Just dropped: Exclusive styles from NinetyNine Products, a community-minded, Black-founded design studio out of Harlem. Perfect for sneaker-loving teens, college kids, and anybody just wanting to look fresh.
Source: 99 Products on Zappos
In 2020, brands and retailers made vows to support the Black community. In 2021, with consumers returning to malls and retail in droves, there hasn’t been much discussion about who has remained true to those commitments. I was browsing Twitter and I ran across a post from Zappos and 99 Products announcing the release of The Point sneakers from the community-based startup on the Zappos platform. Zappos has long been a model of mine for how to operate a company. The founder Tony Hsieh (RIP) was amazing. He created a company with some of the best policies in the industry. Those policies allowed the company to be acquired by Amazon. In the process, Amazon was able to learn how to build it’s third party seller’s platform to include footwear. I tend to think of Zappos as the sole reason that Amazon figured out the sneaker business. This discussion takes us astray. Zappos, during last year, stated that they supported the Black community. It’s one thing to make a statement, it’s another to go above and beyond to introduce a small Black owned sneaker company to a platform that garners 21.65 Million monthly visits.
The 99Products site is along the lines of my site. It doesn’t register enough traffic to form a profile. This means the site is under 100,000 visits. Using my theory of 10% rule, a site under 100,000 visits a month has an extremely difficult time reaching the consumer. While NinetyNine Products is conquering their region by providing services to the community around Harlem, they aren’t making major waves in the sneaker scene, although they should be. This is a comment on sneaker culture vs quality.
The community based business is in the difficult position of convincing people to give the brand a shot. My wife and I own pairs of the shoes. We do our walks in them. Our household isn’t the average sneaker buying household. I work in the sneaker industry so I’m aware of the people behind the brand. I support the people, and while that’s important, I’m not the consumer that the brand needs. The brand needs the casual consumer and the informed the consumer. A new brand is a hard product to move. Which brings me to my next point.
Excitement Tempered
Zappos is a company that was born at the same time as many large sneaker blogs like Hypebeast and Complex. I bring those sites up because they cater to the sneaker industry. Those sites garner around 11.49 Million visits and 7.95 Million visits per month. Those sites have capitalized on sneaker culture which, at its core, was born of Black and Brown culture. Neither of those sites has ever written an article about NinetyNine Products. I raise this point to establish that the founder of 99 is a legendary designer who created many of the classics celebrated in sneaker culture; yet sneaker culture has completely ignored the launch of his brand, but a mainstream site like Zappos has taken on what is essentially an unknown entity. It’s an admirable move by Zappos and an important moment for 99Products. As I said in the heading of this section though, my excitement is tempered.
I really love this moment. I want to celebrate it. Unfortunately, Zappos, has amazing work policies, but the delivery of the product on its platform utilizes an older user experience. The white background and plain shots of the sneakers fails to underscore what the brand is about. The initial graphic on the home page (below the fold) is beautiful. The click through to the product page is like any other product sold on the site. This is where things get interesting though. I’m writing this because I want NinetyNine Products to have a chance to succeed. Zappos is attempting to tap into the sneaker culture market with a site called “The Ones“. It’s their version of Hypebeast. The media driven format highlights brands in a more distinctive manner. I want Zappos to share NinetyNine as a discussion piece with several forms of content. I also want the link for “The Ones” to show up on the homepage and not simply in social media. More people today consider themselves a part of sneaker culture so even the mainstream consumer should be entertained with the content on that site. I’d like to see a discussion on the community aspect, the method of make for 99, and imagery more consistent with the aesthetics of the NinetyNine Products site. It’s good to show support by inviting the brand onto the platform, but that is only the start. In order to truly support, one has to provide the best opportunities to give a brand a fighting chance to land a blow that turns the head of the consumer. Right now Zappos is at 99, but utilizing The One is giving 100% to a brand that’s dope; not because it’s black owned, but because it’s good freaking brand. Use the links throughout to visit both Zappos and NinetyNine Products.
https://www.zappos.com/ninetynine-products