Laced Up
Written, designed, and photographed by Kaivon Sherkat
Laced Up
Written, designed, and photographed by Kaivon Sherkat
Dedication This book is dedicated to my family, friends, and Sneakerheads around the world.
2
3
Acknowledgements Special thanks to my interviewees and my teachers at Freestyle for providing me with all the help I needed!
4
5
6
Table Of Contents Foreword...........................................................................8 Introduction...................................................................10 The Birth Of Sneaker Culture......................................12 Hype: The Fuel Behind the Sneaker Industry............18 The Sneaker Stock Market............................................20 A Return To Childhood................................................24 Conclusion......................................................................26 Bibliography..................................................................30 7
Foreword Throughout my life I have grown interested in a variety of things, yet only a few kept me interested for a substantial period of time. One of those few was sneakers. I started collecting sneakers in the seventh grade, starting with Nikes, and then moving on to Air Jordans. I was introduced to the sneaker world through the song “Air Force Ones” by Nelly, a song promoting Nike’s most popular sneaker to date. Many of my friends are often surprised and even sometimes disgusted the first time they walk into my room to be greeted by the titanic stack of shoe boxes, until i show them how much money I could make off them. I’ve been asked: “Do you really collect sneakers?..Why?” more times than i can count. I chose to do this documentary on sneakers to help the common person understand why people collect them. 8
9
Introduction
“A sneakerhead is a person who owns multiple pairs of shoes as a form of collection and fashion.”(Sneaker Collecting-Wikipedia) Although sneakers have played a significant role in hip hop, basketball, and films since the early 80’s, it wasn’t until the 21st century that sneakerheads became significantly more prevalent around the world. Understandably, many wonder why people pay so much for shoes that they might not even wear. Hype, investment, and nostalgia all contribute to the steadily growing sneaker market. 10
11
Chaper One: The Birth of Sneaker Culture The 1980s are referred to by sneakerheads as the birth of sneaker culture, for valid reasons. Sneakers were brought to the mainstream through two huge influences: Hip Hop, and Basketball. “It pisses me off when I’m in meetings and I hear that (sneaker culture) comes from the skateboard culture... Hip-hop created sneakers. Basketball is what created this lane for these sneakers.” In 1985, Michael Jordan and Nike released the Air Jordan, a breakthrough in sneaker design and functionality. Sporting daring colorways with a futuristic design, the Air Jordan 1 was the first sneaker that caused a large amount of hype. Due to strict rules on sneaker colors, Jordan was fined $5000 for every game he played in them. Nike used this to their advantage, paying Jordan’s fines, and developing a new slogan: “BANNED”. Jordan continued to release a new model every season, continuing to do so until the 2007 release of the Air Jordan 23. Hip Hop heavyweights of the 1980s used sneakers as fresh material that would add diversity to the music. 12
The 1986 release of “My Adidas� by popular rap trio Run DMC caused an influx of youth in America wearing Adidas Superstars and track suits. Since the release, sneakers have ,been closely associated with Hip Hop culture. To this day, sneakers are of huge abundance in Hip Hop. Many believe that without the influences of Basketball and Hip Hop, sneaker culture would be miniscule or even nonexistent today. 13
14
15
16
17
Chapter 2 Hype: The Fuel behind the Sneaker Industry Without a doubt, hype is the primary reason for collecting sneakers. A hypebeast is a person who follows hyped up trends in order to stay in style. Although the term is looked down upon in the sneaker community, it could be argued that sneakerheads are all hypebeasts. Nike could create an abomination of a pair of shoes, release a limited amount, and send the whole sneaker community into a flurry, yet if that same shoe was mass produced, it wouldn’t be worth a cent over retail. Hype substantially affects sneaker culture. Hype causes campouts and higher resale price, thus causing more hype. It could be argued that hype is the fuel behind the sneaker market, for obvious reasons. We live in an environment in which people are drawn to fads and what’s popular, giving companies the ability to manipulate consumers into purchasing their products. This ability has been used to Nike’s advantage for the past decade. Using schemes such as limited releases, and collaborations, 18
Nike has established their own dedicated market of Sneakerheads.
19
The Sneaker Stock Market Investment is another primary reason for collecting. Excluding Air Jordans, limited edition sneakers are almost never re-released. Eventually, these already rare sneakers become more and more scarce, driving up their value tremendously. Because Air Jordans are slightly altered when they are “retroed” or re-released, and Nike stays to a minimum of releasing each colorway once every 8 or so years, their resale value is not negatively impacted. “I once waited in line for almost 7 hours for a pair of Air Jordan 3’s, and I ended up selling them on ebay that night for three times what I paid for them.”, says Jason. To resellers, collecting sneakers is essentially like the stock market, but with much less to lose. You buy a pair of shoes, wait till their value reaches a desirable number, and then you sell them. The major difference however is that the re-seller knows for a fact that the value will rise, while the stock investor does not. Due to the fact that the shoe sells out the day of release, everyone who missed their chance to obtain a pair has to seek a more expensive pair on the internet. Many people who collect sneakers are employed, forcing them to fork over the big bucks online. Although resellers fuel the sneaker market, they have also received a substantial amount of criticism from collectors who claim resellers ruin collecting for them. Due to obvious disapproval from the sneaker community, stores began restricting sales to one pair per
20
customer. Crafty resellers quickly found a way around this blockade. Many began bringing family members and even paying people to wait in line with them so they could purchase multiple pairs. Although it may seem like lining up days in advance is too much work to do, one must consider the fact that the shoes will be worth 1.5-1000 times the retail value at the peak of their hype, or even much more in the distant future.
21
22
23
Nostalgia A significant portion of collectors grew up in the 80’s/90’s, some unable to afford the high price of Air Jordans in their youth. Now that they are able to support themselves, they are subsequently able to purchase sneakers which they saw their sports heroes wearing and could only wish for in adolescence.“You couldn’t afford that shoe as a regular individual in 1984 and 1985” says Jason Johnson, an avid sneaker collector and owner of Bob’s Classic Kicks in downtown Detroit. Rapper 50 Cent stated in an interview that the first thing he purchased after receiving his first check was a pair of Air Jordans. Teens who look up to entertainers like 50 hear things like that and grow more fascinated in material objects like sneakers, sometimes too fascinated. Unfortunately, as the sneaker world grows larger, we continue to see more 24
and more violence and fatalities in direct relation to sneakers. Whether it’s a kid getting shot and killed for his Air Jordans, or a destructive riot at a camp-out gone wrong, violence in the sneaker world has increased rapidly throughout the 21st century. Many collectors who were fortunate enough to own Air Jordans in their youth now collect sneakers in order to get in touch with their youth. 25
Conclusion Sneaker culture was introduced to the world through basketball and hip hop in the mid 1980s, creating a huge market of sneaker collectors which continues to grow today. Due to its large and dedicated consumer base, sneaker collecting is much more than just a fad that will quickly die out, but more of a lifestyle. Understandably, someone not familiar with sneaker culture might wonder what the reason for collecting sneakers would be, but for a sneakerhead, the answer is easy. Whether they’re a hopeful investor, a grown adult seeking to reconnect with their childhood, a “hypebeast”, or simply someone who likes sneakers, every sneakerhead has their own reason for collecting.
26
27
28
Bibliography Beck, Jason. Interview. April 1, 2012. Telander, Rick. “In America’s cities, kids are killing kids over sneakers.” Senseless. Sports Illustrated mag. May 14th, 1990. Web. March 28, 2012 unknown author. “Getting In The Sneaker-Collecting Game.” Alternate Investing. CNBC. Nov 8, 2010. Web. March 25, 2012
29
30