WHAT WAS THE SNEAKER OF THE YEAR in 2020? w/ @richiele - Life of Sneakerhead

Don't be surprised if CNN next year has a stock market sneaker trading segment on their channel. By all accounts, guys, 2020 was a crazy year, but sneakers still went on. So today we have to hit Soul Stage at NYC with special guest Richie Lee to recap everything that happened in this year-end episode of Life of a Sneakerhead. So whether you agree with us, disagree, or just enjoy, hit that like button and let's go. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Life of a Sneakerhead. It has been quite some time, but it wouldn't be right. Richie, you're here in New York for a little bit. Man, it feels good to be back with the bros. We used to do videos all the time together. So to be here with you here in New York means a lot. How much bigger can the sneaker resell economy grow? In the past five years, I asked myself the question, can it get bigger? And I just, it's insane. And it just does. Somehow, some way it does. Don't be surprised if CNN next year has a stock market sneaker trading segment on their channel. And I feel like every time something has happened, someone's like, oh, this is killing sneakers. Oh, this group killed sneakers. Oh, they made them look bad. Nah, there's always more sneakers. There's always going to be reinventions. There's always going to be a sneaker people forget about and don't like anymore. It's just, it is what it is. Rich, for the last five years, Nike and Adidas have been just going at it. Nike draw. I mean, Adidas have the ultra boost. Nike came back with this and that. It feels like in the year 2020, this is the year that Nike really firmly just took the game. Wow. I would say, yeah, I can see that. You know, that's been a huge trending topic among sneakers right now. Adidas not coming out with any crazy hits, but I see it like this, right? You got an artist. They might not have had a huge hit, but if you can have a lot of solid songs that still get some play and you know, you have that audience that still plays them, that's still a good career. And I feel like that's what Adidas is doing right now. So it is really good. It's a really good time for people who want Adidas shoes because it's not so crazy hype right now. Exactly. You're not losing anything getting into Adidas, but don't think that it's going to just blow your whole feet up and everybody goes, Oh, it's not like that anymore. It used to be. It doesn't have the most clout right now. Yeah. Is it true that the bucket of money that was all going toward ultra boost pretty much shifted and additionally just added onto the preexisting bucket for the AJ1 Air Jordan 1? Wow. The AJ1 right now are so crazy because it hits so many price points. You have it reselling from $300 for your GRs and upwards to $2,000 for unions now. So it hits a huge range. The ultra boost never used to do that. It stayed within a like, you know, small range. 200 to $500 range. Yeah. And that's why the AJ1 is so crazy. I feel like because everybody could get a piece of this. I feel like the bottom end of the Air Jordan 1 really got a lot of money injected into it. Like the more the mid GRs. Red toes, royal toes, mochas going crazy right now. Do you think for a lot of the people who are not super into sneakers, but watch the last dance got inspired. They were like looking at anything that seemed like an OG colorway. Listen, the resale market is sharks right now. Anytime trending, anytime something happens trending and they feel like something could react off of it when it comes to reselling, they're going to hop on it. And the, uh, what exactly what you just said gets representation of that. You showed OG Jordans in the dock and those skyrocketed. I feel like Nike too, is really like allowing a lot more flexibility in general, right. Than they used to, for example, throwing the full length zoom air and those, um, Air Jordan 1 turbos and just kind of like making it more of like a shoe that you can wear without damaging your back. Yeah. I, you know, what comes to my head when you say, uh, flexibility and like, I guess freedom the narrative of Kanye leaving Nike due to him not getting that freedom. Like maybe they learned from Connie, like, Hey, we need to start being a little bit more innovative and not stuck in our ways. Cause look, he left and blew Adidas up with all our, with his Yeezys. So maybe they're like, all right guys, Kanye left. Hey man, we, maybe we need to be a little bit more, uh, you know, more, more fun with our stuff. And I do agree. A lot of drops have been coming out that are more creative. Rich piggybacking off. You're talking about Nike versus Adidas. People stealing Yeezy. They just took Lorenzo. Yo, that was a crazy, I would call that a chess move. All right. That is a chess move, especially cause you know, what's even more clowning about it. His fear of God Nike stuff are in stores right now. It's so much like what you announced you're going to Adidas and you still got to sell old Nike, uh, fear of God stuff. Like wouldn't Nike feel some type of way about that? I mean, you just walked into Nike lab yesterday. They still have his whole collection there. Yeah. So it is an insane move. Not just the move itself, but time. So real quick question. You think on Jerry's side, you think that was, is that shade at all? Cause like, can you, is there any type of, I don't want to draw anything from it. I don't want to assume. I think, uh, you know, as time goes on, we're going to hear more about what the deal is and how it's structured and everything. And if they gave him full clearance and it's a huge long-term contract that just goes to show you Nike wasn't willing to do that. And I do think Nike doesn't really give him that clearance that he may want as a creator. Cause if you look at the Nike fear of God, it's pilling it. It just looks like Nike stuff with a fear of God, like tiny logo. So I think he's going to do some crazy stuff with Adidas. So even just piggybacking what you said off earlier where you're like, yo, Nike needed to like ease up a little bit, but clearly they didn't ease up enough for Jerry. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Aren't you guys 2020? The dunk is back. Wow. For sure. Started off with Travis Scott releasing these right after the, uh, new year hit. And, uh, that kind of set things off, obviously with these, I thought they killed this collab right here. This gave everybody that nostalgic SB dunk collab feel. Cause it was like, you learned about the brand that they were collabing with. You saw like the huge branding with the box and everything. Resell shows you firsthand right now. We're talking about like 3000. Exactly. You know what I noticed about these new collabs from 2020 is they just look crazy. Everything from the lacing to the packaging, to the marketing. I like that too. They're giving you a lot of bang for your buck. Obviously with the GR like this, it's just very straightforward, you know, but something like this, you got different laces. You got distressing underneath you. If you distress this right here, you get elephant print underneath. Like you get a lot of crazy in the no type elements when it comes to expensive dunks. You know what I feel like? Do you agree with me or not that it's either like these shoes are going ultra crazy. Like these Travis Scotts and these chunky donkeys, or you're almost going with the ultra collegiate 1985 white and some varsity color. Yeah. That's a good point. Cause then, you know, you got these, obviously a lot of the Jordans are starting to come out and you have something like this, which is like, this is still in the same price range as that. And you're getting a lot of bang for your buck with something like this. Look at even down to like the red glitter in the blue area. I didn't even notice that. Yeah. Rich, as much as 2020 was sort of for the hype stuff, union fours, off-white fives, sort of like these hot GRs dropped, right? Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, not everybody has $500 to a thousand dollars to drop on some hype sneakers. So you have something like this that once was one of the most coveted sneakers to ever release Wu-Tangs, I was everything. And then you drop it for like 200 bucks resale right now. Of course, everybody's going to gravitate towards it. It's kind of like getting a piece of history for the cheap. Yeah. That was a really cool thing that Nike did. As much as 2020 was the year for Nike to sort of take over Adidas again, the smaller brands were able to really do their thing, right? Yeah. And I think that's just a testament to the times right now. People are sick and tired of the same thing over and over. So they're willing to, you know, branch out to other brands and explore new silhouettes and designs. And I think, you know, with all these small brands emerging, it just shows you people want something different. Yo, what about the rise of New Balance? They didn't only have a rise only in fashion. They also rose in the basketball world too. With Kawhi? Yeah. I mean, just put us in there too. I disagree. I disagree. I think they had a crazy opportunity, New Balance wise, and they didn't capitalize because they didn't release enough, right? They didn't release anything. I can't even, I can only name one, which is that claw. Puma went crazy when it came to basketball sneakers, signing what? Kuz, LaMelo, like all the young guys. So yeah, Puma is what I think you're talking about. Converse signed Kelly Oubre too, who's always a meme-able. But I guess, what do you think, New Balance? I feel like the plain like 990 V5s was always kind of popular amongst like the designer crowd, retired hypebeast crowd. But now you're starting to see the Ame collabs and everything go for crazy resale. Yeah. I think people, I look at the Ame collab kind of like a Jordan 1. You can rock it still with like that slightly menswear look and it's easy to wear and people like it. And then also I think the 550s, the Ame collab, people like them because the Louis Vuitton sneaker trainer that Virgil designed go for a lot of money, like a thousand plus. And this was like the biggest alternative to those. A few other trends that I believe were pretty new in 2020, you got the bot game going crazy. Yeah. You got sandals going crazy. I've heard someone talk about bots like sneakers, like they already sold it for $5,000, bought it for 200 on release date. So they're bot? They're not going to say their name. That used to resell sneakers for a living and now they just resell bots. That's what it's come to. That's what it's come to. It's crazy. What is it about the sneaker game? Because people cannot really shop in person. Like everything's digital. Yeah. Everything's digital right now. So it allowed, you know, bots to just become a huge thing. Everybody wants to post their W's, got them's or their L's just to show that you're part of everybody getting a sneaker. You know, you feel part of a community when you missed out even. What if Nike was just like, yo man, low key for the sneakers app. We were just trying to get everybody to wake up early just to just be more healthy. Well, they