“A lot of people get copyright and trademarks mixed up,” says sneaker industry professional Kenneth Anand. What is a copyright? A copyright protects an original work of authorship. “Original works of authorship” can include, but are not limited to, architecture, graphics, pictures, sculptures, works of literature, or other types of artistic work.

Examples of Copyrights

Jay-Z would have a copyright on the lyrics that he writes for his songs. He would also have a copyright on the songs themselves, as they are fixed in MP3 or CD format. Artist Daniel Arcam would have a copyright over his paintings, unique Pokemon, and eroded DeLorean sculptures.

Writer George R. R. Martin would have a copyright over his books for “Game of Thrones” and the screenplay for the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones.” These are various examples of the types of copyrights that you can have.

Benefits of Copyrights

“One of the main goals of copyrights is to allow the inventor the ability to reap the benefits of creating the work,” Kenneth Anand explains. This means that whoever owns a copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce, publish, promote, and sell their works of art. In order to obtain a copyright, the work must be fixed in a tangible form. You cannot get a copyright for just an idea.

Obtaining a Copyright

In order to obtain a copyright, your work must follow three basic requirements. First, the work must be original, meaning it must be independently created rather than a copy of something else already existing. Second, it must be creative, meaning that there must be some minimum basis of creativity for the work. Finally, it has to be fixed. Copyrights cannot be ideas or things made up out of your imagination. Instead, they must be fixed in some tangible form. If a work has all three of these elements – original, creative, and fixed – you can obtain a copyright for it.

What types of works can you copyright? As said before, a copyright protects works of authorship, such as songs, books, videos, and other similar creations. You can even get a copyright for fabric patterns, jewelry designs, software, and architectural designs.

Copyrights in the Sneaker Industry

What do copyrights mean for sneakers? Are copyrights even applicable to sneakers? Typically, under US law, you cannot get a copyright for things that are useful articles, like hoodies, shoes, and/or pairs of pants. These are useful articles that are not copyrightable because they are not considered creative, unique, or original. However, there are some ways copyrights can be applied to sneakers.

Many sneaker companies are now turning to copyright law to protect their designs. How? First of all, designs on the side of a sneaker can only be copyrighted if they are separate and distinct from the useful article (the shoe) itself. Kenneth Anand’s former colleagues at adidas, for example, obtained a copyright application and protection for the design of the Yeezy 350 Boost.

“Well, they applied to the copyright review board. And they originally denied their application, because the copyright board said that the designs on the side of the Yeezy were not original, and were not separate from the useful article itself,” recalls Anand. “They were not satisfied with this so they appealed. And ultimately they were able to obtain a copyright application for the design of the 350 Boost, which is the stripe pattern that everybody knows and loves of the 350.”

It took many years and a lot of legal fighting, but Kenneth Anand’s colleagues managed to obtain a copyright. Today, more and more sneaker companies are turning to copyright applications for a cheap and easy way to protect the designs on the side of their sneakers, as long as the designs qualify as copyrightable works.

While sneaker companies are turning to copyright law to protect the patterns and designs on the side of their shoes, copyright law is traditionally used in the sneaker industry in many other ways. “For example, you can copyright your website, photos, or other promotional materials that you create, in relation to the sneakers themselves,” Kenneth Anand continues. “So copyright is useful in many ways to protect a sneakers brand and all of the collateral that goes around building that brand.”

An important thing to note about copyrights is that you must ensure your designs do not infringe on other people’s works. If you do not, you could find yourself in a lawsuit that could take years to resolve and can be quite costly.

Final Thoughts

Sneaker education expert Kenneth Anand highly recommends that you make sure anything that you are creating is original, creative, and fixed in a tangible form. If you meet those three requirements, you will be on your way to obtaining a copyright and protecting your own intellectual property.

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.

When it comes to trying to get into any industry, I believe that the biggest thing is to pay it forward. With the sneaker industry, I’m not going to sugarcoat it—you aren’t going to get in and immediately start making a six-figure income with your first job. However, you can learn from people who will help you to eventually make six figures in this industry if you’re passionate about sneakers. With the right determination and approach, you could literally will yourself into getting a job.

The good thing for people who are going to participate in sneaker education now is that the industry is a lot different than it used to be. When I was around, it was very cut and dry. Sneaker media wasn’t even what it is today. Nowadays, there are so many different aspects of it. I remember thinking of a marketing job as being stuffy and having to wear a suit. Now, though, when you’re in one of those jobs, you’re marketing the next Lebron shoe. Or you’re marketing the next Yeezy.

The industry has grown so much that now there are so many different jobs that you would previously have thought of as only corporate jobs but have now been created by sneakers. I’m not going to say that it’s an easy business to get into, but I will say that there are a lot more opportunities in the industry. In the present day, there are many more jobs available to get into the sneaker space than there were back when I was first starting out. You just have to know how to work your way in.

