Sneaker media now is about a lot more than just writing about when the shoe is coming out and which stores will carry it. You have to figure out what people in the scene care about. You have to create video content that can kind of give your own spin on that shoe beyond the objective facts around how much it is and how limited it’s going to be.

Sneaker education, and particularly online sneaker education, have opened up the world of sneaker design and media to more people around the world than ever before. There are just so many more voices out there.

It’s also interesting because now, brands are kind of competing with sneaker media. When sneaker blogs first came about, brands and the sneaker industry in general hadn’t really figured out how to tell their own stories around shoes, so they had to rely on websites like Sneaker News or Complex to tell those stories for them.

Now, the brands have their own ways of telling these stories and are increasingly more interested in doing so because they can control those narratives and they can create them on their own terms. There’s a little bit of a push-and-pull now in that relationship because brands would rather tell the stories themselves in a lot of instances.

Sneaker media is something that evolved as a reaction to sneaker culture. I feel like you had people who were super interested in sneakers. You could see that in something as simple as basketball.

Not to make Michael Jordan an example of everything, but Air Jordan, to some people, was as big a deal as Michael Jordan himself. Regular media, whether it’s newspapers or even magazines, were sort of slow to pick up on that. You would maybe get a photo of a sneaker somewhere.

I believe it was in 1987 that Sports Illustrated wrote a little column next to a piece on Michael Jordan about the Air Jordan 2. That was a huge moment and something that I cut out. I think I still have it somewhere because it was a whole thing specifically on the shoe.

This is off-topic a little bit, but that was the attainable part of Michael Jordan’s sort of magic. It’s like you couldn’t literally be Michael Jordan, but you could wear the same shoes he did. To find something you could read about that shoe was really special back then.

This was even before Bobitto wrote his piece in The Source. That piece took this thing that a lot of people were interested in, and one person who knew a lot about it talked about it. That made a lot of people realize, “Hey, I’m not alone in this.” I think we all had friends we talked about sneakers with, but knowing it could be this thing was super important.

I remember when I was writing to SLAM to try and write for them. One of the reasons I wanted to is because I knew the first Air Jordan Retros were coming out in 1994 or 1995, probably because they were in a magazine. I forget who mentioned it. But I wanted to write about them somewhere, and SLAM seemed like the place I would be able to do that.

Sneaker media before that was a very service-oriented thing, whether it would be Consumer Reports talking about something or specifically running magazines. I think those magazines probably don’t get enough credit. Magazines like Runner’s World talk about running shoes, but as a tool. They’re not talking about it as if it’s cool because it has this visible airbag. It’s like, “No, we ran in this for 500 miles, and here’s what we liked about it, and here’s what we didn’t.”

Since then, obviously, it’s blown up everywhere. Bobbito did a sneaker show on ESPN. You had web-based sneaker shows even just in the Complex network, whether it’s Full Size Run or Joe La Puma doing Sneaker Shopping or DJ Clark Kent and me doing Quickstrike, which predated a lot of those things.

It was a matter of knowing an audience is out there and convincing someone to take the chance on you to serve that audience. I think that’s the most important part — the audience was there, and the interest was there. The audience just needed that product to serve them, and it grew up around them.

There are a bunch of different things that we do from a content standpoint. When you’re talking content, there’s a type of very elevated, longer or shorter long-form video that you can do that might end up on YouTube. There are live broadcasts that you could publish out through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or any other similar service.

Most of the time, people want to have a better look at product. So, sometimes, it takes the form of an unboxing video where you’re showing someone a shoe that might be coming out next week. It might have come out last week. It’s pretty time-sensitive. Again, it comes back to being human, taking people through the product, giving people a little bit more information than they would get through other channels.

This has an influence in the sneaker world that changed how it used to be. In the ’90s, it was pro athletes doing the influencing. Just take a look at like Michael Jordan back in the day. Everyone always cared about what he was wearing on the court. Then, it used to be something like rap album covers. Those would influence people as well.

But now in the digital age, it’s kind of changed. Anybody can really have any influence on someone. It could be a 16-year-old kid in Dubai who just wants to start his own clothing brand, and he has millions of followers. Or it can be a writer, for example, like Russ or Joe who have seen a lot of things and experienced a lot of things within their industry. People want to see what they’re wearing. They know that what they’re wearing is what’s hot right now.

The spectrum is really widened from just entertainers and athletes. Through social media, anybody can have an influence on someone. This is especially important when it comes to sneaker education.

