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SWOOSH APPEAL by Victoria Cruz
S W O O S H
APPEAL Nike is the most popular sneaker brand in the world. So how does this common kick stay so cool? by Victoria Cruz
Influential. Iconic. GOAT. These are a few words used to describe sneakers made by Nike. The adjectives aren’t surprising. After all, Nikes have long been the sneaker of choice among the world’s most influential people.
Tennis icon Serena Williams famously rocked neon yellow Nike Air Force 1s when she stepped onto the Met Gala red carpet in 2019. Pop music legend Justin Bieber did, too, donning doodled-on Air Force 1s to the gala in 2021. Other fans of the brand include models Kaia Gerber and Kendall Jenner and musicians Billie Eilish and A$AP Rocky.
It’s an impressive list, especially considering Nike sneakers are about as mainstream as a brand can get. In fact, Nike is considered the world’s largest supplier and manufacturer of athletic shoes, according to Statistica. Based in Beaverton, Oregon, Nike operates more than 1,000 retail stores worldwide along with a thriving ecommerce business. in 2021, its footwear business alone generated more than $28 billion in sales revenue.
Which begs the question: How can a shoe owned by so many people around the world also be so cool that celebrities wear it to the Met Gala? The answer lies in the rise of streetwear culture and Nike’s embrace of its stars and adoption of its sales strategy. The Nike brand dates back to 1964, when college track and field athlete Phil Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman, started selling running shoes at track meets from the trunk of Knight’s car. For almost 20 years, Nike’s branding stayed close to its sports origins, centering its marketing efforts on the shoe alone.
That changed in 1985 when Nike announced its partnership with then up-and-coming basketball player Michael Jordan to create a new shoe, the Nike Air Jordan. For Nike, the deal was primarily a business decision.
“The Air Jordan project was the result of a concerted effort to shake things up,” Knight told the Harvard Business Review in a 1992 interview. “With sales stagnating, we knew we had to do more than produce another great Nike running shoe.”
The shoe was an instant hit: Nike generated over $100 million in Air Jordan sneaker sales in its first year alone, and sales stayed strong.
The popularity of the Air Jordan corresponded to the rise in the 1990s of a new fashion category called streetwear. Influenced by hiphop music, graffiti and skateboard and surf subcultures, streetwear involves the sale and resale of casual fashion, including sneakers, to a target market largely under 25 years old, according to the 2019 Streetwear Impact Report, an analysis of the streetwear market from Hypebeast, a streetwearindustry media brand, and Strategy&, a consulting firm in the PwC network.
And what motivates consumers to buy streetwear? According to the report, the vast majority – 70% of its survey respondents – think streetwear cool.
That sense of coolness, according to the report, stems from a demand that exceeds supply. Streetwear, it states, “has single-handedly subverted the traditional fashion system by redefining its main component: exclusivity.” Josh Luber, the co-founder of leading streetwear resale platform StockX, agrees. He explained to Hypebeast in 2019 that, “as soon as supply is greater than demand,
that product’s not scarce anymore. So it’s not cool to a certain group who wants that totally unique selfexpression.” Streetwear consumers, he continued, “don’t want to possibly wear something that any person off the street can just walk in and buy.”
The Streetwear Impact Report’s survey also asked consumers to list the top 10 coolest streetwear brands in the market today. Nike came in second, behind Supreme.
Nike’s balancing act between exclusive coolness and accessible mass-market is made possible in part because of the hype created by its celebrity collaborations — but not just any celebrities.
“Very few celebrities have the power to influence what sneakers are in style,” says Lucas Maldonado, a sneaker collector and associate at the high-end sneaker and streetwear boutique, Backdoor Miami. “They must be very recognized figures who have a lot of hype and are known for their streetwear styles.”
That often means partnering with musicians, says fashion media professor Jenny Davis, who has taught a streetwear course at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. But topping the charts alone isn’t enough to justify a sneaker collab, she says. The artist must also resonate with streetwear consumers. “There’s a reason Nike isn’t collaborating with Taylor Swift,” Davis says. “That collab would 100 percent sell, but Nike will never do it because she’s just not hype.”
Travis Scott, however, is hype. Nike has teamed up with the awardwinning (and controversial) American rapper multiple times; their October, 2019 Air Jordan 6 sold out in minutes. Nike also partners with influential streetwear brands. Nike has collaborated with Supreme since 2002, and it’s also released many notable collabs with Off-White, which ranks third on the Streetwear Impact Report List, most notably in 2017 when Off-White founder Virgil Abloh redesigned 10 different Nike sneaker styles. Coming in at number 10 on the list is Balenciaga. Nike’s collabed with this luxury powerhouse, too, releasing a sneaker in 2018 that GQ.com determined would look “just as cool on a marathon runner as it would on a street-style god.”
Another reason for Nike’s cool reputation is the sales strategy it uses for these collaboration sneakers: the drop.The drop is a classic streetwear sales model that combines a limited-edition product with a defined sales timeframe to ensure that demand exceeds supply, Davis explains.
“Often, there’s some degree of difficulty connected to participation, like you have to be on a list, know a code, be present at a specific location or you have to log on at a specific time.”
This strategy not only supports the perception of scarcity, it also creates a sense of urgency that persuades customers to get the shoes before they sell out, says Matt Powell, a senior industry advisor at New Yorkbased marketing research company NPD Group.
Maldonado points to the Air Jordan 1OG Dior, released in July, 2020, as a perfect example of how successful this sales strategy has been for Nike. In June, Dior launched a microsite specifically to sign up for a chance to buy one of the two shoe styles. Five million people signed up, but only 13,000 shoes were made, according to WWD. While the shoes were pricey to start — $2,000 for the low-top and $2,200 for the high-top, according to WWD — Maldonado says he’s seen them on the resale market for more than $14,000.
For Maldonado, it’s about giving a comfortable, high-performing sneaker a new significance. “Not only do people go after the shoes,” he says, “but when it’s a collab, the shoes carry a history — a deeper meaning.”
Victoria Cruz is a senior majoring in fashion media and marketing.
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