Sneakers Are Dead, Long Live Sneakers!
Sneaker spotting at Trader Joe's, Lululemon, Sephora, Nike SoHo and Denim Tears fifth anniversary party
This post is a focus on sneaker trends in New York City as photographed by me primarily during the second-half of August. Images were taken in Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn, the farmer’s market I go to every Sunday near my home in Brooklyn, Lululemon, Nike and Sephora in SoHo on Broadway in Manhattan, and finally, Denim Tears fifth anniversary party in Dimes Square.
I began thinking at the start of the pandemic that we were due for a shift away from logo-driven athletic and luxury brands simply based on what I’ve observed over the years as a 10-year (or so) cycle, driven by a synergistic alignment of fatigue, economics, nostalgia and technology.
Over the past two years, we’ve seen adults shift away from flashy, athletic-inspired fashion and embrace styles often described as quiet luxury, preppy, indie sleaze, or Y2K. This trend has fueled the resurgence of brands like Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch (chart above) and J. Crew, alongside luxury labels such as Khaite, Totême and The Row. The Row, in particular, has seen a notable increase in revenue—estimated between $250M and $300M annually—attracting financial backing from investment firms tied to the families behind Chanel and L’Oréal.
And while yes, adult consumers have expanded their wardrobes to include loafers, ballet flats and kitten heels, it occurred to me during this exercise that athletic footwear is not only still relevant but even more popular than five years ago.
Rather than a couple pairs of sneakers, consumers now have multiple pairs to reflect the activity, so one shoe for trips to the farmer’s market, another for workouts and a third sneaker to flex while shopping or attending an event. At the same time, the more mature customer (40-50 and up) has swapped out boat shoes and other casual brown shoe for athletic shoes like Hoka and On, which look and feel like adult shoes.
Athletic footwear has managed to push back on the 10-year cycle in my opinion by trumping brown shoes with better designs but just as importantly, better technology. A loafer remains a loafer and a boat shoe is still a boat shoe but a sneaker in addition to providing an easily identifiable tribal identity statement is capable of correcting gait, fixing foot problems and above all else is comfortable.
Before all the images, I want to point out that across all landscapes there was one shoe that was a constant and that was the Adidas Samba, a shoe whose ubiquity laughs in the face of TikTok forecastors who’ve declared the silhouette is over. First introduced in 1949, Samba is the perfect shoe for the moment: an iconic low profile silhouette that packs a ton of design punch, all for a reasonable $100.
Of course its massive popularity in New York at the moment leads one to wonder how long its popularity will last. My guess is that it won’t be the most dominant shoe in New York this time next year, but I have no idea whether or not the affinity for Adidas will remain and take shape in the form of another silhouette. There’s also room for another brand’s silhouette to emerge and begin taking over the landscape.
And now on to the pictures…
Cortelyou Greenmarket: Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
Income: Lower-middle to high income
Percentage wearing sneakers: 50%
Common brands: Adidas, Birkenstock, Crocs, Hoka, Jordan, New Balance, Nike, Salomon, Skechers
The Farmer’s Market on Cortelyou Avenue in Brooklyn, reflects the neighborhood, which is very mixed in terms of ethnicity, race, religion and income. It was August and still very hot when I took these shots, so approximately 50% of attendees were wearing sandals, often Birkenstock or Crocs but also three-point sandals and all manner of random foot covering. This is a local destination, so a lot of times people were wearing casual footwear reserved for taking out the garbage or the dog and trips to the corner store/bodega.
Among the premium-priced athletic footwear brands, Hoka was probably the most popular but just barely. Really there was a little bit of everything, including Adidas Samba, Salomon, Nike, Jordan Retro and Skechers. Because the market draws a lot of demographics, there’s an element of randomness that makes it hard to draw any hard conclusions, but I definitely got the feeling that people were not focused as much on making a style statement as trying to stay comfortable as possible.
Also, it was difficult to pinpoint any color themes. One thing I’ve noticed is that Hoka wearers like color (baby blue was the “it” hue this summer) and actually shy away from wearing all-white. That could be because Hoka shoes are often used for walking and running long distances, so people are choosing colors more capable of hiding dust and dirt, but it may also be that it’s an older customer who’s less tuned into the white sneaker trend.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Snobette News to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.