The Sole is Gone!
What comes to mind when you read the title? How is the “sole” gone? This title is a play on words for sole & soul. The sole is the entire part of the sneaker that sits underneath your foot and the sole is an essential part of any sneaker you wear. Those that know me know how much I love sneakers but I feel that the essence, i.e. soul of sneakers, has been lacking in recent years and especially in 2020. I am defining the “soul” of sneakers as the sneaker purchasing experience. This experience in recent years has been disjointed and I do wonder what the future holds.
If you’ve tried to purchase shoes from the Nike SNKRS app in 2020, chances are you’ve seen this notification after losing out on a shoe on its release date. While missing out on shoes is part of being a sneakerhead, it seems much harder these days to purchase a shoe. I remember 10 years ago, I could walk into a Footlocker and stand a good chance of getting a popular Jordan or Adidas sneaker. Even when camping out for a shoe, it felt like I had a chance to get the shoe I wanted.
With the innovations in technology and mobile apps, a lot of shoe companies are moving their purchase experiences online. You still have your brick and mortar shoe stores but you have to be selected, by way of a lottery system, to obtain a popular sneaker release. While this mobile evolution has evened the playing field for anyone to try and purchase a sneaker, it has come with other ramifications.
Sneaker bots, complex software used to aid in the purchase of highly sought after sneakers, have drastically changed the sneaker buying experience. In 2020, if you don’t have a bot, you will likely lose out on a popular sneaker release. Bots have been around for some time now but things have changed in 2020. With most people inside due to the pandemic, people are using their phones and technology more than ever. This has manifested in the sneaker buying experience. Before the pandemic, “general release” sneakers, sneakers easy to cop around the retail price, would sit on store shelves and have plenty of stock online. Today, general release sneakers are selling out in 10 minutes or less on the Nike SNKRS app.
Why is that? In my honest opinion, I believe sneaker culture is dominated by profit and greed. It doesn’t matter if it is a limited release sneaker or a general release sneaker, it is difficult to obtain a sneaker at retail if you aren’t readily available once the shoe releases. For the sneakerheads reading this, this isn’t new but I’ve noticed this a lot more in 2020. You go on social media and you see folks with 25–50 pairs of a limited shoe selling for 5–7X the retail price. It is their right to charge what they want but this hurts those individuals who really want the shoe and are not looking to spend so much on the secondary market.
Even with all of these challenges, I still love sneakers and waking up on a Saturday morning to purchase a shoe off the SNKRS app. I lose out on many sneaker releases these days but I love the sneaker culture. I do hope that this purchase experience improves so that individuals stand a better chance of getting the sneakers they want. The system is flawed but there is room for improvement. Do you feel that “the sole is gone”? Leave a comment below
Lastly, I want to thank everyone who took time out last week to read my first LinkedIn article. I was overwhelmed by all the love and feedback. I do hope you continue to check out my material; it means a lot. I also want to thank Marcus Washington, LeRoy Ricksy, Derek Wilson, and Ricky Boyd for their support of this article
