The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 333 — SneakerCon is political now

This weekend was a huge mess

Feb 19, 2024

Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend. Mine was good! Wasn’t too busy. Wish I had been able to go to Indy this year for All-Star weekend. There’s always the bay for next year though, right? See y’all out there.

MAILBAG TIME! Folks, we’ve got our first mailbag of 2024 this week! Drop your questions and comments here in the inbox! We’ll get things going for Friday. I can’t wait to see what’s on your mind!

Refer a friend

Let’s jump in.

Trump takes over SneakerCon

black metal window grill on white concrete wall — *Photo by Alejandro Cartagena 🇲🇽🏳‍🌈 on Unsplash*

Sneakers and politics came together in a way we couldn’t possibly have seen coming. Donald Trump showed up at SneakerCon on Saturday and basically held a campaign rally while selling sneakers. It felt like watching an episode of Black Mirror.

I’d been racking my brain all Saturday morning trying to figure out why.

The why: On the surface is that he was there to peddle his new sneaker line.

There were three pairs in total. A gold pair called the “Never Surrender” (lmao) high tops ($399) and then a couple of knit trainers in red and white ($199 each).
Each pair was available for pre-order online. Trump sold 1,000 pairs of the high tops at the event. They sold out.

There’s more to it: Don’t be fooled by the sneakers. There was much more to the former president’s visit than that. That’s clear when you consider the connection Trump has with one of the company’s co-founders.

Follow the money: SneakerCon co-founder and co-CEO Alan Vinogradov has donated money to the former president’s campaign on multiple occasions, according to FEC campaign donation data.

The numbers: Vinogradov has donated $744.30 to Trump’s presidential campaign directly and has also sent $827 to a Trump Super PAC.

No, that’s not a ton of money. It’s certainly not enough to buy a Trump appearance at SneakerCon. But it is enough to forge a connection between the two of them. Trump is using that connection to gain access to a voter bloc he covets.

Trump lost Pennsylvania to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The difference was the youth vote. When it came to voters between the ages of 18-39 the former president lost by 20 points, per POLITICO.
Who does SneakerCon have access to? Those exact voters. And the event just so happens to be in the key swing state he lost.

Will it work? I’m unsure. There was very clearly a crowd there for him, but Trump was also booed in the building, too. We won’t know the true impact — if there is one at all — until November.

On the backend: Let’s talk about where this leaves SneakerCon — a company that was already polarizing as is. It’s even more so now after this move.

I’ve spoken to a lot of people in the sneaker world this weekend about this a lot of them told me they’d never be going to a SneakerCon again.
On the other side, some people claim to not see the issue here with a former president — especially this one — essentially holding a campaign rally at a sneaker trade show.

My take: This doesn’t seem like smart business to me. They say all press is good press — even the bad press. And that might be true for a day. Maybe even two or three. But I guarantee you CNN or MSNBC won’t be talking about SneakerCon by Friday.

Vinogradov got an audience with the candidate he supports. Obviously, that works for him. And maybe it’ll be a springboard to something else for him down the line — Trump has had stranger folks in his cabinet.

But in the meantime? SneakerCon has become political and alienated its clientele. It was just a place where sneakerheads participated in this culture we love so much. But now it’s picked a side. And, let’s be honest, it’s the wrong one.

We’re talking about Donald Trump, y’all. That track record is obviously not great. But have you seen his plans for a potential second term? It’s awful stuff.

We’re talking about a legitimate war on immigrants, nixing the entire Department of Education, placing loyalists in key federal government positions. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks.

That’s the man that SneakerCon gave access to on Saturday. That’s the person the CEO of the company is supporting. And that’s why so many folks aren’t spending money with that company ever again.

Count me among them.

What is Nike doing, man?

I’m sure Nike was grateful for everything that went down at SneakerCon this weekend because, whew boy, did it need something to take the heat off this weekend.

The news: Nike is laying off two percent of its workforce, which amounts to more than 1,500 jobs, according to CNBC.

The reason: Nike CEO John Donahoe detailed the layoffs in an internal company memo. It boils down to a supposed shift in priorities.

“We are redeploying our resources to increase investment in our most significant fields of play and growth opportunities such as running, women’s and the Jordan Brand. … To fuel this investment, over the coming months we will more sharply align our organization with our strategy and continue the journey we began last year.

Nike is still Nike. But the lack of innovation and ingenuity has caught up to the company. This move is a reaction to that.

Details: As far as who is getting snipped and when it’s happening, here’s what we know so far.

The layoffs are happening in two stages, which feels particularly cruel. Some folks were laid off on Friday. Others will have to wait til the end of Q4, which is in May.
The impacted employees will mostly come from Nike’s corporate headquarters. Donahoe says the company doesn’t expect it to impact store employees or distribution workers.

Zoom out: Layoffs are becoming what Nike is known for these. That’s the reality of the Donahoe era.

At the very start of the Donahoe era in 2020 the company laid off hundreds of employees in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The very next year, the company let go of a few hundred more.
At the tail end of 2023, dozens of employees also lost jobs as part of Nike’s executive shakeup.

And now, here we are with another round of layoffs — this time with the amount heading into the thousands.

Let’s be reasonable: Layoffs are part of corporate life. It’s happening across industries. Nike is not immune. There’s been a major shift in how retail works over the last four years. Companies are still trying to figure it out.

But… It’s one thing to experience hardship. It’s another when hardship feels like the only thing a company has experienced in the last four years.

Hopefully, the rank and file don’t have to keep suffering for it.

Adidas Hoops is killing it

I’ve talked a lot about Adidas needing to build a solid foundation somewhere to replace what it lost in North America with Yeezy. Its basketball line might just be able to fill the gap.

The skinny: Adidas showed its basketball line at its Future of Hoops activation this week in Indianapolis for All-Star weekend. Aesthetically, this is the coolest thing we’ve seen from any basketball brand in a while.

A look:

Pictured above: The AE 1 (top left), the D.O.N Issue 6 (top left), the Harden Vol. 8 (bottom left) the NOVA IIInifnity.

There’s also this bad boy:

That’s a look at Adidas’ new Dame 9, which looks a bit like a fusion between the Ant Edwards model and the Crazy IIInfinity 1.5 that we saw last year.

There’s a theme: The Yeezy QNTM vibes are strong here. Adidas basketball carries this futuristic look that sets it apart from what other brands are doing. Everything looks similar but still feels unique in a way that nobody else’s basketball brand seems to get right now. I’m not saying that this stuff is as good as Nike Basketball in 2012 but, in that way, it does feel similar.

What’s next: As good as these models look, we must see if they hold any weight with consumers. We won’t find that out until the next Adidas earnings call.

March can’t get here quickly enough.

Talk that talk, Under Armour!

Y’all know I love it when these sneaker brands get spicy with each other. That seems to be a theme in 2024.

Case in point: Under Armour stepped to Nike on Saturday after Stephen Curry beat Sabrina Ionescu in their personal 3-point shootout at All-Star weekend.

Nike’s social promo for the event: “Best not miss.”