At the University of Oregon, the name Nike gets thrown around often. Most of our minds drift to billion-dollar thoughts of Uncle Phil, who knowingly fashioned the largest shoe empire of all time. Whether you love Nike basketball shoes or still rock a pair of holey Vans, you know how widely spread Nike’s grasp over the shoe game stretches.
But many people do not realize how useless this genius company would be rendered without the consumers who continue to perpetuate their popularity. More than any amount of advertising, research and development or product placement, shoe buyers help Nike sell more shoes than any other factor.
Do you remember when Nike was struggling to stay on the tail end of the shoe frontier and catered their sneakers to white joggers? If you were born post-Michael Jordan, myself included, your answer is most likely “no.” You might be wondering if I am referring to the same Nike that exists today. Many do not stop to think about the transition the athletic shoe has endured over the past 30 years, which is relatively recent history.
Shoes have gone from simply being functional footwear to being glorified objects, as virtually all of the shoes in the Jordan line have become. Though marketing has helped shoe companies become successful, consumers have helped shoe companies succeed more than they could have ever imagined by creating a sneaker culture as unique and dogmatic as any other cultural phenomenon.
The documentary “Just for Kicks” (2005) does a great job of picking apart the sneaker culture, examining its origins and shoe companies’ reliance on their relationship to hip-hop and inner-city populations. Nike, in particular, advertised its image of defiance and radical change through its first campaign with Michael Jordan. The Jordan campaign proved desirable to young people who wished to stand out (and in the ’80s, standing out was fitting in).
Nike hit home with inner-city youth, who took pride in being rebellious like Michael Jordan was as a basketball player. Nike Air Jordans instantly became a status symbol for this new mindset on the streets. By creating the concept of the sequential shoe, with a new Jordan shoe being released every year, Nike introduced exclusivity into the shoe game — something that we as consumers now accept as a normal. Before the Air Jordan brand, there had never been something with such desirability and exclusivity, and this changed how people would perceive shoes forever.
When shoe companies began to evolve these concepts, consumers also evolved by changing their buying habits. Some people felt the shoes were so good that they needed every pair, fearing they would be cleared from the shelves in a year. These are the roots of the sneaker-head we know today.
What makes sneakers so different than any other collectible is how they are desired by such a broad spectrum of individuals, including almost every income bracket. In fact, keeping shoes looking brand-new was started by poorer athletic shoe owners who could not afford to buy a new pair of $100 kicks every time they got dirty. Nobody had really cared about shoes like that before.
People buy sneakers no matter how much they have, and though one may not notice this sneaker devotion as much on the West Coast, habitants of New York City have made sneaker culture a part of their everyday lives.
Sneaker culture holds its own critical beliefs about what looks fly and what is taboo to put on your feet. Some shoes have become so exclusive that absolute pandemonium breaks out when they are released, sometimes resulting in fights over a new pair.
“Nike shoes are just one of the most creative and fashionable ways to express yourself,” Andrew Finston, Nike shoe fanatic and University student, said. “The biggest way that the shoe industry has changed is the detail that they now put into their work. Now every shoe is more unique and representative of all different types of consumer image and lifestyle, and this is a huge draw to collecting shoes these days.”
As the shoe game continues to develop and become more advanced, companies are creating more types of shoes, but not everyone is willing to fully submerge him or herself in the sneaker culture yet. In any event, it is important to respect the powerful relationship shoes have to people. This culture could not have been created and would not still be succeeding if it were not for consumer preference outweighing corporate prowess, even beyond the extent to which Nike reigns over the athletic universe.
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