Source: Gary Vee 001 & 002
Okay I know “Is it the shoes?” is a Nike slogan and tagline, but I really had to ask that question. I’ve been following this campaign and in a previous article I discussed that when Gary Vee was announced as the face of the next generation for K-Swiss that any collab would sell out because of the limited release of the shoe. This morning as Gary Vee tweeted, Facebooked, and IG’d his loyal following they responded and crashed the server on K-Swiss. It took hours for his fans to check out. That’s all a good thing, right?
Not quite… I explained in another post how the utilization of influencers in the sneaker market contributes to temporary bumps in traffic. For a moment in the day the brand becomes hot, but it’s not the brand. It’s not the shoes. It’s the influencer. If the influencer doesn’t carry the followers beyond the release of the shoes designated in the relationship on to other styles on the site what has the influencer really done?
Shined the light on the brand and brought awareness to them? Yes
Gave the brand a bump in sales? Yes
Introduced a new model that could lead to future sales for the brand?
This is the question of the day. With so many followers all ready to cop a Gary Vee kick Vaynernation could have released a Payless shoe and the response would have been similar. This is a danger for K-Swiss. The company is attempting to rebrand itself as the shoe of the entrepreneurial generation. They are attempting to shed their old tennis brand label. They are attempting to remove themselves from their history and in doing so they are failing to capitalize on the aspect that could link their story from the past to the present.
Right now the K-Swiss site is moving slow. The traffic is still there. Here is a place the brand is failing to capture and convert:
On each page where the Gary Vee shoe is Sold Out, they don’t have a link to an alternative shoe which should also be advertised by Gary.
Overall, the brand has to be excited about the renewed interest in K-Swiss. This could be a turning point as potentially a new consumer has become aware that the brand has created a new shoe that is stylish and on trend.
What the brand can’t be excited about is the feedback on the shoes is not about the shoes at all. The feedback is an attempt at connecting to the influencer. In the long run that will not, will not, sustain and carry the momentum of the brand forward. The only thing that will do that is the consistent introduction of ideas, products and marketing to the masses. It’s one thing to tie yourself to the leader of the entrepreneurship movement… It’s another to actually become a part of the movement. One is more important than the other.
Note: Using my formula for flipping I try to make a guess at how many shoes were created in a limited run. This is not an exact science, but it often works. I showed the formula in this article:
70% of shoes are purchased to be worn
30% of shoes are purchased to be flipped
10% of those shoes will show up on eBay
It’s still early and the Gary Vee K-Swiss was launched this morning, but pairs are already showing up on eBay. Here are the numbers using K-Swiss Gary Vee as the search criteria:
425 Shoes Listed This total includes random non Gary Vee items so there are probably about 300 pair of the Gary Vee releases on the platform. Which means that there were probably 3000 pair of shoes made. The 425 listings only 24 have sold on eBay. Of those 24 only 12 of the shoes sold are Gary Vee shoes. People aren’t really jumping at grabbing these shoes in the resell market and none of the shoes have watchers. What does this mean for K-Swiss? If you combine the lack of interest in the resell market with the comments on the website under the Gary Vee releases all talking about the influencer and not the shoe what you have is a situation where a brand with a great history targeted quick growth as opposed to a sustained marketing program and I really think that is a mistake.