For today’s crop of sneaker influencers, there’s a kind of a fascination with younger kids who have a lot of money. It’s like the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Growing up, a lot of people always wanted to be rich. As a kid, not maybe as an adult, but in their youth, they wish they had had unlimited money. Younger kids are a little more forthcoming with their needs and desires.

So, you see these kids spending their money on things that an adult, who has the same amount of money, normally wouldn’t spend their money on, whether it’s Benjamin Kicks taking his Mercedes truck and making it look like a Virgil Air Jordan 1 or Money Kicks taking his father’s Ferrari and wrapping it to look like Supreme x Louis Vuitton.

It’s almost like a voyeuristic element to see what the lives of these über-rich, young, sneaker-head kids are really like. We’re never going to live that lifestyle, so we want to see what it’s really like.

The key to any industry, not just social media, is consistency. That’s an important lesson in your online sneaker education. The sneaker media personalities have become big names because they’ve remained consistent in who they are, whether it’s an act for the camera or not. They continually update and live this life as a certain persona. So, it becomes real even if that’s not who they were at first. They’ve made the world believe that that’s who they are, and that’s who they’ve created their social media personality behind.

Just being charismatic is another thing that really helps these people stick out. Sneaker YouTube and social media as a whole kind of has the flair for being overdramatic and doing stuff over the top. So, these guys have done over-the-top things on their social media accounts, which is going to get more attention than people who just keep it really simple. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be yourself. But any big YouTuber right now who has a huge following is typically doing ridiculous things.

A hypebeast is someone who tailors their purchasing habits around perceived hype or the perceived resale value. In sneaker culture, it’s typically associated with people who may want a very limited sneaker collaboration, or they may want a pair of Kanye West sneakers. Maybe they want a Babe hoodie or a Supreme T-shirt just because they know that a lot of other people want them.

Liking those items in their own is not bad, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed to like a pair of GCs or a Supreme hoodie just because it’s trendy. But hypebeasts are generally associated with teenage boys who are dressing based on internet trends and want to show the world they have all the cool stuff without really developing their own unique personal style yet. They kind of just throw it all together, and it can look very awkward because they’re generally awkward at that age as well.

In summary, that’s what a hypebeast signifies. It’s just someone who’s chasing the most sought-after items without any sort of rhyme or reason other than the fact that other people think they look cool.

When you speak about the merge between sneakers and sports, there’s no greater influence than Michael Jordan. One of the most compelling issues revolving around Michael Jordan and sneakers was when the NBA banned his sneakers for having too much black on them in 1985. This was a story that really tapped into the heartstrings of urban sneaker consumers.

Questions were asked about the issues of the sneakers. What was wrong with the coloring of the sneakers? What rules were being violated by having a lot of black on the sneaker? The unbelievable answer was that there wasn’t any white on them.

The Racial Tensions Were High in New York for the Sneaker Industry

Now you have the perfect storm of events with a whole lot of tension behind a whole lot of racial situations. You have this symbolism of the best player in the NBA, at the time, being told that his shoes had too much black on them and that he would be fined if he continued to wear them. The emotion in this controversial issue created a great marketing story for sneaker consumers.

On September 15th, Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe. On October 18th, the NBA threw the shoes out of the game. Fortunately, the NBA can’t stop you from wearing Nike’s Air Jordans.

Michael Jordan Was the Greatest Influence on Sneakers in Sports

At the time and up until Michael Jordan ended his career of being the best basketball player in the world, a new-wave phenomenon of sneakers became insanely popular. So here you have, arguably, the most important athlete of all times. He did everything. From an athletic standpoint, there is still no better player in the game of basketball. Everyone wanted to be like Mike on the basketball court. But in his younger days, Mike was also very fashionable. He wore Nike sweatsuits and rocked gold chains.

Michael Jordan helped transcend sneakers, the sneaker culture, and sneakers as a fashion object. The sneakers were so beautiful that people wanted to wear them off the basketball court and into the streets. People were wearing Jordans a hell of a lot more in the streets than they were on the basketball court. So Michael Jordan was everything when it came to sneakers.

Michael Jordan hasn’t played a professional game of basketball in decades now, but Air Jordans are still the number one talked about sneakers. They are still the number one sneakers that people line up and camp outside for. Jordans aren’t really used for basketball anymore. They rarely were back in the day, but they are even less now. Jordans have become more of a fashion product these days.

Sneaker Culture Fueled by Celebrities on Social Media

Celebrities are a significant influence in the sneaker culture. You see a lot of the sneakers they are wearing, especially on their personal social media accounts. For example, you see Lebron James taking lots of photos of his shoes and posting them on his Instagram Stories. He posts a lot of pictures of his shoes, and you notice that he has better sneakers than everyone else does. It’s a place for him to show off his sneakers, but it’s also his cosign, and this marketing tactic works. Kids are going to see his posts and want his sneakers.

