What makes sneakerhead impactful financially
We have a long history of shoes after human is no longer barefooted, from as simple and crude as using animal fur wrapping on the feet, to now people have a higher demand of quality on shoes, with multiple purposes, shoes becoming more advanced, the price of shoes varies, from just a few dollars to thousands of dollars that people can design. Sneakers, as one of the shoes that’s designed for sports, there are many different brands worldwide and as it gets more popular, it’s then a culture that among young people. In recent years, sneakers play a bigger role in the marketplace and impact it more financially. There are people, so-called the sneakerhead, Are people who usually knowledgeable and passionate about sneakers. They collect, trade, and admire sneakers. It brought out my attention to why rather than sneakers to wear, people collect them and are willing to pay a higher price than it actually is. I want to explore the transformation from sneakers to collections, and how people purchase sneakers for sale rather than wear them. We should not be allowed sneakerheads and the action of purposely purchasing shoes at low, then selling them at high.
The origins of sneakers and sneakerheads
To explore this issue, I’d like to start with the origins of the sneakerhead, as introduced in Mathew’s (2021) article “I wear, therefore I am: investigating sneakerhead culture, social identity, and brand preference among men.” he stated that “Most Sneakerheads credit the advent of the Sneakerhead subculture to the late 1970s early 1980s and the introduction of the hip-hop era.” The age of sneakerhead is longer than I expected, though the first sneaker ever was invented much earlier around the 1800s, it was known as athletic footwear, and the word sneaker was used to call tennis shoes, after the sneaker was first introduced to the world at 1985, with the new release Air Jordan sneakers from Nike, and since then, it becomes more popular worldwide. The author also listed some reasons why sneakerhead became a business.
The first reason is social identity, Matthew’s(2021) study showed sneakers are not only the footwear but also tell their social identity, he stated “ According to the Social Identity Theory, as individuals establish membership in a group a sense of identification leads to behaviors that, in turn, serve to reinforce the group’s interests.” as opposed to how much it costs to produce one sneaker, companies make a tremendous amount of profit, and by branding them, people tend to identify themselves with certain brands of shoes, that shows their loyalty and personal identification, people do not always consider the value of something just it’s price, people are not always rational, as they would have their willingness to pay, the relationship no longer limited to producer and consumer, but as a member of this community, the sense of belonging compel them to pay more then what it really is.
Consequences of overheating sneakers subculture
There are some problems created by the popularity of sneakers, not only that people tend to pay more for one pair of shoes, but also how the company plays hunger marketing, how certain brands of sneakers are limited to an amount and period of time, while have people register to draw for the opportunity of purchase this shoes, that cause a lot of people to purchase many of them, and with eh higher demand exceeds supply, they usually make a good profit, according to figure 1 shown below, the Adidas Yeezy brand shoes, with the release price of $200, to now people offering it for $835, without considering it’s the cost to make one of this shoes. Sometimes sneakers cause violence, as reported by Tan Hyman(2018) “In 2015, a Brooklyn teenager was shot in his foot for cutting in line.” Got a bullet in his foot just because having an argument over shoes sounds crazy, but it does happen in 2015, this appears to me how sneaker seems to play a bigger role in some people’s lives, and how symbolic sneakers are, compare to material meanings.
Stocks X Adidas Yeezy Boost 350, 2022.
Opinions on Sneakerheads
The rise of sneaker culture was initiated by its unique look, and the purpose that it’s made for sport, how comfortable to wear on the foot, thus becoming very popular among young athletes, It doesn’t seem wrong to make sneakers a type of collection, as there is various type of sneakers, with different designs, it’s a hobby for those who really like the product sneaker, just as much as how much money people would pay for things they love, others trying to exploit their enthusiasm for smears, and keep speculate and make the price higher and higher, there are distinguishes of people into and enjoy the creation of sneakers, also people just use sneakers as a tool, people purchase more sneakers then they can wear, do we really need 10 pairs of shoe, and are we really going to wear all them? Do buy sneakers because it’s a good product, or because it’s a fashion trend that might not even be decided by us customers.
Reference
Matthews, Cryer-Coupet, Q., & Degirmencioglu, N. (2021). I wear, therefore I am: investigating sneakerhead culture, social identity, and brand preference among men. Fashion and Textiles, 8(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40691-020-00228-3
Hyman, D. (2018, July 6). A NASDAQ for sneakerheads? Stockx aims to Tame ‘chaos’ of luxury market. The New York Times, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/business/smallbusiness/stockx-sneakerheads-luxury-goods.html?searchResultPosition=5
Reflection
As this is the last major assignment essay that I have to write for this class, it turns out that writing a research paper is very different than just writing regular essays, there was a lot that I’ve learned from the process, and I am able to “Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects.” By practice and introduction to the library section, I can now easily find resources that are scholarly and credible, by taught techniques of specifying words input using the advance search option, using word combinations such as “and,” “or,” allowing me to eliminate search results, find the desired article that’s relevant to our topics from sources supporting my college’s huge database. Another thing I learned is “Strengthen your source use practices,” to write a research paper, my thesis is going to be most likely supported by sources, during the class, we are engaged in how to properly cite sources to avoid plagiarism, in three ways, quote, paraphrase, summarize, apply the correct format to make the essay sound academic, citing sources in the reference page by APA form. While writing the essay, I was so impressed with the author’s study, the writing style, the study that has been done, and all the knowledge about the topic, it gives me a lot more deep understanding f the subculture that I’m looking at, a lot of ideas that provided in the text enhance my writing. Time is always squeezy at the end of the semester, however, we did go through each step of this assignment, and I did gain significant knowledge about proper citing in writing a research paper.
