Whether you consider yourself a sneakerhead or you’re just looking for some fresh new kicks, David “Kari” Daniels, aka Sneaker Phetish, joined TVL to exlpain some things.
Source: A lesson on sneaker culture
It used to be that athletes drove sneaker culture. Entertainers are now equally as powerful, but as sneakers become enmeshed with pop culture and mainstream outlets, there are people who are just as vital to the promotion of kicks, but they may not have as many followers as long-time social media sneaker enthusiasts. This doesn’t mean that what these micro-influencers provide to both brands and retailers isn’t valuable.
@SneakerPhetish Delivers an Insightful Twitter Space #SampleSize on StockX NFTs
I’ve written about @SneakerPhetish on this site before when the YouTuber and Twitter Spaces show host did a deep dive into NFTs. I’m subscribed to his YouTube channel. He may be one of the few sneakerheads who shows enthusiasm, sincerity and a deep knowledge of the shoes he presents in videos. Recently, he made an appearance on Tennessee Valley Living TV to discuss kicks. His years of practice speaking to the camera on YouTube allowed for one of the smoothest transitions to live tv I’ve seen for a person invested in the sneaker community.
Usually, when sneaker people are featured on television the segment feels forced and uncomfortable. There is a disconnect between the interviewer and the person chosen to represent the culture. This tends to happen because sneaker culture has become synonymous with resale and the people involved know very little about the history of why sneakers became so important to people. Kari’s appearance was poised and thoughtful and provides evidence of why marketing teams within companies miss opportunities. Kari only has 25,000 followers on Twitter. He doesn’t have a blue check, but his community is super engaged with his Spaces and Tweets. Brands look to find the biggest influencers and will pay 10,000 dollars for posts and those larger influencers aren’t capable of making as many connections as a truly passionate smaller influencer. I was recently on a call with a popular resale platform and was told that my website traffic was too small to matter. That same company’s website traffic consisted of 65% paid traffic. The site garners 4.4 million visits a month. This means 2.86 million visitors are only arriving due to ads, which isn’t problematic, but when the average conversion is 3.11% (according to Smart Insights), that’s 88,946 potential customers from the paid advertisement. My site generates 40-60,000 visits per month and the majority of traffic arrives to view sneaker videos. A company like that might pass on Kari or arch, when the engagement rate for the content created is much higher on those smaller numbers.
Microinfluencer’s provide a unique opportunity for companies looking to reach the consumer and Kari is one of the best in the sneaker business. In his tv appearance he discussed a sneaker celebrating the career of Wilson Smith. Here is a video of that unboxing. Take a second to subscribe to Kari’s station and if you’re in marketing it may be time to adjust your perception of what successful marketing can be.