Nowadays, athletes who play sports aren’t as influential in footwear as they used to be. However, we are in a place now where people are more interested in what the athletes are wearing before the game than what they are wearing on the court. If Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook wear a pair of Virgil Abloh Air Jordan 1s before the game, then that’s what everyone is going to notice. Fans and consumers may not be buying as many signature on-court sneakers anymore, but it’s those off-court moments that express their true personalities.

Every celebrity on social media these days feels like a sneakerhead. Sneakers make people feel good, whether they are rich or not. When you have new shoes, and that new shoe feeling, you kind of want to show them off to the world.

The internet has had a profound effect on all our lives, influencing everything from the way we watch television, to shopping to the products we purchase. The internet has greatly affected “sneaker culture” in that prior to widespread use of the web, popularity of sneakers and sales were often regional. At one time, one must either live in a certain area or know someone in that community in order to get certain styles of sneakers. Today, the internet allows us to choose our sneakers with the mere click of a button.

The internet provides information on release dates of limited-edition sneakers as well as those produced and sold solely in certain regions. Now, a person can simply hop on the internet in order to purchase that limited-edition sneaker or those that were relegated to a distant region just two decades ago. E-commerce has broken barriers that once were virtually impossible for most consumers to cross. Plus, the internet provides sneaker release dates so no one has to be left out of the sneaker industry’s latest offerings.

However, the internet is contributing to another phenomenon unheard of prior to the internet – reselling. Reselling of sneakers is at an all-time high, which has both good points and bad. Retailers have difficulty in that if they get a limited number of Yeezys, millions of shoppers may flood the organization’s website, crashing it.

The internet has created a raffle of sorts where consumers are searching for certain brands and styles of sneakers. Even parents are getting in on the selling aspect of retail; many will order that coveted pair of shoes at the retailer’s price (usually around $150). Then, they put the sought-after shoes on the internet where those who weren’t lucky enough to get those shoes from a retailer will pay $800 or more for the latest styles. It’s a win for the retailer who makes their initial profit, but the internet seller on eBay or other resale sites banks a huge profit, too.

However, the “purists” on the internet see this resale opportunity as a bad thing. At the same time, those with careers in retail might not have their jobs without the internet as it operates today.

Social media is also a driving force in both the initial sale and resale of sneakers. Online sneaker education chiefly comes from social media as well as sites that post reviews on upcoming popular models of shoes. Some look at the online sneaker sale movement as somewhat a “cult” thing; however, a company’s social media presence is definitely having a positive effect on sales.

In the 1990s, most of the attention a sneaker received was due to an athlete’s wearing a certain brand or style of sneaker. Maybe consumers would see the shoe on television; however, prior to the great improvements in high-definition television, it might be impossible for consumers to see an athlete’s kicks. Perhaps a photoshoot in the latest edition of “Sports Illustrated” would show that same cool shoe; however, consumers were on their own finding the exact brand and style of shoe.

Social media sites such as Instagram post photos of athletes in high resolution, and consumers can definitively see what their favorite athlete is wearing. Plus, one can quickly go to their preferred web browser to find the shoe and all available online shops. Even with limited-edition offerings, such as Nike’s LeBron James sneakers, consumers are still clamoring to get their hands on a coveted pair. A great example of this is Super Bowl LII, when Justin Timberlake wore a highly sought-after shoe. Those who have certain apps on their phones are alerted that the celeb is live wearing a limited-edition pair of shoes. By the next commercial break, most of those limited-edition shoes – made in a certain quantity, by the way – are gone.

Perhaps shoe enthusiasts should be more concerned with the amount of shoes being produced. Consider the Virgil Abloh Ten Nike – only a certain number of people will get this shoe during the initial drop. Some consumers report only getting error messages when trying to order. A larger number of shoes produced would help prevent this, but manufacturers have little desire to do so. Perhaps retailers should look at ensuring this won’t happen due to their website crashing.

Maybe consumers should be satisfied with the “halo effect” of shoe drops. If a consumer fails to get the coveted Yeezy 350 on its initial drop, then maybe the purchaser should consider the Alphabounce or the Ultra Boost. Regardless, consumers will need to move quickly to get any of the higher end sneakers desired by many in the public.

Perhaps consumers may need to consider looking for a product that is not the hot item at the moment. Few sneaker releases sell out almost immediately, unless the product is one of the highly coveted styles. Unless consumers must absolutely have that exact style, buyers will have to then scour the resale market where some of these shoes sell for up to $1,500. If money is no object, then it’s great to wait on the resale. However, those on a budget will have to find other ways to get that coveted shoe.

