In the last few weeks I’ve taken a bigger interest in what I’ve traditionally labeled beach sandals. While I cover sneakers primarily, the sneaker walls at retail have been infiltrated by injection molded sandals. One in particular has been interesting to watch.
Nike is Finally Taking a Loss, but it’s Not Where You Expect
In the above post, I explain that the precious real estate inside of sneaker accounts is hard to capture by any brand not associated with the Swoosh. Crocs, a brand that at one time was a joke, has stormed to relevance. How it happened was a combination of consistency and timing. During the quarantine home gardening took off. The work from home trend meant that loungewear was the go to, and of course Crocs have always been at the heart of the service industry in healthcare and restaurant service.
Parents, who have long worn the wide slip on style, began to get their shoes borrowed by their kids as Crocs in the last few years rolled out collaborative efforts with entertainers and brands giving the quirky model cache with a younger demographic that was usually a customer of sports brands and their slides. Crocs became cool. As quarantine began to lift, the tye dye look was everywhere. I even discussed the presence of the shoes at track and field events. Last night, however, was a bit different. A 50 something Hip-Hop legend, was the music director of the Oscars. QuestLove, co-founder of The Roots, better known as Jimmy Fallon’s late night band than the amazing, groundbreaking sound behind countless albums and musical genres from Hip-Hop, to Neo Soul, wore a pair of gold Crocs. Skyrocketing interest even more than the brand has already experienced.
Here is the thing though, kids don’t watch the Oscars. Kids don’t listen to The Roots. It doesn’t matter that Black Thought is the greatest emcee in history, kids don’t listen to The Roots, so who exactly was Quest influencing with his style option?
A few years ago, I had a back and forth debate over a demographic that has been overlooked by marketing teams in the sneaker industry:
In this back and forth, Steve Joseph explained that Nike doesn’t need, “60 year old men who buy three pair of shoes.” He demanded data showing the shift in trends and that’s to be expected. He’s data driven and a tech guy. What he overlooked was the daily aspect of observation. I’m at the stores. Any store manager can tell you who the people are shopping in their stores. Kids shop on Saturday mornings during big releases. Those releases are controlled by Nike. Steve overlooked the other brands who aren’t being shopped on Saturday morning and have to find their way into closets. The forgotten demographic may be buying their first Jordans, but they are also open to buying Diadora, Brooks, Saucony and other brands they wore when sneaker culture first started. They are also open to more leisure focused brands.
QuestLove represents that demographic that places comfort, simplicity (not with gold shoes), and style at the forefront. That demo will buy what they like vs what is hyped. Every brand not named Nike, that doesn’t have a strategy for the 40 and over demo is really missing a market that could create a shift. It’s funny though… the perception of influence is interesting. The most famous rappers and entertainers are 40+ years old and while trends are begun by kids on Tik-Tok, there are only a few brands benefitting from those moments. Why pursue what you can’t have, when what you need is waiting to be catered towards?