The $100 Sneakers Are A Mix Of Melee.

Because Twitter user @Ibelievethehype ("I believe speculation") a casual discovery in early March, in just a few days, tens of millions of young people all over the world know a stalk through social networking: Vans shoes will face upwards no matter how they fall.

If you want to buy a pair of shoes, this is not a tempting excuse, but Zhang Pengfei immediately decided to join them.

Zhang Pengfei, who has worked for 3 years, is hardly a person who can reach the financial freedom of sports shoes. He also has some popular styles, such as Nike's Air Max and Adidas's Ultra Boost.

Last summer, Zhang Pengfei spent 1499 yuan on a pair of Parley Ultra Boost (Adidas claimed that each pair of Parley consumes 11 marine recycled plastic bottles), and he also beat Nike and Losangeles Chao Fear of God over a combined price of over 3000 yuan, but "just can't afford it".

There is no particular reason why a single pair of Vans is so decisive. It would be more reasonable to spend less money than to throw the shoe upside down.

Vans's latest quarterly results at the end of 2018 showed double-digit growth for fifth consecutive quarters, and China's market grew by more than 20%. In 2023, global sales were projected to exceed US $5 billion.

Vans, which is catching up with the retro trend, is now an average 16 year old American Teenager second favorite footwear brand, with a popularity ratio of 20%. The first is Nike (41%), of course, but Piper Jaffray, a research institution that started the youth consumption survey in 2001, said that this is "the other brand has been closest to Nike for many years".

Nike has occupied the first place in the survey for 8.5 years in a row.

(Cartography: Zheng Shuya)

People rarely compare Vans with Nike, after all, this is the two companies whose annual income varies from single digit.

Before 2017, fashion and luxury trends had not yet spread to the whole sports market. Nike did not need to invest more in high-end sports shoes and sports technology to control the right to speak.

At that time, Vans was not worth mentioning in scale compared with Nike, and it was CONVERSE, another brand of Nike group.

The positioning of Vans trend skateboard shoes is only overlapped with a small part of Nike's business.

"This is a very obvious feeling, (Nike Adi) the two brands actively push up the price, and their own shelves form a fault."

Nelson, who runs a fashion shoe store in Malaysia Sole What, told the curiosity daily that many consumers once thought, "I can't buy Nike's expensive shoes. I simply don't pick Nike. I have no choice. The next step is to see other brands."

Over the past 2 years, Nike has sold more than 1000 yuan for its main shoe.

The unsold bubble shoes Air Vapormax costs 1499-1599 yuan, running shoes Epic React Flyknit2 sells for about 1299 yuan, and the newly released Air Max 720 sells for 1399 yuan.

These styles are called "top-level platforms" by Nike, and the selling price is basically over 150 dollars.

Air Max 720

Nike, the first in the industry, will not let go of this inflated sports market, but its energy is limited.

After 2 years of competition for Adidas in the high-end market, CEO Mark Parker said at a conference call in March 21st: "in the next fiscal year, we will quickly add new products to the price segment below US $100."

A new competitive force has emerged in the short price segment, and the average selling price of Vans is about $60.

At home, Lining and Anta's new exploding shoes are also eating away the steady growth of Nike ADI shoes.

Converted into RMB, the market is bigger.

According to the exchange rate, 100 US dollars will be about 671 yuan, but it will not be counted.

The price of the Nike P-6000, which sells for 100 US dollars, is 799 yuan in the Chinese market, while Nike's price tag is Nike Tanjun Taobao can get 299 yuan on Taobao.

Competition is omnibearing.

According to the curiosity Daily's interview with brands, channel players, designer shoes and consumers, the middle and low grade shoes market is now showing a state of fusion and mixing, and from design, channel, marketing to supply chain, all of them are changing.

One

From the market scale, sneakers priced below US $100 are the mainstream.

According to the NPD group, the average price of men's sneakers sold in the US in 2018 was $70, of which Nike Tanjun, which sells for $65, has been the first in the market for two consecutive years.

At this price, although marketing and product update speed is far lower than high-end footwear, it has contributed 3/4 footwear revenue to Nike. Mark Parker calls it "core product".

2018 ranking of us shoe sales (bold display below $100)

One

Nike Tanjun

Two

Nike Air Max 270

Three

CONVERSE Chuck Taylor Ox Low

Four

Jordan XI

Five

Nike Air Huarache

Six

Vans Ward

Seven

Nike Revolution 4

Eight

Nike Flex Contact

Nine

Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2

Ten

Nike Air Force 1 Low

The predecessor of Nike Tanjun was Nike's Nike Roshe, which was launched in 2012 and swept the world. It was named "Japanese (Zen Master)" in Japanese.

This minimalist design running shoe is the hand of Dylan Raasch, a junior ball designer who has just joined Nike for 3 years. It is undoubtedly one of Nike's most successful shoes in the past ten years.

The whole pair of shoes only use two materials: Knitted vamp and EVA sole, and a shoelace.

