It is time to put your best foot forward, quite literally, because it is National Sneakers Day. Every year, on the 9th of October, Sneaker lovers celebrate this day by wearing Sneakers! That’s it. You should too. But do you know the origin of your favourite sneakers? Well, here’s a quick summary.
Sneakers; Trainers; Tennis Shoe; whatever you call them, they’re everywhere. From the President of the United States to the teenage pop star, everybody wears them. Needless to say, tens of billions of sneakers are manufactured every year. It is currently an eighty million dollar industry. The biggest athletic shoe companies make more in revenue than the GDP of some countries. So how did a piece of rubber, leather and canvas become such big business?
The history goes back to the 19th Century. New sports like Tennis and Croquet required new footwear to protect the grass lawns they were played on. Not long after, sneaker brands started to appear. Converse’s most famous shoe, the All-star, made its debut in 1917. Soon, the Dassler brothers, Adi and Rudi, founded their own sneaker company. The duo capitalized on influencer strategy; the one that is widely practiced today. The Dassler brothers, back in 1920, got Jesse Owens, the US Olympian, to wear their shoes. They knew that the sales would plummet if someone famous sported their shoes. The strategy paid off when Owens, amidst the political tensions, went on to win four gold medals wearing Dassler shoes!
However, soon after the world war, the Dassler brothers split to form their own companies, Adidas and Puma. Adidas is an amalgamation of Adi and Dassler. However, when Rudi tried attempting the same formula by naming his brand formerly Ruda, it didn’t work out quite well, hence Puma was born. The story of sneakers is not only about finding the right name for the product but also about marketing. Another milestone in the history of sneakers is that of Nike! Nike was popular during the jogging boom of the 1970s. To give a boost to their sales and most importantly to diversify, they launched Sneakers in collaboration with basketball legend Michael Jordan, making him the biggest athletic spokesperson of all time. The Jordans have now become a legacy, as we all know. In the first year of their launch, Nike made more than 100 million dollars in sales now rising to terrific 3.4 billion dollars in revenue in 2020.
From 1917 to date, the sneaker industry has been evolving with time. The latest player in the luxury sneaker segment is Buscemi. Launched in 2013, Buscemi redefined luxury and class with their 100MM sneakers launched in only six hundred exclusive pairs at five of their debut stores around the world. Needless to say, these sneakers sold out quickly sans any traditional marketing. In the last few years, Buscemi collaborated with Collete, Ronnie Fieg, Swarovski, and Union. Do you remember the verse in a rap song “You know I’m rocking Buscemi’s, and I’m as raw as sashimi”, was a part of their collaboration. You can get your hands on the Buscemi and rock them in style. Buy Buscemi, Bally, Paul Smith, sneakers for less at Positivo.
The moral of the story is, Sneaker is more than a mere piece of a shoe, it is a part of your personality, your fashion identity. So start your love affair with sneakers on National Sneakers Day. Do not forget to apply our special discount code "SNEAKERDAY" to get 20% off. See you at the shopping cart!
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