I follow a lot of brands. If you take the time to browse through the section on this site called Dope S–t I Like: https://arch-usa.com/category/dope-s-t-i-like/
You’ll find that I write about brands other sites don’t really cover. Today I took a moment to drop this post on the brand KangaROOS which I haven’t seen in the U.S. and I wouldn’t expect to see it here. The brand simply wouldn’t sell very well. The question I have is why?
https://www.facebook.com/ROOS/photos/a.163236254655/10157301903254656/?type=3&theater
This is undoubtedly one of the cleanest models and pairs I’ve seen this year. It far outshines almost any retro runner released. The materials look premium and the style is reflective of classic trainers, but like ASICS or New Balance in a Foot Locker or mainstream sneaker store if this ROOS dropped, it would sit. Why?
The easy answer is that the brand that produces the most shoes receives the most coverage. In other words Nike will sell more shoes simply because of the volume of kicks they drop. When every sneaker blogs’ homepage is 95% Nike/Jordan, Nike becomes the most popular footwear by default. Tayib discussed the number of Nike shoes released in one month in a post:
February Release Calendar Is Saturated Once Again With Nike Shoes
In that discussion he found that in one month Nike released 38 pair of shoes. adidas was the closest competitor with 13 pairs dropped. Now, his research is a bit skewed because access to releases aren’t listed in the same manner on all brand websites. As a matter of fact Nike takes the release of information more seriously than other brands. Nike has created a dedicated subsite under SNKRS to give customers release dates. There isn’t any way to locate upcoming releases on the homepage of other brands sites and maybe that is the beginning of the issue. Nike leaks and delivers information consistently. This leads to an abundance of coverage by sneaker websites.
This ROOS Runaway in Birch is very closely related to the Saucony Jazz, New Balance 9 Series and ASICS trainers. Every brand makes a shoe that looks like this so maybe the familiarity with the silo also gives Nike an edge via Air Max?
I think it’s something much different. The presentation of shoes in large retailers is intentionally distracting and functions as a funnel for browsing. When you combine the music (typically Hip-Hop) the atmosphere is geared towards moving your mind from image to sound. In academia there is a discussion on how professors have to now teach in digital chunks because students operate in digital chunks. This means that they can’t remain focused on anything for any amount of time because the distraction of their cell phones, video games, or television moves them from one thing to the next every 3 minutes. As a point of reference I give away shoes randomly in my videos on YouTube. It’s very rare that anyone wins the giveaways because my videos tend to be 4-7 minutes long. The average amount of time someone watches a video is right a 1 minute and 30 seconds. As a matter of fact the average amount of time someone browses a webpage is right under 50 seconds. In my YouTube videos I bury the giveaway at the end of the video, but people very rarely watch the entire thing.
I think the problem becomes clear as to why other brands aren’t given an opportunity. Nike controls which shoes are added to sneaker walls. The threat of losing Nike because a retailer gives another brand a shot is real and present. Mainstream sneaker stores are reliant on the Swoosh and the Swoosh realizes this. This ROOS store is sold at Afew. Smaller Boutiques are capable of doing what mainstream stores can’t do and maybe there lies the answer for ROOS and other brands. A real commitment to wholesale relationships via merchandising and delivery of the dopest kicks a brand can create would allow for diverse purchasing by visitors. Vans has seen considerable growth in the last year. Ranking just behind Nike in Piper Jaffray studies. Tayib wrote a post on a recent drop by Vans. This is a bit different than what I’m presenting, but the message is clear Vans took the time to educate and recreate classic imagery of David Bowie to deliver a message to people who probably never listened to the artist. The table at the store flew across demographics and appealed to an older crowd and a younger market.
https://housakicks.com/vans/david-bowie-vans-old-skool-aladdin-sane-retailers-can-learn-a-thing-or-two-from-vans/
The KangaROOS Runaway Birch is an extremely clean sneaker, but shoes like this from other brands can’t sell in the U.S. in mainstream sneaker stores, but a store kind of like SneakersnStuff (who just opened a location in L.A.) would be the perfect delivery system. That’s something to think about. (I said almost like SneakersNStuff… Even SNS runs off of Nike Fuel, but a store with an art gallery concept: small, personal, jazz and less mainstream music, comfortable and accessible would definitely work… definitely.)