The whole piece of non wearable EVA means very light, and when the 2014 neutral design trend Normcore swept the fashion world, Nike added more color matching to Roshe Run and upgraded the Flyknit flying line vamp. It turned into a pair of ubiquitous street shoes.

Comfortable, light and simple style soon led to the sports market, and the introduction of various new technologies made "comfort" the threshold of the industry.

In the latest US sales of sports shoes in February 2019, the upgraded version of Roshe still ranks fourth, but the popularity of Tanjun has changed.

The new style of the high-end shoe market has stimulated people's needs.

A person close to Nike said that sales figures under the influence of daddy shoes were too high to be ignored.

"For example, Air Monarch IV ($80) used to be comprehensive training shoes, only sold in Outlet channels, because sales were too good to move to other shops; NikeCourt Lite shoes ($65) could not be found in stores, especially online because they looked like old shoes.

Nike has been doing Flyknit for too long. The problem is that the vamp is easy to be monotonous, so people turn to favor complicated design.

Left: Air Monarch IV, right: NikeCourt Lite

600-800 yuan is the main price segment of sports shoes in Tmall, and the active brands are changing.

"Good brands are doing more competitive price bands, such as Lining's" retrospective "series dedicated to electricity providers, and Anta's NASA joint series, buying a lot of consumers who were originally international brands.

Tmall sports outdoor leader Sheng Ying said that in addition to Lining and Anta, such as FILA, Huili and other brands also launched more in line with the current trend of shoes, data on a good performance.

Fashion means more positive orders.

A report by Tianfeng securities shows that Lining's sales of new products accounted for 78% of the total sales in 2017, up 9% compared to 2015. Among them, the "China Lining" series on the New York fashion week sold more than 3 million 500 thousand pairs in the first half of 2018, and the price was almost 2 times that of Lining's past shoes.

In the traditional sense, the price range of 299 to 799 yuan is behind the two groups of price sensitive adolescents and middle-aged and elderly people.

When more and more people begin to accept the idea that sports shoes are only used for matching, there will be some different faces among these consumers.

Fang Qinzheng is 44 years old. He usually wears Tod s, Toms and Puma shoes. He is one of the first consumers to buy Lining in the February 2018.

When Fang Qinzheng was 20 years old, he wore Air Max 95 to Tokyo. Many people would stare at his shoes.

"I know Lining's brand's ups and downs in business, and after that, I feel that I must give it some encouragement.

No more than one thousand yuan, I think it's worth it. "

Two

Lining's "chief designer of fashion week in New York" Chen Lijie did not expect that the "understanding" would become a burst of money. All the styles of New York show in February 2018 were made by more than 100 design teams inside Lining, four months ago, after receiving the tasks, some of the products even came from the spot in season, and it would be too late to design from scratch.

After the fire, almost all Lining's new product design and marketing revolved around the 4 words of "China Lining".

Not long after that, Anta also went to Shanghai fashion week, and launched the joint NASA series of the US aerospace agency, the joint series of man Wei and so on in the following year.

These are the common marketing methods of Nike's AJ and Adidas's Yeezy.

Once the domestic brands that are not associated with the past can create enough topics, they can duplicate the same practices and ultimately affect the voice of the channel side.

At the end of 2018, the trend media KIKS and Anta launched the family and friends limited joint series (only 40 pairs) launched in June, one is daddy's shoes, the other is running shoes, and got a good response.

Among them, the old man's shoes have been cut off. At present, Taobao's KIKS shop can also buy broken code running shoes.

In April 2019, KIKS contributed to the sale of the joint overseas brand Sole What.

Shopkeeper Nelson said, "ANTA x KIKS series is pretty good. It is a rare commodity that Anta has collided with the trend media, so this cooperation has been promoted.

And I hope there will be more similar products in the future. "

1/2

ANTA x KIKS

Skech opened IP cooperation for the first time in 2018, and launched a series of cooperation between One Piece, Line Friends and Champion.

"The plan for 2019 is to talk about independent designers and tide brands."

Skech, vice president of China's marketing department, told the curiosity daily that consumers do not have such high demand for functions in mid price. "More importantly, whether products have culture or not is the content of marketing". "Zhang Ruiyan,"

The spirit of branding is how to interact with consumers.

Zhang Ruiyan said that after adding a lot of fashion shoes, Skech could "better enter the sales channels". "We also have Cage Cage Mark Nason brand concept store, this year's plan is to open 100."

The joint series of Skech and One Piece

The biggest difference between fashion and sports technology is that most brands can only follow the trend.

Below 800 yuan, this lack of technology selling point support price range, everything has become a positioning game.

Pang Xiaomin is the founder of a sports shoe company in Shanghai. His company's "Zanthoxylum" campaign aims to target people around the age of 25 and is looking for financing.

"I think that the essence of clothing and footwear industry is" publishing ". Now the problem of training shoes is that it can not meet the needs of individuation.

After spending a lot of time identifying brand positioning, the team designed the shoe as a functional wind.

"We will not call it comprehensive training shoes, nor will it be called the for fitness market. It is the sports shoes."

