The role of an editor has changed over time. An editor for print magazines had to worry about the articles that were being printed, where the advertisements would be placed, and how the photos would be represented. They had to be meticulous about every single apostrophe or period because it’s in print, it’s on paper, and it’s there forever.

Online Sneaker Education in the Digital Age

Now with the digital age, it’s really changed. Instead of managing just one publication, you’re managing an entire brand and every sort of platform that your brand touches. It could be a print magazine, and it could also be how the Facebook page is curated. How the photos that go up on the Instagram feed. How things are copy-edited on Twitter. And where the logos are placed on your videos.

Sneaker Education in Brand Management

You have to be more multifaceted now. You still need to know how to put a sentence together because that’s the building block of everything else. When you are working with a brand of sneakers in this digital age you’re not just managing one thing. You have to think about it as an entire brand, especially if you’re running a media site.

Trademark infringement is a huge issue in the sneaker industry. Just look at Lil Nas X and MSCHF; they did the Satan Shoes, where they took a Nike Air Max 97, injected human blood in the sole, and put devil imagery all over the sneakers. Nike sued for many different causes of action, trademark infringement being one of them. Trademark infringement is not something to take lightly. Remember this as you continue your online sneaker education.

Converse filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission against 31 different companies over trademark infringement on the Chuck Taylor sneakers. Adidas sued Skechers and actually won the case for trademark infringement on their Stan Smith. Warren Lotas was sued by Nike for his version of the Pigeon Dunk. The list goes on and on and on. You’ll see no shortage of these kinds of issues in your sneaker education.

In order to prove trademark infringement, you have to demonstrate two things. First, you must prove that you have a valid and protectable trademark. Next, you have to demonstrate that there’s a likelihood of consumer confusion; that the consumer will likely be confused as to the nature or origin of the product or services. In order to prove a likelihood of confusion, courts look at the Polaroid Factors, which is a long list of factors that they weigh against in order to determine whether or not there is a likelihood of confusion as to who actually owns the product or service.

This history of sneakers in film and videos really dates back to Spike Lee movies like “Do the Right Thing,” and “She’s Gotta Have It.” Lee helped bring sneaker culture to the forefront of film. There is one iconic scene in the movie “Do The Right Thing” where the character, Buggin Out, is wearing a pair of Air Jordan 4s. During this scene, his sneakers are run over by a passing bicyclist. This moment in the movie is, still to this day, one of the most powerful sneaker scenes in film history.

The famous movie scene not only displayed the Air Jordan 4 sneaker on the big screen, but it also exposed the idea of someone getting angry about their shoe getting scuffed. Afterward, Buggin went home and tried scrubbing out the scuff with a toothbrush. This is a very real feeling that all sneakerheads have felt. Spike Lee was able to bring this emotion to film because it was something he experienced himself.

This exposure led to Spike Lee, Nike, and Jordan forming a longer relationship. They worked together to develop stylized shoe commercials that resembled films. Their partnership was a starting point for sneakers in film and pop culture. After that, sneakers played a significant role in movies like “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Blue Chips,” and “Like Mike.”

If it weren’t for Spike Lee and his movie “Do The Right Thing,” we wouldn’t have the sneaker video content that we have today. Sneakers used to play more of a complementary role to performance, but nowadays, sneakers have become more of a main attraction. There is sneaker video content all over the web, on YouTube, and on Instagram.

Sneaker Industry

Sneakers have always been a big part of sports like basketball. However, these sneakers cater to a specific audience of people already predisposed to them. For example, any basketball fan that saw Michael Jordan wearing Air Jordans already knew about them, even if it was just peripherally.

In “Back to the Future,” Michael J Fox wore a pair of futuristic-looking Nike Macs that were almost the costar of the film. The shoes, and that particular part of the film, were both created by famous Nike designer Tinker Hatfield. This unique project was an excellent opportunity for a man who is creative on many levels to flex in an entirely different lane.