Sneaker education tells us that eventually, everything – no matter how popular – goes on sale. This includes those limited-edition sneakers. Consumers should perhaps worry not about what LeBron’s next shoe will look like, but on how they can still procure a recently released and still popular shoe at a much lower price.

Sometimes it pays to look back on previous releases instead of the latest, newest releases. Consider the Air Jordan, after 20 years plus of production, a shoe still as popular as it was upon initial release.

Back in the day, people chose their kicks based on what was popular in their location – on the street, down the block – today, people are looking to the latest sporting event and what a favorite celeb is wearing rather than one’s closest friends. Jordan chose to capitalize on Timberlake’s popularity and his appearance on the Super Bowl’s halftime show. It’s a decision that turned out to be highly profitable for the company.

Procuring our favorite sneakers today is no easy task, but we consumers have more avenues today than our predecessors just two decades ago. Download those apps and set your notifications to be able to get those coveted kicks at the best price possible.

After learning about trademark law, copyright law, and patent law, another important part of sneaker education is learning about trade secrets. So what is a trade secret and how is it protected?

A trade secret is a business method, customer list, pattern, idea, or some other non-public piece of information that a company will go through great lengths to protect. Trade secrets are important because companies work tirelessly to develop independent ways of doing business and to create a special product or a process, and they need to protect these items. The information is used in business to create an opportunity to obtain an economic advantage over competitors that don’t have that information. A really famous example of a trade secret is the secret ingredients in Coca-Cola’s recipe.

How Do Trade Secrets Apply to the Sneaker Industry?

Companies like sneaker companies go to great lengths to protect their trade secrets. In 2014, trade secrets were a topic at the highest level when three former employees left Nike to join Adidas. These gentlemen left and allegedly took with them information relating to various aspects of the Nike brand, including their processes of making sneakers and other confidential information about marketing, promotion, and many things that we discuss in our book about the business side.

As soon as these three gentlemen announced that they were leaving Nike to join Adidas, Nike filed a lawsuit. In it, they alleged that these gentlemen were taking specific confidential information, otherwise known as trade secrets, and using it for their benefit and for the benefit of Adidas. In its complaint, Nike asked for damages of over $10 million, claiming that this information was extremely sensitive and highly valuable to their brand. The case ended up settling out of court. But eventually, these gentlemen made their way over to Adidas, soo it was worked out. But it just goes to show you the extreme lengths and costs that companies will go through to protect their trade secret information.

Because trade secrets are so sensitive, it’s hard to know which companies have what information. But companies spend a lot of money on research and development to create trade secrets and to gain an economic advantage over their competitors.

How Does a Company Protect Its Trade Secrets?

One method that companies use to protect their information is by having employees that come into the company sign NDAs. NDAs are “non-disclosure agreements,” and they protect exactly what trade secrets are, confidential information such as data, customer lists, processes, patterns, and other sensitive and highly valuable information. NDAs are useful. But they don’t always work because many employees leave, and they go and use the information elsewhere. Sometimes, it’s hard to prove that an employee has breached an NDA. So they’re used to create a chilling effect to make sure that employees know that there will be a liability if they disclose the information that they obtained through their relationship with the employer.

Another way that companies can protect their trade secrets is through restrictive covenants in their employment agreements. We’re not going to get into much detail on restrictive covenants in this module. But when an employee joins a company, the company will sometimes ask an employee to waive certain rights and to abide by certain restrictive covenants. So if an employee comes to a company and then leaves, they may be asked, for a certain period of time, to not work for a competitor, to not disclose confidential information about the company, and to not solicit other employees that have worked for the company. These are what are called restrictive covenants. They’re methods and tools that companies use to protect their trade secrets through employment agreements.

Another way that companies can protect their trade secrets is by filing a lawsuit. This is, obviously, the most final and nuclear option in the trade secret protection ladder, but this is sometimes the last and best option when sensitive trade secrets are at stake. A company can bring a lawsuit against an employee or another corporation that it believes has stolen their trade secrets, and through litigation, they can try to work out protecting that information, stopping the dissemination of the confidential information, and, in some cases, returning the confidential information and trade secrets back to the company.

Now that we’ve covered trade secrets, we’ve really gone through all of the main facets of intellectual property law. We’ve covered trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets. After learning these basics of intellectual property, we can then move on to our next section, which is the law of sneakers and the more practical side of the business, which we call “The Art Of The Sneaker Deal.”

