How did shoes, which used to be a functional need only for professional athletes and elite athletes, turned into a completely different cultural symbol? How did this transformation begin and what is the role of brands in the existence of this culture created from scratch?
To find the answer, we can start by taking a look at the Chuck Taylor & Converse collaboration, one of the prominent examples of celebrity use in brand communication:
Converse shoes, produced by Marquis Converse and the first basketball shoes, were introduced in 1923 with the embassy of Indiana star Chuck Taylor and named Chuk Taylor All Star. As the best selling basketball shoe of all time, it actually gave the first signals of the birth of a culture.
The sneaker industry, which was still used for sports purposes at that time and continued this trend until the 1950s, continued to spread with the collaboration of different athletes with the Adidas brand created by Adi Dassler. Puma, another brand created by Rudi, Adi's brother, took its place on the shelves in a very short time.
In the early 1970s, Nike, Cortez, and the shoes we wore to walk on the treadmill suddenly moved towards the dance floor and blended with fashion elements. It wasn't just on the feet of athletes or in fitness rooms anymore, it said I am here with its striking colors and recognizable logo.
Moving the market from red oceans to blue oceans, as Nike included fashion on the runway, luxury brands rolled up their sleeves to get their share of the cake.
Gucci became the first luxury brand to enter the sneaker arena, while brands such as Prada and Christian Louboutin followed suit. Then, many more brands co-created with luxury fashion designers started to produce sneakers that they blended with luxury brand values by following the trend. With the intertwining of luxury and sneaker culture, the image of sneakers became more status symbol. It wasn't a shoe within everyone's reach…yet.
Milestone and Sneakerhead Concept: Air Jordan 1, 1985
Nike made one of the best choices ever made in terms of celebrity usage and launched special shoes for Michael Jordan, who was a rookie in Chicago Bulls at that time, and Michael Jordan almost rebelled against the rules with these shoes.
While red-and-black sneakers matching Chicago Bulls colors were banned by the NBA for "not enough white in his design," Michael Jordan wore them every game throughout the season, and Nike continued to pay NBA $5,000 per game for it.
Although this revolt cost Nike a $5,000 marketing budget per game, it transformed the Air Jordan 1 from being just a shoe, into a symbol, and made it a product that every man now wants to buy. With this trend triggered by Jordan; There was also a community of collectors, fans and followers who never missed a launch, the “sneakerheads” of that time.
Run DMC wears Adidas Superstar
The 3-member hip hop group Run-DMC was formed as a group to pioneer hip-hop culture. And the group made a big splash in the 80s by making hip-hop one of the major music genres. Run-DMC not only enabled the spread of hip-hop culture, but also enabled the sneaker culture to become a part of the city culture with the collaboration of Adidas Superstar, in short, it broke that elite, luxury, hard-to-reach image and made it more accessible.
Sneaker culture “as a form of expression” has been enriched with the entry of luxury fashion designers and designer business into the arena. While preserving its inspiring and hard-to-reach image with premium and limited-edition productions, it also made it possible to reach the masses by combining it with street and music and offering different accessible options.