For anyone interested in finding their way into the sneaker industry, online sneaker education is an excellent starting point.

Personally, I’ve never done an unboxing. But the content, in terms of unboxings in the sneaker industry, that I really like to consume are people whose voice I really trust. Authenticity is really important when it comes to unboxing. You have WearTesters.com. You also have Nightwing, who really puts sneakers to the test, and he’s very unbiased. If it works for this, if it doesn’t work for this, he’s going to tell you.

In such a crowded space of unboxing, you really need to separate yourself through authenticity. There are tons of shoes that come through the Complex office nonstop. If we were giving the same amount of attention and the same amount of review time and not really pulling at the idiosyncrasies of what makes this sneaker better than the other or this sneaker better than the one we’ve reviewed last week, then no one’s really to take you seriously.

When I think “authenticity,” I think a straight review of who, what, where, when, and why, but also what this is best for and what this is not best for in terms of a sneaker. That’s going to reign supreme and is currently really separating people when it comes to unboxing on YouTube. But consistency is the thing that makes you stand apart, and basically, the audience taking your word as legitimate. That’s part of your online sneaker education right there.

You also must refrain from ever faking an audience. And always remember to be true to your fans. It’s a big deal. So, you could have the sneaker unboxing. Reviewing sneakers can be a really crowded area, but some people are doing it right. Consistency is key. And it may sound cliché, but your word is your bond when it comes to standing out in a space that’s already severely crowded.

If I were doing YouTube unboxings, I would always look for a different angle. If the review thing is not my thing, maybe it’s something about how these look with this style of jeans. Or I would get into putting an outfit together with these sneakers and then establish some sort of rating system.

But whatever it was, consistency and something that’s a little different than what’s happening in the unboxing space. It gives you a great opportunity to stand out. But really, your voice, your consistency, and how much your audience trusts your word reigns supreme when it comes to stuff like this.

Even with something as simple as an unboxing video, there are a lot of different factors you have to consider. How many other people already have these shoes at the moment that I’m unboxing them? How fast can I turn this video around? Can I be the first one on YouTube who has these shoes? Because if I wait too long to edit it, there are already 20 other people who got sent the shoes from the brand, and I’m not really adding anything new. Just a bit of sneaker education to pay attention to here: you’ve gotta be able to bring something new to the table.

As far as adding things that are new, you have to have your own perspective, your own voice, because just showing the product is not going to set yourself aside enough. If people care about who you are and they care about your opinions, then they’re going to be willing to listen to what you think about these shoes. Now, people don’t necessarily give their actual opinions in these videos because they might be scared of offending the brands or the person who sent in the sneakers gratis.

But that’s a different story. Basically, you have to present these things in a way that’s unique. You can’t just show the product. In my opinion, in unboxing videos, the product is the star. That’s kind of different from a lot of these sneaker YouTube videos, where the person is the star. In unboxings, it is all about the sneaker, too, so you have to make sure you have gratuitous sneaker-porn type shots in there.

You have to show the shoes. The shoes have to look good. If the lighting isn’t on point, if the shoe is out of focus, you’ve just got to start over. In making an unboxing video, the first thing I want to think about is, “What’s coming out soon that people really care about?” In any given week, there are a lot of shoes hitting retailers, and most of them aren’t going to be worth your time to create content around.

What’s the biggest show releasing that week? What’s the limited collaboration that there’s not a lot of content around just yet? The second question is, “Can I get that shoe? Who can I rely on to get that shoe?” A lot of times, the person at the brand may have samples. They may be able to send you a pair. But they might not be able to get you a pair quick enough.

Do I know a person at a retailer who can help out with that? Do I know a reseller who might have an early pair who’s willing to lend me them so I can shoot a video with them and maybe even send some business their way? Even if you don’t have access to a brand-new shoe that’s coming out, there’s still a lot to talk about with shoes that have been out or shoes that came out before the advent of a lot of this stuff.

Even if you think about the SEO aspect, what are people searching for? What’s the shoe that came out 20 years ago that there might not be a lot of information about it online? Can I make a video about that that will populate in Google search results? And people will come, and watch the video, and learn more about the shoes, learn more about me, maybe even subscribe to my YouTube channel.

What are the holes in that space that I can fill in that aren’t necessarily about new shoes, or what’s coming out next week, or what’s coming out two months from now? After that, it’s figuring out what exactly we want to tell about this shoe in a short time span. Two to three minutes is usually a good time to shoot for.

How much information can we get in there? How much is too much? And then also, we kind of try and make it a little bit funny because we feel like the whole unboxing thing, a lot of people might take it too seriously. So, we try to give people a reason to come back, and hopefully my brilliant humor shines through in that.