I used to work as a developer on a large sneaker site based in the UK (Crooked Tongues). Before then I had just thought of sneakers as something you wear. One of the guys I worked with was heavily into it and since we would get a (heavy) discount he'd suggest pairs to me I should buy purely as an investment. I think the best return I had was nearly quadrupling my money on a pair of Air Jordan 5s.<p>One of the last projects I worked on at the agency was a book of rare and collectables [1] - I think at one point we had the equivalent of half a million dollars sat behind my desk (the large yellow box in the middle is the Nike "Air Mag" Marty Mc Fly sneaker they mention in the article) [2]. After all this I understood a hell of a lot more that there's money in anything when enough people want it. Sounds obvious, but I didn't fully appreciate it until then. That and the power of marketing to create value out of thin air.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/sneakers-the-complete-limited-editions-guide-hardcover" rel="nofollow">http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/sneakers-the-complet...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://i.imgur.com/bO6nYts.png" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/bO6nYts.png</a>
There are days, when I just dont understand.<p>I understand Nike's position and the resellers and the entrepreuners - they're all making good money off all this.<p>But, for the non-investers, those at the end of the chain, I can't even begin to imagine why someone would pay over 5000, or 1000$ or even over 60$ for a pair of shoes. Perhaps, i could understand if it was the top 1% of the income ladder. But, we're talking about middle class buyers right? The very same ones who struggle to pay rent and food, the 65% of the population we keep hearing about who has less than 400$ in savings? Is a pair of shoes more valuable than having a home to live in? I'm confused.
I use to run a super popular sneaker encyclopedia and collected shoes. Mostly lost interest in shoes and then the site slipped from popularity, but it was an interesting time. I had every Nike Dunk colorway name and Air Jordan memorised hah.<p>I still appreciate nice shoes just as people like art. Some of the sneaker designers like Tinker are truly artists.
There is even a Numb3rs episode
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1256331/" rel="nofollow">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1256331/</a>