Young people have a lot of stories to tell. It’s important to explore finding your own voice. Have that conversation, even if it’s just with your friends and family to start, but make it something that can eventually be consumed by a larger audience. You need to have a true, common storyline and theme in the sneaker industry. Following what other people have already gotten popular off of isn’t going to help you much because you’re jumping into a crowded pool.

Kicks, the magazine, was something that grew out of Slam. Slam is that connection between culture and basketball, and sneakers are something that sits right on that edge. Sneakers are not something that transcends basketball. Obviously, basketball transcends sneakers.

A Visit to the Nike Campus

We knew that in order to find the sneaker history, the online sneaker education, a lot of that was at Nike, at their campus, and at the Wieden and Kennedy offices. It was a matter of convincing Nike to bankroll this. At its most base editorial level, it was a couple of guys who found something they were fascinated with and wanted to find answers to. If this was something we were interested in knowing about, there were probably a lot of other people interested in knowing about it as well.

In many ways, we had it easy, because people hadn’t done this before. People hadn’t gone to Wieden and Kennedy and asked about the Spike and Mike ads. People hadn’t gone to Eric Cooper and asked about him designing Scottie Pippen’s new shoe yet. Now that stuff is fairly commonplace.

Gaining a Sneaker Education

Sneaker media and Kicks and Bobbito’s story opened this lane to anyone who wanted to try and fill it. There’s something out there that you don’t know the answer to, but you’re interested enough to seek it out. To find what that answer is and talk to the right people and look at the right sources.

Find Your Unique Audience

Chances are, other people are going to want to know the answers too. That’s the way to open whatever the next lane of sneaker media will be. Because, like it was for us, the audience is there. The audience is waiting for you. They just need the right thing, and maybe you’re going to be the one to provide them with that.

Years ago, there was a website called Dress Like Kanye West. It was run by a guy who actually ended up working at Complex, who now works at Adidas—a very smart guy. But these kinds of sites were popping up because Kanye’s influence at the time was so crazy that everybody wanted to know what he was wearing.

Now, Upscale Hype is a website that’s basically devoted to breaking down people’s outfits. Now Complex does a lot of this kind of thing. When these brands started doing it, that’s around the time we started seeing the shift in people wanting to act cool and act like they don’t pay attention to what celebrities are wearing. But it isn’t true. Everybody pays attention.

Back then, Kanye was at the forefront of having a whole website devoted to what he was wearing, breaking down his outfit. If he was overseas, and he wore some obscure new clothes, people were trying to find out what they were. In a way, this paved the way for how sneaker culture has developed since then.

Whether it’s on Instagram or another social media medium, it’s about being first to post that a certain person was wearing these sneakers. Or that this person just debuted these. Or LeBron James just wore these. And now you can even see it through the tunnels in NBA and NFL games. There is such an appetite now for big stars and athletes to walk through the tunnel and see what they’re wearing, and then it immediately goes online.

And these aren’t even just sneaker blogs that are posting this stuff. It’s also sports blogs posting it. These days, you get the sense that everyone knows that the cameras are watching. Everyone is taking a more deliberate approach to fashion and being seen, and brands are working with celebrities and athletes to make sure that the debut of a shoe that everyone’s waiting for is spectacular and happens in the biggest way possible.

In the past, there wasn’t as much content to see what celebrities were wearing, especially on their feet, and not broken down the way it is now. And because that has changed, everything has changed. I know that at Complex, for example, everyone is always rushing when someone debuts something new to get a post up on Instagram because it helps to build the hype machine and help build up steam for those releases.

These newer things like the celebrity co-signs, celebrities being photographed all the time, and celebrities deliberately working with brands to debut sneakers for big events have really changed sneaker media and the way that it operates.

To learn more about how the sneaker industry and media are evolving and growing, consider exploring the world of online sneaker education. If you’ve been looking for an affordable and accessible means to achieve a sneaker education, it can serve as an amazing option.

When it comes to sneaker media, it’s basically just like any other media except that it’s specialized to a sneaker audience in the same way that Auto Trader, for example, is for car buffs or Sports Illustrated is for sports buffs. Sneaker media is for sneakerheads. The only real difference is that sneaker media is still fairly new.

There are a lot of different types of sneaker media. For example, there are actual print magazines, like Sole Collector had for about 10 years, or Slam Kicks. So these are actual print, in-your-hand stories about sneakers and upcoming sneakers that you might want to buy. There are internet blogs, like Sole Collector, Complex Sneakers, Nice Kicks, or Sneaker News, for example. These blogs are kind of the same thing only they’re online-based and a little bit more daily—a little bit more immediate.

