The Top Selling Shoes List for Q1 2018 was released. This list is only compiled by one company and as such it lends itself to a lack of explanation as the company seeks to gain consulting opportunities based on the data. What happens is there is never a why listed and rightfully so, people have to eat. If companies who delivered soundbites on data sets explained why The Tanjun is the number one selling shoe, then there wouldn’t be any need to hire those people to speak and present to companies who pay millions for insight into how and where the market is headed. The problem is the same company/person that presents the top 10 shoes makes it a habit of speaking about performance and fashion and lifestyle as if they are all independent of each other, when the reality is much different from the perspective of a person like me who is actually walking in the mall on a daily basis, biking or jogging.
I can’t pretend to know if analysts are working out or doing things similar to my daily routine. I can’t pretend to know if the analysts are currently selling as many shoes as I sell. My footwear sales have always informed much of the writing I do on this site in conjunction with my daily visits to the mall and to biking and running trails throughout Memphis (As I write this I just finished biking this morning). I do understand that Memphis is not comparable to every city, but with 700,000 people the sample size here isn’t bad at all.
Where am I going with this?
As each quarterly report is launched, what comes with it is that performance as fashion is dead. In other words let’s say a shoe like the Brooks Levitate which is a true performance shoe with some lifestyle qualities, would never make the Top 10 list.
Does this mean Brooks is failing? No, it means they didn’t make the top ten, but why? The first and quickest answer is they simply aren’t producing the same amount of shoes because their demand lies in creating the best running shoe. I guess the retort would be, “That proves the point.” No it doesn’t.
When the categories for footwear were created, shoes were created for specific sports. A running shoe was for running. A basketball shoe was for basketball. As shoes became more mainstream and accepted as casual wear, more styles were created to cater to lifestyle vs performance. THE NATURAL PROGRESSION OF FOOTWEAR WAS FOR “PERFORMANCE” FOOTWEAR TO SLOW DOWN. This is even more true when you consider the number of sneaker startups launched in the last 10-15 years. A quick search on my site (https://arch-usa.com/?s=Dope+I+Like+shoe+companies) delivers 52 posts. On the first page are a mix of articles, but also on that first page of this search are 8 shoe companies I’m willing to bet you’ve never heard of and none of them are performance footwear companies. The more pages you visit the more shoe companies I’m sure you’ve never heard of before.
When an analyst makes a statement that performance remains soft my first thought is, “No shit Sherlock! Tell people why.” Then I remember that the goal isn’t to tell you why; it’s to gain traction on social media and to be retweeted and quoted on various websites who know the power of a list. Those retweets and articles verify the importance of this information and gains the writer of the original list interviews to discuss the issues in footwear and to deliver just enough information to garner a paycheck. Like I said, I get it and I understand, but on this site the goal is for the sneaker community to learn to analyze these things so they can look at getting jobs in the footwear industry and move beyond being simply consumers and share in the billions generated by the footwear industry. Which takes me away from my main point…
Performance isn’t slow, it has shifted. Originally performance models featured tech that didn’t exist in other shoes. That was 30 years ago. Since the advent of Cross Training in the 90s the footwear was meant to transition from the track, to the gym, to the street. The shoes not only looked like trainers, they looked like casual shoes. This blending of “genres” created an overlap in performance that remains. The only place that performance footwear remained true to its origins is in running. The colors of running shoes remained bold and aggressive. The style wasn’t redesigned to fit with streetwear or casual wear. That doesn’t mean companies should stop making running shoes. In some instances companies like Nike do attempt to blend fashion and performance, but as the years have progressed a Nike technical shoe:
Nike Pegasus 35 and a Nike Lifestyle shoe (The Number 1 Selling Tanjun)
Look a lot alike don’t they?
The difference? One shoe retails at 65 dollars and is available at discount store chains and at Ross or Dicks Sporting Goods stores. The Pegasus retails at specialty running stores and more trendy shopping locations like a Finish Line. One shoe is mass produced, the Tanjun, and one is not. The Pegasus, like the new Epic React from Nike retails at 135 and 150 respectively. Now, I have to ask you a parent question. When you were a kid, which shoe would your mom have bought you? Now as a mom or dad which shoe would you buy? More important is the fact that when I go to the bike trails I see people running in the Tanjun. I also see people biking in the Tanjun. I pay attention to feet because I also sell shoes. I pay attention to what sells. Now, I very rarely see kids in Vapormax or UltraBOOST and you know why? They are expensive and not readily available at the places the majority of people shop in this country.
Another point on this is that when sneakers originally became fashion and casual the only shoes made were either basketball or running shoes. Basketball was closely aligned with Hip-Hop and fashion so those were the shoes kids began to wear making that performance product a big seller. As sneakers entered the 2000s, sneakers shifted and new brands entered that weren’t basketball shoes. There were more options. Are kids still wearing basketball shoes? Yes. They still wear them as fashion also. The difference? Kids also wear skate and casual shoes now. Basketball shoes are not the only option anymore. Kids choices however are still informed by athletes and entertainers; just not the athletes and entertainers they used to be inspired by, which is another story.
This is the Top 10 list:
I could explain in detail why each of these shoes is performing so well. Instead I will focus on the three “performance inspired” models. Note the Tanjun, Revolution and Flex Contact are all takedown models of “performance” shoes. They all contain lightweight performance based cushioning. They simply lack technical aspects like Zoom Air, Flywire, Flyknit, or Hyperfuse. They are performance shoes though. They also all retail at under 65 dollars. Make no mistake however, if you wear any of these shoes at the gym you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the Revolution and the Nike Pegasus or Epic React if you are a casual athlete which most people are. What also is evident in this list is that style is at the forefront of these purchases. All of these shoes look great, but the one thing that I think is important here is while the list is comprised of retro models like the Huarache, and Jordan Brand Retros, people still play ball in the Jordan Retros and they most certainly are running in the Huarache still today. The Huarache is probably the shoe I see the most with people working out.
Ultimately what is my goal in writing this?
You can appreciate the top 10 list. It is great for seeing who has the momentum, but it is not a great predictor of who will keep the momentum. Last year I said that adidas would slow down and that their growth and momentum was based on fashion which is a very shaky and short term growth area. Fashion is fickle. Companies are better suited to create performance footwear as every model on this list was either inspired by a performance model, or WAS a performance model. In today’s society people buy what looks like what they really want. Actually, that’s not today, that’s always been the way it is. Performance isn’t soft or slow. The shoes aren’t produced in the same numbers and even if they were they are typically priced at the premium end and they are not available at many of the “big box” retail outlets where parents tend to shop for themselves and their kids.
Here is a challenge the next time you walk into a Ross or DSW tell me if you see an adidas UltraBOOST or Nike Vapormax. Odds are you won’t. Those are performance models. What you will see are the takedown models which aren’t considered performance, but in all honesty they should be.
