at the Astroworld Music Festival in November 2021 also caused the highly anticipated Nike Air Max 1 x Cactus Jack to be postponed again and again. Finally, when it was launched successively, it was directly pointed at the "palette" by the public, and the Dior element left by Kim Jones for Jordan was also diluted early. In recent years, whether Sacai Martine Rose, Jacquemus and other powerful players joined hands, and the effect was not satisfactory.
Nike x Sacai
Nike x Martine Rose
Nike x JACQUEMUS
On the other hand, the situation of adidas is even more bleak and clear. After losing Kanye West, Jerry Lorenzo was recruited into his command, but he stuck to the card of YEEZY in the early stage of the negotiation. It is enough to see that the overall situation of adidas' football shoes today is so lacking and flat, and a hundred foot beetles are dead but not stiff. But to open a new chapter, slow fire is far from enough. What is needed is surprise, explosion and stimulation.
Jerry Lorenzo
But never has an opinion leader who has created huge waves in the mass market and has absolute leadership been artificially created. In the past, Travis Scott was not, nor was Virgil Abloh, nor was Kanye West. We had to wait.
In this case, "de footwear", which actually means the choice of approaching the luxury brand's sneakers or fashion shoes, is a helpless but unavoidable choice.
Kanye West upper foot
HOKA ONE ONE TOR ULTRA HI 2 WP
Matthew M. Williams, who has become familiar with Vibram soles in recent years, has brought a pair of 1017 ALYX 9SM x Vibram Five Fingers Buckle works. Although the classic five toe soles are still used, MMW has skillfully realized a sense of balance in high-end fashion through the side lines.
1017 ALYX 9SM x Vibram Five Fingers Buckle
Kiko Kostadinov, who has chosen another interpretation method of "de shoeing", has always shown that without scrutinizing the commercial pressure, Kiko is free to control the creative output. The unique tailoring, color and silhouette techniques have made Kiko hold a place in the fashion circle for a long time, For example, his co branded works with ASICS have pushed the latter to the forefront of the trend, and the thin soles can be seen in the Gessirit shoes launched in the second half of 2019.
Kiko Kostadinov x ASICS Gessirit
At, a creative cooperation project of Danish tanning organization ECCO Leather Kollektive advocates bringing new designs to the world in the leather field. In June this year, in response to the Paris Men's Fashion Week in spring and summer 2024, At. Kollektive invited Kiko Kostadinov to help.
At. Kollektive
The final shoe is composed of inner boots made of elastic fabric, with elastic drawcord running through as the lacing method, and is matched with wrapped striped upper and rubber outsole. This shoe further reflects the so-called "Ki flavor", that is, it jumps out of the traditional symbol of sneakers, completely de shoeing, and shows the pure concept.
At. Kollektive Season 03 by Kiko Kostadinov
Kiko Kostadinov is talking about At Kollektive said, "I am keen on creating an overall appearance, in which each piece has its own space when combined and when worn alone.".
At. Kollektive Season 03 by Kiko Kostadinov
Looking back at the shoe market in 2022, the storm of "earthy taste" and "daddy", represented by Birkenstock, Crocs, UGG, Balenciaga, swept through. Shoes no longer need to be recognized by the public in the traditional sense. On the contrary, they have completely become a high-level fashion symbol, their market share has been invaded, and the former "sneakers" are struggling.
Birkenstock
Crocs
Balenciaga
The positioning of sneakers in the whole street cultural system has become unprecedentedly vague. In other words, the era that once could use classic shoe types to change colors indefinitely, seek co branding, add some details and then sell out of stock is gone forever. The upsurge of outdoor sports has led designers to be more willing to push the boat along the current, and implement the reverse promotion of traditional thick soled sneakers, outdoor thin soled shoes, Including the choice of scenes suitable for cycling, cross-country, long hiking and so on, it unintentionally broke the barrier between sports and fashion again, just as it used to be co branded with street and luxury goods, bringing a new upsurge.
Nike Air Force 1
What we can see is that the sneakers will become more and more unlike sneakers, which may be strange or difficult to look at, but in any case, they carry unprecedented imagination and creativity, and stimulate more fierce competition, which is always a good thing.
(The picture is from the network)