A Shift in Sneaker Culture

This shift in sneaker culture created an area in film and video where people would notice sneakers that they usually wouldn’t. Sneakers are often viewed as just a necessity. Just something that people have to buy their kids every year that often comes with a surprising price tag. But when you see something amazing like the Nike Mac in the movie “Back to the Future,” it raises awareness. Those shoes become so much more than just another piece of a school uniform.

Great Scott!

Sneakers like this have a cultural context to them. They represent this importance to another generation that people may not recognize. The futuristic sneakers designed for the movie “Back to the Future” became the future of shoes in reality when Nike created and sold the light-up, self-lacing shoes based on the film.

The cross-over commercial for Nike’s new Back to the Future-inspired sneakers launched in 2011. In the commercial, the shoe store employee shows the futuristic sneakers to the athlete customer. He’s talking about how the shoes light up when Doc shows up and asks if the sneakers are self-lacing. The employee tells him that they will be adding that feature in 2015.

Sneakers in Television

Popular television series like “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Seinfeld: were iconic sitcoms, but they were so much more to sneakerheads. A true sneakerhead will never forget Will Smith, standing in the empty living room wearing his all-white Jordan 11s in the last episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” or the episode of Jerry Seinfeld when he put his feet up on the coffee table, revealing his Air Jordan 7s.

These were all vital moments in the sneaker culture, and they happened before the internet was a big thing. Now websites like Complex make lists of the best sneakers aired on hit TV shows, and sneaker brands tell stories around these pop culture moments.

On-court sneaker coverage in the NBA has definitely changed. In the ’90s with Michael Jordan, you had to wait and watch the game and see what they were wearing on TV and kind of squint and try to match what you saw in the sneaker store to what they were wearing on their feet. Now, we have 4K cameras and HD TVs. You can see every detail, and there are a lot more choices in terms of on-court basketball sneakers than there used to be.

There used to be four colors of Air Jordans every year. Now, there are eight colors of Air Jordans that come out a month. Now, there are websites and blogs that are just dedicated to what NBA players are wearing on court. I think it’s changed along with how technology and the internet has evolved. It’s just made everything a lot more accessible.

Building the business of sneaker media is a topic discussed in the sneaker education course.

“Nice Kicks” was, in a way, the Forefathers of the Blog era when it came to sneakers. You know, the blog was the “who, what, where, when, and why” of athletic shoes. Then, when that blog caught on, a lot of other companies were developing blogs. They were predecessors of, “Sneaker News” and “Hypebeast” and, of course, “Complex.” These sites were the original group to kick off the popularity of shoe blogs and online sneaker education.

I remember “Nice Kicks” and “The Shoe Game.” “Sneaker Files” was another of the early ones. These were the first pillars of popular shoe media and sneaker education. However, you’ll remember that I was saying that those blogs didn’t get invited to press trips and press unveilings back in the day. Now, they’re on the priority list for brands.

“Bobbito’s Confessions of a Sneaker Addict” was essentially the first recorded piece of sneaker media. I actually remember talking to Bobbito about this, and I remember him telling me that before his blog, the only way that you could see athletic shoes in the media were during basketball games. He would say that viewers would hope that a player got injured so the camera would shoot a close-up on their feet so they could see what shoes athletes were wearing in the NBA.

That was the first time you saw someone write passionately and knowledgeably about the subject of sneakers, and it was in a legitimate magazine. I think that was really the genesis of all of athletic shoe media. Then, from there, Bobbito went on to write the first book about the sneaker industry, “Where’d You Get Those,” which is, I think, over a decade old now.

That’s the beginning of the print age, and then, SLAM launched “Kicks” magazine, started by Russ Bengtson, and that was the first real magazine dedicated to this type of shoe. That was an offshoot of SLAM.

Then, you have the internet age that came in. Sneaker blogs really started first with forums and message boards like “Nike Talk” and “ISS,” which eventually turned into “Sole Collector.” These forms were kind of like hives of sneakerheads where these people would post leaks or things that blogs pretty much cover now. The difference between forums and message boards was that you could have actual interaction with other people in the community, where opening up a print magazine, you really couldn’t have that.