Then, there is social media. This could be an Instagram account that you follow for release info, or it could be sort of like a specialized, curated social media platform dedicated to one kind of genre in sneakers. As an example, there are Instagram handles that are solely dedicated to Air Jordans, and there’s nothing else they post on there except Air Jordans.

Sneaker media has really changed with how media itself has been evolving. If you think about it, when was the last time you bought a newspaper? These days, we live in a digital society. We have a smart computer in our pockets practically 24/7, essentially. It’s a lot more fast-paced, and people want their news more immediately, to their phones or laptops, as opposed to waiting for the next season to get their Eastbay, or Kicks, or Sole Collector magazine.

Nowadays, sneaker media is literally any platform you could distribute sneaker-related content on. Anyone can sign up for a free Twitter account. Anyone can sign up for a free Instagram account. Anyone can get a Gmail address and be on YouTube overnight. Back in the day when I first started publishing videos on YouTube, I was using tapes—actual video tapes. These days, you could shoot 4K slow-motion on your iPhone 10.

With that being said, once the barriers to entry come down, you’re going to get content that’s a lot worse overall. If we’re being honest, this is just because you don’t really have to know much or have much to get into it. That being said, though, if you’re really good, and really knowledgeable, and really passionate about what you do, then you can rise above the clutter that exists at the bottom level. If you have an iPhone and you have a social media account, you’re in the game. So to stand out, you really have to be making quality content.

Exploring online sneaker education is a fantastic way to attain all of the knowledge and experience that a sneaker education offers. It requires nothing more than an internet connection and an interest in the subject matter, so consider trying it out.

Sneaker YouTube is a growing genre where there are several different types of videos and content that are being made. You have higher-end productions like Complex’s “Sneaker Shopping With Joe La Puma,” where he takes celebrity guests to sneaker stores and then interviews them, sees what they purchase, and gets their thoughts on sneakers.

You also have debate shows like the one I’m involved with on Sole Collector called “Full Sized Run.” And you also have a lot of independent creators out there making their own vlog-style content who aren’t attached to any media company. The video might be going through their day, they might have a new pick up they want to show, they may have their thoughts on some sort of sneaker content, or they might even have beef with another sneaker YouTuber. And it’s always usually first-person style following them around the city if they’re on tour if they’re going to a Sneaker Con event, or just what’s going on in their life.

And people really get attached to these personalities. You have guys like Qias Omar, who has a lot of vlogs. You have someone like Jacques Slade, who’s known for his unboxing videos. It’s a true unboxing where he takes boxes and cracks them open right on camera, and you find out what’s there. They don’t let you know in the title what their shoes are, so you get the feeling of suspense.

If you’re in the know about footwear, you probably have a feel for what’s in that box. But for a lot of kids, they get excited. Unboxing videos are huge on YouTube right now. You have people unboxing Disney characters that have tens of millions of views. It may seem like pretty silly content, but there really is some excitement around seeing the unknown and having it revealed in front of you.

We do the unboxing videos. We do the decor content. But we’re also trying to figure out ways to look at things through a different lens. One way is through our game show on Facebook called “Price the Hype,” where we took the format of a similar show on TV (which I won’t name) and injected sneakers into it.

We make up these mini-games where we force a person to actually pretend to buy their shoes with an app we built and then take a photo of their shoes to do a real quick flex. If they do that, they win a challenge. If they don’t win the challenge, maybe we pour chocolate syrup on the $1,000 pair of sneakers that they were trying to get!

There are also some debate and opinion style shows like “Full Size Run” or “Quickstrike,” where it takes on an ESPN “Around the Horn” feel. There are people with opposite views on the same sneaker or sneaker-related topic, and they debate.

Indie Media Creators Hold Brands Accountable

A lot of people accuse sneaker media of being too safe in terms of their relationships with brands and with stores and them being afraid to call people out. We created the show so we could do just that. And some of the people at the brands aren’t happy about it, but we’re glad that we get to speak our voice.

A lot of sneaker media is very objective, and it’s just giving you the straight facts about what’s happening, what’s releasing, how did this release go down, things like that. We’re there to give our own opinions, tell you why we think this shoe was a garbage fire, why we think this shoe is better than other people realize, why this designer messed up, things like that.

There’s a couple of reasons why you need to remain authentic in sneaker media. One is that the brands really need you more than you need them. You’re here to serve the community, not necessarily the brands. I think a lot of people let that slip and don’t realize to what extent they need to be honest with people about exactly what happened. And I understand because it’s a difficult relationship to maintain. If you’re going to tell people how Adidas messed this thing up and you’ve got a contact at Adidas, it makes them look bad. But you’ve got to tell the truth.

