Then:
Exclusive, limited edition, ‘1 of 1’ - These are all phrases that any sneakerhead would be salivating at the mouth over. Like a private members club, the rarer the shoes, the more the sneakerhead subculture wants it. To possess what others cannot is the true motive behind a sneakerhead. A rare shoe is like a part of History and many sneakerheads go out of their way to buy and preserve a snippet of history emulated in a fresh pair of kicks.
Originally starting the late 1970’s as part of the breakdancing and hip-hop scene in New York, it wasn’t uncommon for these shoes to get wrecked from usage. Therefore, much of collecting sneakers came from buying more than 1 pair of the same shoes for when the original begins to wear out. These deadstock* shoes are what would become the foundation for what we see today in the vintage sneaker market.
Everything changed in 1985, Nike and Michael Jordan introduced the Air Jordans. This can be identified as the definitive moment of Sneaker collecting becoming mainstream. To demonstrate the gravitational pull the Air Jordans had on commercial America, it is thought that nearly 1 in 12 Americans owned a pair of Air Jordans.
Now:
Nowadays, it is common for Nike and sneakerhead brands to cash in on the addiction sneakerheads have to exclusivity. From releasing limited numbers of a specific colourway of an already collectable shoe, to releasing player edition shoes (seen as the holy grail of sneaker collecting - if you can get your hand on them), sneaker brands now how to get their consumers to spend thousands of dollars on limited edition sneakers that were set at a less than $100 retail price pair of kicks.
With social media growing the way it has, trends are being born and dying at record speed. Despite this, the demand for 80’s and 90’s sneakers remain. However, the volatility of the prices of these shoes is comparable only to the stock market. Funnily enough, websites like Stock-X operate in this way with collectable sneakers being displayed in the same way as the FTSE 100.
*stock that has never been worn (and probably never will be). m
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