How Kanye West changed sneaker culture: Nike, Adidas don’t need athletes to sell sports shoes now they’ve got celebrities

Nike ‘Moon Shoes’ sell for US$437,500 at auction, sneaker fans spend hundreds on a new pair – how did sports shoes get so expensive and will prices keep rising?

Casual culture, the athleisure trend and celebrities have elevated the sneaker and shifted focus from performance to style. Some now buy them as an investment

Reading Time:5 minutes

Luxury sneakers can cost hundreds of dollars, and the proliferation of celebrity collaborations and the rise of casual wear will keep the prices rising. Photo: Shoshy Ciment/Irene Jiang/Business Insider

Published: 5:00am, 10 Aug 2019Updated: 7:54am, 10 Aug 2019

Sneakers are big business, and consumers don’t appear to be kicking that trend any time soon.

Whether they’re on the auction block, in the store, or in the hands of resellers, sneakers can fetch some striking sums. Classic Air Jordans can still go for up to US$2,000. A Canadian investor spent US$437,500 on a pair of rare Nike Waffle Racing Flat “Moon Shoes” last month.

And the hype is still intense. Sneakers have become the “ultimate status symbol” in Silicon Valley. An exclusive collaboration between Arizona Iced Tea and Adidas selling for US$0.99 recently resulted in violence and mayhem in New York, as a mob scrambled to get its hands on the shoe.

We spoke with a number of industry experts to get a sense of why shoppers are dropping hundreds of dollars on a new pair of shoes. Shoemakers’ buzzy releases, the rise of sneaker culture, and the mainstreaming of casual dress were each cited as factors in the rising cost of sneakers.

Nike sneakers available on resale platform Goat. Photo: courtesy of Goat

Ultimately, consumers’ willingness to spend big on athletic shoes that they view as good investments or bold statement pieces has allowed footwear companies to invest resources in increasingly luxurious, technologically advanced, and celebrity backed products.