Also, you have to think about your authenticity when a brand approaches you with some type of partnership. Maybe you’ve got enough of a social following for them to want you to take a little bit of money to post something on your Instagram.

The first question is, do you actually like that thing? Is that a shoe you would actually wear? The second thing is, is it going to alienate your audience or your followers if you’re on there shilling with a hashtag ad post about how much you like this shoe? I’ve taken money to post things on my Instagram before. I got plenty of hate for it, but it was a shoe I actually liked, and I felt comfortable with it.

Can Social Media Make Money for Creators?

There’s a lot of different ways to get paid off of social media. There’s traditional ad revenue where you’re getting a cut of the ads from YouTube. Influencers might be offered sponsorships where a brand might come in and offer them a nice check to exclusively wear a certain brand in their videos. And there’s a traditional corporate sense, which I fall into, where the company gets the ad revenue, and you get a salary. When I started out as a freelance writer, I was getting paid per story. It may start out as a passion project, but there are different ways to actually pay your bills through sneaker media.

There’s also vlogging, which is a popular format in sneaker media. Take examples like Money Kicks, who is a 16-year-old kid who just happens to have billionaire parents and wild exotic animals at home. You know, he documents how he lives his life. And it could be Fat Joe and Khaled coming by his place to meet his monkey or his lion! Another one that we use at Complex is called “Life at Complex,” where it’s Tony. It’s just his day-to-day life or just things that go on at the Complex office. One aspect is opening the mail that we get from our viewers. We get a lot of really cool promotional packages from a lot of different companies, and not just from sneaker brands.

So, there’s a lot of different formats. There might be one that doesn’t even exist yet. I think the most important part is knowing that there’s going to be an audience for something and doing something that you know will give a unique point of view on footwear that hasn’t been seen before. There are a lot of ways to get into sneaker media. You don’t just have to be a blogger or a YouTuber, which is what most people first think of when they think of sneaker education. You can just run a really good curated Instagram or Snapchat account.

One example that comes to mind is Corgishoe. He’s built a following based on just buying sneakers on clearance and then storing them for years before he sells them on his Instagram. And people will find him, and they’ll say, I remember these. I forgot these existed. He’ll resell them on his Instagram and then delete the photo right after. It’s all about finding a niche or finding a way that is, one, relevant to you and that an audience is looking for.

Our show “Full Sized Run” all started off as a Facebook Live broadcast every week before it got to YouTube and before we had sponsorship money. You look at DJ Khaled’s Jordan partnership. I feel like that started off when he was a real pioneer in using Snapchat first and cultivating an audience.

There are also these super-niche audiences. One guy that comes to mind is Brad Hall. His unboxings are kind of a mix of dry humor and comedy and an actual unique point of view on products. He’s not really taking himself too seriously. The quality of it is almost something that could be seen on Comedy Central. That’s just one example of how you can have a super targeted audience outside of just the Complex’s and the Sole Collectors and the Sneaker News and the Nice Kicks talk.

You cannot talk about the popularity of sneakers without acknowledging their origins as part of the hip hop culture. Since the birth of hip hop in the 70s, sneakers have been the official footwear for the global phenomenon.

Sneakers Represent a Movement

Hip hop and its related elements were all about anti-establishment, youthful expression, and creativity. So it was only natural that sneakers represented that movement when you think about all the places you couldn’t go wearing them. They weren’t allowed in 70s clubs, churches, or restaurants. You couldn’t show up to work wearing sneakers or get married in them.

Sneakers were a marginalizing piece of footwear, but they created a stereotype of what kind of person you were. If you wore sneakers all the time, folks didn’t view you as living up to your full potential in becoming what you aspired to be.

Hip Hop Represented its Own Rules

In the hip hop culture, sneakers were part of the experience of expressing yourself through things like B-boying, graffiti, DJing, and MCing. This experience transformed into the rules that governed being a true hip hop person.

Furthermore, there were rules of originality that manifested through sneakers. These abiding rules still apply today. If my friend and I showed up somewhere wearing the same sneakers, we would have to find a way to make them look different. We would change the laces, use bleach, or spray paint stripes on them. These different methods were being used to ensure that we abided by the original hip hop rules. In the quest to make sure that we lived up to those rules came the birth of customized sneakers. These were created as a basic bonafide everyday way to honor the rules of hip hop. You can never disassociate what sneakers are today from the origins of the hip hop culture.

Run-DMC Recognition

In the early 80s, record labels were signing more hip hop artists, which led to more visibility and served as a reflection and representation of inner-city life. This was a pivotable moment for sneakers.