During the interview, Pang Xiaomin showed a sample price of 299 yuan, a total of two shallow colors.

If there is no background introduction and marketing "scenario", it is hard to judge from what design it is a pair of shoes.

Three

It's not as easy to catch up with the fashion, especially when everyone is in a hurry.

Bao Junyi came back a year ago as a shoe designer, and was responsible for the "designer area" in Tmall's flagship store.

This area has two functions, one is to strengthen the brand strength of the force in the trend culture, but the online style, if sold well, it is possible to enter the physical store.

At the beginning, there were only two Bao Junyi and qinmen, who had worked in the women's shoes design team of Joshua Sanders in Italy.

"When we came back, we found that the factories in our country were doing well, but they didn't know how to make things beautiful with technology."

Last year, double 11, back to the sale of a pair of 349 yuan old daddy shoes "back to zero", is the oldest Shanghai brand so far the most expensive one.

"When we start to do it, daddy shoes have been popular for a long time, because the force is far from the trend, basically they are selling crazy, we have just done well."

Bao Junyi has now designed two series of 2018AW and 2019SS.

"You can clearly see that in May last year, we were doing some shoe type combing, which is a traceable pattern in the history of force back.

Recently, the "effective resistance of Hui Yan" is closer to the current trend.

Left: back to zero old daddy shoes, right: return wild ant invalid resistance

The period from design to mold production and production is about half a year, and the longest part is the mill.

"Before the back force, the sole of shoes is basically made in Oxford, because the color of Oxford is good.

After we take over, we should try different colors on shoe eyes, blowholes and shoelaces. "

Bao Junyi said that the new mold needs to think about what changes it will make in the future and whether it can make new adjustments according to the trend changes. "Shoes mold is very expensive.

Different factories have different styles, so our output is not very big. "

The shoes of designer district are usually 20 to 50 yuan more expensive than the other styles of the flagship store. "No way to lower it."

The most expensive "back to zero" we use is the same quality as Nike ADI.

However, the "return to zero" in Bao Junyi's view is to make "one hundred and twenty points of ideas made one hundred points of products."

"Consumers like what they have seen. I have to make a daddy shoe, but I don't want to do it with others.

We all have to be responsible for sales. "

Tmall sports outdoor category leader Sheng Ying said that the supply chain is the advantage of domestic brands.

"The supply chain of international brands is more futures, and ordering six months in advance is difficult to adjust in the future.

In terms of new products, the supply chain of domestic brands should be more flexible.

According to the data provided by Zhang Ruiyan, the growth of Cage's e-commerce channel has increased by about 53% over the past year, many of which come from the new type of electricity supplier, which accounts for about 5 of the total, which is much higher than in the past.

However, most of these new models are replaced with color and material, and seldom redesign the shoes.

"The role of the electricity supplier in the past few years is promotion, and this year is the upgrading of consumption.

As the Asian market is getting bigger and bigger, the international market will now ask us for some new models that are exclusively for the local market.

Just like other brands regard Tmall as a distribution channel for fast fashion sneakers, Nike also does the same thing on its own APP SNKRS.

At the WWD Retail 2030 meeting earlier this year, Cathy Sparks, vice president of Nike global outlets, said that up to 50% of the flagship stores in New York and Shanghai came from customers who use SNKRS (Nike's own APP).

They also noted that the consumption of these users increased after the use of APP.

Carefully comparing the products displayed in different parts of the APP, you will find that Nike has already designed the styles specially designed for Greater China, such as the following Nike Blazer Mid 77 Vntg.

According to people familiar with Nike, these shoes designed by the domestic team sell well, but they will never be the main theme of publicity.

Four

Nike still wants to win the sport technology story.

CEO Mark Parker said in a conference call that Nike will introduce new technology to the shoes of $100 during the 2019 return to school season. "We are adjusting commodities and marketing teams to support them in the market as a whole."

He said, "I am actually wearing a pair. I will tell you that it is one of the most comfortable platforms at present. It is exciting and visually unique."

In fact, Vans has done something similar in February this year: the brand launched a new marketing campaign on the global scale, promoting the upgrading of the comfort of 5 classic Vans shoes, and the Chinese version of the slogan is "comfortable and comfortable".

In 2015, CONVERSE also upgraded its classic model with Nike's insole technology.

However, it is doubtful whether similar "technology components" are convincing to consumers.

Zhang Pengfei made a bonus in the last week of March.

He began to spend more than 1 hours looking at Vans shoes on his cell phone, but from the very beginning, he avoided the 5 shoes upgraded by "ComfyCush".

"A couple of colors do not attract me.

I bought Vans not for comfort, but because of that video.

And in my opinion, the price is two times that of Air Max and Ultra Boost should be more comfortable...

After a while, I didn't have my Vans matching color. "

"Wandering around, I think, anyway, ready to spend money, look at something else.

Finally, I bought Lining's 2Ace.

But Lining's code is much bigger than Nike's.

I quit 2 times, making me hate online shopping.