Now, it’s kind of evolved to web blogging. Those forms and those message boards turned and evolved into actual publications with branding. The heads of these sites could curate the news and things that were covered and then still have a lively comment section where there’s a community of sneakerheads interacting with the content and interacting with each other.

Fast forward to the mid to late 2000s, that era turned into social media and online blogs. Then, even shorter, easier versions of blogging, basically, where everything was in 140 characters or less. Everything could just be as simple as an image with a caption. Through that, you start to see the arc of where sneakers on the internet and how people who are consuming this content grew. None of that would have been possible without “Bobbito’s Confessions of a Sneaker Addict.” That was really the start of everything.

Like everything else in the world, the price of sneakers has consistently gone up over the years. This is due to inflation, but even more so, due to market demands. For example, when the original Air Jordan 1 came out, it cost $65. Nowadays, you are paying around $160 for the same sneaker. That’s almost a $100 price increase that happened over the past 30-plus years for that one shoe.

Sneakers Are Used as a Status Symbol

The price of sneakers used to be viewed as more of a status symbol. The New Balance 990 was the first sneaker on the market to cost over $100, so if you saw people wearing them, you knew they had money. Many drug dealers, specifically in the Philadelphia and Washington DC areas, wanted those sneakers to display their status.

The same thing happened with the Nike Air Foamposite One. They became a status symbol because of their price. They were about $180 when they first came out in the 90s, and they quickly became the known shoe of hustlers. Status is how sneakers and the sneaker culture were given life and why sneakers are more expensive now than ever. Today, there are New Balance sneakers that cost close to $400 and certain Air Jordans that are over $300 a pair.

The price increase of sneakers is also causing the resale market on shoes to go up. It’s not just about the initial price of the sneakers, it’s also about the demand. A pair of Yeezys that retail for $220 can resell for over $1,000. Most people that I know aren’t going to go out and buy a pair of $1,000 shoes, so the cost is almost fictional at this point.

Most ordinary people aren’t paying the $1,000 price tag on resale shoes, but celebrities and rappers are. They buy them outright with cash, or they make trades. They are taking four or five pairs of shoes that they own and trading them all in for one new pair. This is what’s driving the economy on sneakers up. Of course, people are looking to cash in and make as much money as possible on the secondary market, so I don’t see this ending any time soon.

Sneaker Education on the Stages of the Sneaker Economy

There are different stages of the sneaker economy. First, there is wholesale, which is the sneakers’ manufactured price and the cost retail establishments pay to procure the sneakers. Next, there is retail. Retailers are where consumers would buy the sneakers. The retailers can charge whatever cost they want; however, there is a suggested price created by the manufacturer called the MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price.) This price is just a suggestion and does not have to be used by the retailer. Finally, you have the resale economy. In this day and age, sneakers are the most popular on the resale market. This is where a new kind of retailer comes into play, called consignment shops. Consignment shops can include physical stores and also sites like eBay and Amazon.

Resale Market of Sneakers

Consignment shops thrive purely on the resale market because the value is based on popularity and demand versus supply. For example, let’s say a popular sneaker hits retail stores, and only 2,000 were made, but more than 2,000 consumers want them. When these sneakers enter the resale market, they become more valuable due to their rarity and exclusivity. As a result, the value from their box price is going to skyrocket.

If you are going to resell your sneakers, then be prepared to pay out some of the profit because everyone wants a cut. If you are reselling shoes with a consignment shop, they will take 20% of what you make on them. If you are reselling them online using an e-commerce site, which allows you to sell anything, then be prepared to pay sellers fees and such.

Now you have companies that are starting to index the resale value of sneakers that are historically released over time. It’s almost as if we are treating future models of sneakers like current commodities. When you have companies tracking the resale value of sneakers in real-time, it speaks to how the resale sneaker market has come to be worth over one billion dollars.

This sneaker resale market is crazy because, to be quite honest, many of these sneakers are widely available. Some consumers just assume that specific sneakers are going to be hard to get, and it’s this way of thinking that drives the value of the sneakers up. It’s similar to the speculation that goes along with the stock market.