During the Raising Hell Tour at Madison Square Garden in 1986, Run-DMC performed their song called “My Adidas.” This song was a response to another song called “Fell Into Sneakers,” which was a disparaging song about people who wear sneakers. The lyrics sang about “felony cases committed by brothers with phat shoelaces.”

During Run-DMC’s live performance of “My Adidas,” they requested that concert-goers take their Adidas sneakers off and put them in the air. Some of those attendees were Adidas executives. Thousands of fans in the arena waved their shoes in the air.

The Adidas executives instantly saw the influence that the urban community had on trending and branding long before those words even existed. They saw how powerful the urban community could be when they got behind a particular product.

Shortly after that performance, Adidas gave Run-DMC an endorsement deal. This was huge because it was the first non-athletic endorsement deal by a global sportswear brand, let alone a sneaker company.

This endorsement spoke to the fact that Run-DMC were great ambassadors for what was already happening in the urban communities. Especially in New York, where they represented being from Queens. It also showed that no matter where their worldwide fame and stardom took them, the urban and hip hop aesthetic and rules went with them.

Laces Tied to the Hip Hop Culture

When it comes to sneaker education, you’ll learn that a lot of it is based on making the most of the little that you have. I came from a time when it wasn’t about having the most expensive or most colorful sneakers. It was just about being fresh, which meant that everything you had on was washed and clean. So when you live in a neighborhood where everyone has Bobos, you want to rock my Bobos fresher than everyone else.

For me, it started with the lacing styles. It wasn’t about having the most fly shoes. I was rocking hand-me-downs from my older cousins. We came from pretty humble beginnings, so we were just trying to have fun and be fresh at the same time. At the time, canvas sneakers and light suede basketball sneakers were the most popular. Chuck Taylors, City Brocades, Puma Clydes, and 69ers were more affordable options.

Shells were the opportunity of the day because they were on the higher end of affordable for the people in the hood at the time. But it wasn’t really about how much the sneakers cost; it was about being fresh and staying fresh. I knew dudes that would get a pair of kicks at the beginning of seventh grade, and the same sneakers would still be crispy at the top of eighth grade using just some dishwashing soap and a soft toothbrush.

Sneaker Industry

I think most people think that sneaker culture is primarily an American thing, but it’s spread throughout the world in different ways.

Europe

European sneaker culture evolved to a huge degree during the ’80s and ’90s because they had Adidas. Adidas was huge then, and it remains huge now. Europe also had Terrace culture, soccer stadiums, and football stadiums. People would stand, watching sports matches, wearing general Adidas sneakers. You could almost call them sports shoes. They are made for training. They are made for anything.

Adidas has been turning out sneakers for years. In America, you’d be hard-pressed to tell which year or era a sneaker came from because they all looked very similar. In addition, many new shoes have been reintroduced as retro models. However, Adidas in Europe have more significant distinctions between them, so people who grew up with a specific model have more memory connections with that particular design.

Japan

I think the sneaker culture in Japan took a lot of inspiration from the American market and then hit it back to us. It’s almost like we served it to them before they returned it back to us with a whole lot of backspin on it.

Take a look at resale shops in New York or LA. such as Stadium Goods, Flight Club, or Rif LA. The iconic way that the sneakers are presented — shrinkwrapped on the shelves — is something that came over from Japan.

All of this came from a time when it seemed like Japan almost valued American culture more than we did. I remember a time when people in America were selling Air Jordans to people in Japan because they would pay top dollar for them. I’ve heard stories about people clearing out thrift stores of brands like Nike and Levis then selling them to people in Japan to make a profit. This was during a time when Japan cherished these things more than we did.

The Shift

The exchange with Japan eventually turned back around on America though. Japan started getting limited-edition things that America now wanted. Nike CO-JP program made shoes specifically for the Japanese shoe market. They got their own Dunks, Air Force Ones, and Colorways. These were marketed only in Japan, making them even more coveted here in America.

What started with Japanese consumers desperately wanting things from America turned into products being explicitly made for the Japanese market, then ended with American consumers desperately wanting products from Japan. There are still shoes to this day that are hard to find and highly coveted in America.

Export Sneaker Culture

During your online sneaker education, it’s important to take a look at new sneaker markets that are trying to open. Furthermore, study Nike or Adidas as they expand their markets in America. You’ll see that it’s difficult to expand a market like that at such a high level. Are they able to get American consumers who already own 100 pairs of shoes that they don’t know what to do with to buy even more? Maybe it’s better to open a Chinese or Indian market with billions of potential new consumers. Perhaps it’s better to try and export sneaker culture again and get it going somewhere else in their own way.