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Private and Confidential © Shoe Intelligence News and analysis of the international market www.shoeintelligence.com Copyright © EDM Publications - France - ISSN # 1291-6269 Sneakers: a never- been particularly successful with this Vol. 21 - N° 11+12 - June 12, 2019 ending story kind of exercise, resurrecting and reinterpreting old vintage styles in - A look at the sneaker market ................... p 1 Claudia Schulz, a well-known German more contemporary vein. Thanks - CCC buys Gino Rossi ......................... p 3 fashion expert who enjoys a strong to its very popular and relatively af- - Deckers reaches a milestone ............... p 3 reputation in the footwear market be- fordable Diruptor model of chunky - Jimmy Choo outperforms .................. p 4 yond the national borders, feels that sneakers, coupled with a message of the strong sneaker trend is here to Italian style, Fila, which is now owned - Hunter is in the black ........................... p 4 stay, although WSGN recently indicat- by Korean interests, accelerated the - Schuh Group quits Germany ............. p 5 ed at the Micam trade show that sales growth of its sales in the first quarter - Mixed results for U.S. retailers ................. p 5 of “trainers” seem to have reached of this year, rising by more than 60 a peak in the U.S. and the U.K., with percent in the U.S. and by more than - The U.S. trade war and its effects ............ p 7 women starting to add high-heel 100 percent in Europe (details in our - No GSP for India and Turkey .................... p 8 shoes and ballerinas again to their sister publication Sporting Goods - India is a promising market ..................... p 9 wardrobe to assert their femininity. Intelligence Europe). International Calendar of Trade Shows p 12 Perhaps they are doing it at the same - .... time and for different occasions. According to Schulz, the sporty look Corporate that goes with sneakers tells a “nev- Sneakers are simply comfortable, er-ending fashion story” like jeans, Bikkembergs, Birkenstock, says Schulz. They project a sporty im- which, by the way, are also in fashion Desma, Elisabet, Hudson’s Bay Company, Kering, Netshoes, age and give a certain dynamic to the right now. They tell a story of com- Signa Retail p 13, etc. associated clothing. On top of that, fort as well as youth and resilience, sneakers have acquired a cult status she says. Management & Distribution in the last few years with men and women being led to desire specific Fashion trends come and go. Schulz Camper, Fabi, Ferdinand Richter, Inditex, Keen Footwear, La Halle, “must have” styles that are generally notes that skater looks like those of OrthoLite, Tapestry, Vagabond, VF sold in limited quantities, she notes Vans’ Old Skool line have been rath- Corp., Vivarte, etc. in a report that she has prepared for er popular in recent years, although Shoe Intelligence. Vans’ strong double-digit growth has Retail started to slow down lately. While Amazon, BasicNet, Google, We agree, and we think that this par- Converse has been less successful Instagram, Superga, Zalando, etc. ticular trend has been fostered by than Vans since its takeover by Nike, several brands of luxury, sports and Schulz notes that vulcanized can- Others casual footwear through the release vas shoes like the Converse Chuck Birkenstock, BNS Bergal, Görtz, of limited editions to create demand Taylor All Star have inspired many HDS/L, Hugs & Co., Lubrizol, Lyst, for new products, widening their best-selling models with ankle-high Manolo Blahnik, Rocky Brands reach to a new clientele, particularly textile uppers. p 5, Satra, Sugi International, millennials. They have been market- Vapesol, Yoox Net-a-Porter, Yue ed with the clever use of social me- However, today’s sneakers are more Yuen p 11,etc. dia such as Instagram, often with the frequently inspired by jogging and Eugenio Di Maria - Chief Editor & Publisher help of influencers and in collabora- tennis shoes, says Schulz. They tend Tel.: + 33 1 4983 8242 tion with celebrities. to be New Balance-type shoes, fre- [email protected] quently rendered in multiple colors, Philip Webster - Italian Correspondent Sports brands with a long heritage like or very clean styles in white or whit- Tel.: +39 02 659 6347 [email protected] Adidas, Puma, Ellesse and Fila have ish tones. A recent highlight has been The information printed in this newsletter cannot be photocopied, faxed, translated or distributed electronically without the publisher’s permission. Shoe Intelligence www.shoeintelligence.com Page 2 News and analysis of the international market Adidas’ Stan Smith, a must-have vin- perhaps still hanging in their ward- introduced by Chanel, Giuseppe tage style that has helped the wearer robes. Even Vans has just launched Zanotti and Gucci for wealthy and to spruce up