Almost two years ago I wrote the article below about the lack of sneaker diversity in the closets of new sneakerheads.
You Can’t Buy ellesse In The US and This Shows Everything Wrong With US Sneaker Culture
I’ve also written about the fact that while sneaker companies and retailers feel that sneaker culture is youth driven, the demographics of the people who buy footwear for style is actually older, but stores are failing to give a percentage of marketing towards this older demographic and in doing so stores are missing a vital opportunity to foster a connective tissue between OGs and the next generation of sneaker enthusiasts.
The love of the 90s is obvious everywhere, but the marketing isn’t catering to the demographic that actually wants to see the apparel and wear the apparel. Ellesse means more to me than it does to younger Americans. The problem is Foot Locker brought the brand back without really building any narrative around the brand. There isn’t any coordination with Ellesse and the Foot Locker website doesn’t even have the brand listed on the brand page for the company. There isn’t even an “E” section under brands. The only way I knew Ellesse was back was because I visited a location and found the brand basically thrown in with every other piece of apparel on the floor.
So the roll out has basically consisted of an e-mail and zero merchandising in store. The gear remains as dope as it has always been, but the brand’s site doesn’t even list that it is now being carried in the U.S. There is a complete disconnect in the launch, and if this is happening at a local flagship FTL/House of Hoops I have to imagine that other Foot Locker locations are rolling the product out in a similar fashion.
Foot Locker, this is the dude you have rocking Ellesse?
On the Ellesse website the first page loads with two Black kids and a kid who looks biracial and there is a white girl to the left. The Black kid to the right is rocking an Ellesse cap that looks like a Kangol hearkening to the 80s while recalling the 90s. It’s a dope splash page. Now when you click through you get some cheesy model kids, but at least that splash page resonates.
What will happen with Ellesse is something similar to what has occurred with Wu Wear. There weren’t kids buying Wu Wear. It was guys like me who rocked with Wu Tang in college and retired our Shaolin gear for the professional world, but we still had the Killer Bee mentality. Footaction was carrying Wu Wear, but because it was thrown on the floor with styles catering to the mumble rap era and there wasn’t anything showing somebody like a Nick Wooster, or actually Method Man rocking a Wu Wear shirt the clothing eventually went on sale and to the clearance rack. It’s a similar situation with Champion. Kids ride waves. Sure they spend disposable income… but the generation right before me created the word Fresh and Dope. My generation cemented Hip-Hop culture and were at the forefront of sneaker culture. This generation dominates social media. Foot Locker and every brand has to understand that there is a serious opportunity to grow the segment. 30 and 40 somethings are not their parents. About 30% of us will give kids a run for the money in style and dress. That 30% would rock Ellesse.
As the kid’s say, IJS.
