Sneaker Shopping from Complex is a perfect representation of how sneaker culture is less about the discovery and love of kicks and all about the ease of acquisition afforded by wealth. While younger fans of sneakers love the show, seeing famous people purchasing “grails” is aspirational for younger people, old heads shake their head at the lack of the hunt and walls filled with overpriced kicks. The amount of money spent by the special guest on the show is often jarring as these sneakers in the resale shops are often priced accordingly for the market, but that doesn’t make the transaction less cringe.
Watching the show provides a clear line on what sneaker culture means to varying generations. While there is something interesting in watching the show because the short interview session with Joe LaPuma can often generate uncomfortably funny moments like when 50 Cent is adamant about not paying the ridiculous prices for the shoes, the episodes often feel… phony. When LaPuma’s questions revolve around the entertainer’s interest in kicks and what made the people being interviewed come to love sneakers, the show shines, but when an episode feels like it was paid for by a particular brand it makes for an extremely uncomfortable viewing.
The Stephen Curry episode filmed at PRSTG sneaker shop is one of these moments. The premise of Sneaker Shopping is that each episode finishes with the person being interviewed buying sneakers from a consignment shop. Curry’s episode was undoubtedly going to be difficult to pull together considering Curry wore Nike in college and at the start of his career but is now the premier athlete for Under Armour. There isn’t any way the four-time champion and record breaking three-point shooter would be interested in shopping at a consignment store. Consignment shops are basically Nike storefronts. Nike makes up the largest percentage of resale so by default the store would be loaded with Dunks and Air Jordans. This is the flaw in the series and raises the question of whether Complex has entered a cut and paste phase in their coverage of kicks. How could anyone think it was okay to film a Sneaker Shopping episode for an Under Armour athlete in a resale shop? The disconnect from the culture and being a representation of a flawed community is front and center.
The concept of the show, on the surface, is good but it simply can’t work when the person featured is brand loyal. This episode was particularly bad because one visit to the PRSTG website: PRSTG SHOP shows pics of what is featured in the store. There isn’t a single Under Armour sneaker in the rotating imagery on the home page and it’s clear when you begin watching this episode that the store has placed what amounts to sneaker props on one of the shelves as a row of Under Armour Curry kicks sit in the middle of Dunks and Retro 1s. It’s extremely awkward as Curry dances around mentioning any other brands. To give the episode some credibility LaPuma wears a pair of New Balance x Dimes while Curry is rocking the next iteration of his Curry line. The show goes completely off the rails when they invite the Oakland Tech girls hoops team, who wore Nike on their way to their championship, to the shop and every girl walks in rocking Dunks and Jordan 1s. You can see Curry’s face drop to the floor as the camera cuts away.
In this moment, Sneaker Shopping becomes the worst show in sneaker media. The girls are completely disinterested, and Joe LaPuma gets the girls more excited than Curry’s presence. It is one of the most compelling marketing case studies available in real time. If Under Armour wanted to do the show, it establishes that big companies are simply enamored with the number of followers vs the actual point of marketing and branding. It shows how major platforms like Complex are not the drivers of culture. They are the promoters of their brand. They aren’t uplifting companies seeking to work with them. They are utilizing the brands for content to grow the value of Complex. That’s not a bad thing, but this becomes painfully evident at 10:38 in the video; the girls aren’t excited to see Curry it seems. Maybe Kelsey Plum would have been better, but she doesn’t represent the Bay Area. Complex is a revenue generator, not a culture enhancer and advocate and this episode felt like an uncomfortable cash grab (it’s possible they weren’t paid for this at all, which is even worse).
In the video, Curry talks about the Met Gala and the Versace suit he wore and his sneakers created for the moment. The Curry 10 Met Gala was an unreleased model by Under Armour. In traditional resale a sneaker like that would garner hype, but the girls make a canned response of excitement when he says he’s gifting them. It’s not until Joe walks out at 11:15 of the video that the girl’s become engaged. Joe LaPuma has a greater effect on the Oakland Tech girl’s team than one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Which becomes a full circle moment for what has become of sneaker culture. Sneaker Shopping is one of the most watched shows in sneaker media, but it is often a celebration of Nike that the Swoosh doesn’t even have to pay for. The shows are filmed in indie chains that don’t have accounts with brands, hence the product mix is limited to what can generate the biggest return. An Under Armour sneaker doesn’t generate a return on investment as evidenced by the PRSTG website which only has one Curry sneaker listed in their current inventory as of 9-12-2023. This means the store in Curry’s backyard doesn’t carry anything from his brand, and kind of proves the UA Curry kicks were just props.
Under Armour Is Encouraging Basketball, Health & Diversity In Urbana (MD), The Scrubs
Above is a link to an article about a group of athletes in Baltimore, the home of Under Armour. The group of guys play hoops together. They aren’t pros or state champions, they are “The Scrubs”. Under Armour delivered kicks to those guys. There wasn’t an activation or marketing tactic attached here, just a brand supporting hoopers. Which moment helped Under Armour more, a forced episode of sneaker shopping where the girls probably thought after seeing Joe that they’d get to pick another pair of Dunks, but ONLY got a pair of truly special sneakers from a basketball GOAT, or the joy of a bunch of old heads hooping at a neighborhood park? In the last year arch has worked with Under Armour to deliver kicks to kids in the Memphis area. This is branding and will have a longer-term impact on brand awareness.
All this Sneaker Shopping episode did was compound the issue for Under Armour in potentially capturing a demographic that has eluded the brand. With over half a million views in one day, someone in marketing for both Complex and Under Armour are probably proud of this video. They shouldn’t be. 11:35 of the video tells the story and the image below is bad:
Note: a read through the comments could show that the half a million views are ad driven. Organic comments don’t read like the comments left under this video.