a greyish winter outfit. a line of chunky sneaker of its own, brand-conscious consumers. The called the Stacky Pack. same goes for highly sought Ital- As reported in SGI Europe, the Stan ian brands like Premiata, Golden Smith has been enormously popular The big volumes of these styles con- Goose and Philippe Model. in recent years. Yet a few months ago, trast starkly with the former mini- Adidas reacted to the strong demand malistic trend. According to Schulz, We wonder, however, how the ugly, for its Stan Smith by taking lots of this renders them relevant also for distressed look of Golden Goose’s pairs out of the market because it the comfort segment, making them Italian-made sneakers may have was reducing the image of exclusiv- adaptable for large widths in a styl- become so desirable, especially in ity that trendy sneakers tend to have ish way, while allowing the brands view of their high price. Is it because these days. The big German sports to add functional elements. In fact, it’s so radical and different? Good brand has decided instead to launch Ara and several German brands of luck to Clarks, which has hired a new styles more frequently, including comfort shoes have added sneakers former chief executive of Geox and new editions of older models. to their collections because they Golden Goose as its new CEO. are both trendy and comfortable. Bulky sneakers with thick soles like Moreover, Schulz points out, sneak- Dr. Schulz has a partial answer to the Triple S, launched by Balencia- ers are perfect for women over the our question: She feels that sneak- ga in January 2017, are now fully on age of 60 who feel younger. They ers will continue to be in demand, trend, says Schulz. Her statement was want to dress younger and be more but she adds pointedly: “Yet, I have supported a few weeks ago by Björn fashionable than in the past, while noticed that precisely young peo- Gulden, the chief executive of Puma. keeping the comfort factor. ple are now again showing more in- He predicted that the chunky sneak- terest in brown shoes.” She refers er trend will continue for a while be- The choice of sneakers and the seg- to new models of certain types of cause customers are still prepared to mentation of the sneaker market is brown shoes like Buffalo’s very pay a high price for this kind of style, getting wider, with a stronger dis- trendy hiking boots and functional indicating that there is ample room tinction being made between life- styles from brands like Cat, Lowa, for its subsequent popularization at style sneakers and performance- Merrell, Keen and Columbia. “The more accessible prices. Puma, which oriented athletic shoes, and the reason for this,” Schulz feels, “may is growing faster than Adidas and movements in this market are be the fact that youngsters nec- Nike right now, adopted the chunky becoming less predictable. In the essarily want to set themselves style when it was still controlled by past, young and old people were apart from older people if grandpa Kering, which is also the parent com- wearing Converse Chucks as well or grandma starts wearing a pair pany of Balenciaga. as some classical styles by Adidas, of Nikes. No way do they want to Nike, Puma, New Balance and Ree- wear the same brand.” Chunky sneakers, which are often bok as street shoes, but there is highly decorated, are also called more variety now in the market. We don’t think that the generation- “ugly sneakers.” They are meant to al breaking point has been reached draw attention. Some refer to them As Schulz points out, some spe- yet, however. Judging from its re- as “Dad sneakers” because of some cific, cool models of sneakers have sults, Nike is still performing very old-fashioned versions that were be- suddenly emerged “like the phoe- well, more so in the lifestyle seg- ing worn in the 1990s by the fathers nix from the ashes.” They have ment than in the performance seg- of today’s young consumers, and are been offered in limited quantities, ment, probably because it has a making them more desirable. Inci- very wide range of models and fre- dentally, we think that a limited- quent new releases for all types of The Euro June 12 rates edition strategy is useful not only consumer. It may be the way to go Czech Koruna 25.61 to create the desire, but also to for smaller brands. For the more Danish Krone 7.468 test the market at a minimal cost, fashion-oriented brands, another Hungarian Forint 321.3 and the progress of 3D printing way to go could be the addition Norwegian Krone 9.780 should make this easier to imple- of more functional elements to Polish Zloty 4.262 ment in the future. their sneakers, like Gucci’s recent Pound Sterling 0.891 Swedish Krona 10.71 presentation of a chunky sneaker Swiss Franc 1.123 In addition to this new phenom- with the look and function of a hik- U.S.

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