industry watch om june10r
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8/3/2019 Industry Watch OM June10r
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Cross-MediaCase StudyIndustryWatch
But the sneaker industry, thanks
to a phenomenon not entirely
of its own making, has migratedaway from the court, track and
field and onto the street, where
authenticity, credibility and, yes,
originality, matter more than slam
dunks and world records. FromKeds canvas low-tops paired with
pom-pom socks and poodle skirts
to the rock ’n’ roll rebellion that
Converse epitomized, and the ’90s
birth of the “sneaker pimp” — col-lectors who keep the tags on and
panic at the sight of a smudge
— sneakers have evolved from a
functional piece of athletic wear to
the epitome of a lifestyle brand.Fearing that its brand would
fade into the collective memory
as the shoe that our mothers wore
when they were children, Keds
launched a campaign in March to
re-establish relevance by, accord-
ing to Darren Paul, a partner at
Night Agency (which did thework), “telling the story of the
brand.” That story begins in 1916,
when the u.s. Rubber Companyintroduced the first pair of Keds.
The Original Sneaker campaign
“draws a line in the sand,” says
Paul, with the brand staking a
claim: “Where everyone is trying
to be original; we are the first.”On the campaign’s microsite,
originalsneaker.com, created by
Night Agency, the original tag line
was “Keds: the first shoes to becalled sneakers.” But thanks to the
investigative journalism skills of
one New York Times reporter, Keds
conceded that the word “sneaker”
(from “to sneak” — as in one who
sneaks around in rubber-soled shoes)
had in fact been used as slang
for tennis shoes as early as 1887
(thank you, Times, for reaching new
heights of pedantry). Paul says “westand behind our claim” that Keds
is the first company to use the
word sneaker as a part of its brand
— thus it is the first sneaker.
Moving past such geeky ety-mological concerns, Paul says
that “what people are really
interested in is the style and
the design of the shoe,” which
is the true focus of the cam-
paign. The Century Collectionreleases a new limited-edition
Web-exclusive shoe inspired by
a different decade each month,
and features collaborations withdesigners like Steven Alan and
Alice + Olivia to appeal to fashion-
conscious consumers who shop at
Neiman Marcus and probably don’t
think of Keds when they needsome new kicks. For creative types,
The Keds Collective uses a net-
SSneaker marketing has always been about makingoutrageous claims. From pf Flyers’ 1950s promise thatits “posture foundation” technology will make you “runfaster, jump higher,” to the image of an outer-space-bound Michael Jordan that had young boys everywherechanting “Be like Mike,” brands have gone to ridiculouslengths to establish themselves as the shoe that could turnanyone into a professional athlete (or just look like one).
Get Your KicksSneaker-makers chase the coveted “Original”
label, but in the end, do consumers evencare who was first? by Courtney Humiston
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work of independent designers andartists — chosen by the brand —
whose unique designs are featured
in the “design of the day.” Orders
are manufactured on demand and
the designer receives a royaltyfrom each sale. The Style Gallery
— where anyone can upload pic-
tures of themselves wearing Keds
— celebrates “real people” and is
also prominently displayed on theshopping site Chictopia, where the
shoes on those real people can be
purchased. Of course, in the end,
that line in the sand is just a line in
the sand and the word “original” isstill up for grabs.
Other OriginalsAdidas (founded in 1923 by Adi
Dassler and his brother Rudolf,
who broke off in the 1940s to
start Puma) launched its own
“Originals” campaign in Februaryof this year with the site adidas.
com/originals. The site, created
by augmented reality agencyMetaio and Sid Lee, allows users
access to a virtual neighbor-hood — the “Adidas Originals
Neighborhood”— using an aug-
mented reality code printed on
the tongue of each shoe in the
“Originals” collection. “Comeback and play on the street where
originality lives. It’s your turn to
be the first,” it entices. On the
same site, viewers can read sto-
ries, enter contests and watch
videos by brand ambassadors
like dmc, Def Jam, pro skater
Dennis Busenitz, who designed a
skateboarding specific shoe avail-
able for purchase, Missy Elliott,the spokesperson for “Respect
ME,” a campaign targeted at
young women, and beloved-
by-all part-time soccer super-
star and and full-time underwearmodel David Beckham, just in
case they missed anyone.
While Adidas may not be the
“first” sneaker ever made, by asso-
ciating its brand with groups andindividuals widely accepted to
be “authentic,”Adidas seeks to
establish its cred-
ibility from thesoccer field to the
streets of Brooklyn.
Even if you grew
up in a suburb in
Ohio (ok, especial-
ly if you grew up in
a suburb in Ohio),
Adidas gives youaccess to a neigh-
borhood where
skateboarder Tim
O’Connor practic-
es his Melon Grabson a homemade halfpipe (and
invites you to join) and R&B artist
Ryan Leslie spontaneously breaks
out in song. And all you have to
do to be a part of this ’hood is buya pair of Adidas.
Converse has been making
its Chuck Taylors since 1917.
Originally marketed as a bas-ketball shoe, the canvas high-toptook on a life of its own in the
’60s and has since become the
shoe of countercultures — every
moody teenager in America has
sported a pair at some point. Forits 2008 “Connectivity” campaign,
the brand celebrated its 100-year
anniversary with an original track
by Pharrell Williams, Santigold
and Julian Casablancas from The
Strokes. The campaign “connected”
early icons (Hunter S. Thompson,Sid Vicious, James Dean) with cur-
rent idols such as m.i.a., nba star
Dwyane Wade and Karen O from
the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.While the campaign was gen-
erally considered a success, espe-
cially for a brand like Converse
that appeals to an audience averse
to advertising, such a massiveadvertising presence can be risky
(“I’m sure Hunter S. Thompson
and Sid Vicious are puking in
their graves” wrote ProHipHop),
so the next campaign, by thesame agency, Anomaly, was less
obvious, and exclusively online.“Domaination” sought to estab-
lish relevance in the lives of young
consumers — consumers that is,who both buy sneakers and look
to the Web for answers to life’s
many mysteries. Rather than
running traditional ads based on
Google searches, Domainationcreated microsites where, for
example, a young man nervous
about his first kiss would receive
humorous but not condescend-
ing video instructions preparinghim for the big event.
The Converse Web site is divided
into Buy, Make and Play, creating
both a shopping destination (off-
the-shelf or customized) and acultural hub providing everything
you need to define your Converse
lifestyle. Visitors can read inter-
views with photographers, writ-
ers and artists that Converse“likes” (borrowing vocab from
Facebook, and hoping kids postits content there), watch videos
of professional athletes and
bands, and download songs orentire playlists curated by djs
and record labels. For Converse
(now owned by Nike), the “origi-
nality” of its brand relies strongly
on a cultural heritage that haslittle to do with its own market-
ing efforts. But they are certainly
running with it.
Industry Watch
At least thisclaim isprobably true:Adidas is thefirst sneakercompany toturn to theDark Sideand make aDarth Vaderpull over.