did, but then you got people pissed off too. So you want people waking up mad? All right. We got to talk about slides because these are not really sneakers, but they're footwear. And I feel like footwear in general is just so huge now. But, uh, I mean, Nike came out with some, you've got the Crocs that were blowing up a lot of celebrities wearing these. I mean, I mean, all birds did a collab with staple. Obviously you think the slides, is it a cycle? Is it just a trend or are slides here to stay? Because it's footwear. I think it's a representation of where footwear is headed right now. Everybody wants this whole thing to be a lifestyle. Hence why you see bare bricks blowing up, even artwork blowing up. So people want to, it has to be all aspects of the life. And obviously people wear slippers. They hang out around the house and everything. They want to wear something hype. You know what I mean? So it used to be where you would just like have some $20 Banasi Nike slippers and then go wear some hype shit. But now it's like all elements of your life have to be hype. As you guys know, there are global trends that sort of trickle down into the sneaker world, sustainability, environmentalism within fashion. It's really big. And I feel like, I don't know if you agree with me or not rich, it's sort of like made its way into like really expensive $5,000 jeans. Yeah. Like, so what, what Chrome Hearts will do is buy an old pair of Levi's like real original, you know, maybe from the 70s, 80s, and then repurpose them with their own like hardware, their own leather patches and whatnot. And then they throw a crazy price tag and people are going crazy. Is it related at all to like what Nike's doing with the space hippie shoe where it's like, it's all recycled material, but it's still high end. I think the Chrome Hearts thing is a little bit different because you're picking like a one of one, you know, design of the Levi's. So that's why they're able to mark up so highly, but the space hippie thing, they're expensive, but they don't have any resale price. They don't have any resale value at all. No one, I kind of look at it kind of like a, this is a weird comparison, vegan food. You know how like vegan food is generally more expensive, but it's like really good for the environment. It kind of goes along. Feels good. Feels good. Yeah. Theoretically, vegan food should be cheaper because it's just plants that are growing in the wild. But, but the process of making certain vegan food is more expensive, just like maybe the space hippies, like the process of making the recycled shoes is even greater than the regular shoes. Rich, I got to ask you, is Supreme, how are they doing in 2020? They sold to the Vans group for like- It's going to be a, it's going to be a very, very interesting year for 2021. And Supreme, I'm curious to see where they take things. Obviously the, you know, a lot of people are saying the box logo kind of fell off, even with the long sleeves dropping, people don't really care. They sold out obviously, but the resale is not there anymore. Does it have to do with the corporate takeover of Supreme? I don't think so. To some degree, it's tough to say. But you think it just kind of, nothing's going to be that hot for that long, right? Yeah. They had an insane run. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, you can't be mad at the run they had. I got a prediction. I think in four years, the box logo comes back in full force, just as crazy as it was four years ago. It did cross my mind to go ham on some long sleeves while they're on the low right now. All right, you guys, we are near the end of the video here at Soul Stage, just going over the trends of 2020. Let me know if we missed any in the comment section below, but it wouldn't be right to end without talking about a trend that's sort of like crested over the last five years, four years. Insane amount of colorways in Yeezys. Every damn type of plant, rock, soil that has dropped on the earth, he came out with a colorway for it. Sometimes he would drop three colorways at one release. Right. Like, it goes to show you, he made do on his promise. You want Yeezys? Everybody's going to get them. Do you think that a lot of people questioned him, like, only picking colors from like the earth's core? You know- But then it worked. There's only so many red and blues you could do. So he started going to Wyoming a lot, looking at all these different shrubs and stuff and like, hey, we're dropping colorways off these. And what do you think, man? I mean, this was the big dog of the last five years, right? Yeezys were the most dominant sneaker driving force. Now they're probably still in there, but they're no longer the biggest slice of the pie. You've heard us say it before. We generally think the V2 is one of the greatest shoes of all time by way of just its timelessness, how many colorways, how many shoes sold. And I think that this silhouette, this design is going to be around for years to come. For sure. I still see people rocking them. Most of them you can wear really well. They're comfortable and they look, you know, natural colors. You can wear them with a lot. Just to end off, last sentence, Rich, we move into 2021 now. Do you see any strong trends taking shape? 2020 was kind of like a mishmash. I think the huge announcement with Jerry Lorenzo going Adidas is big. It depends on how much he's coming out with and yeah, we'll see. Right now is a time where there's not a huge trend that people could identify, I would say. One thing I'm looking forward to when it comes to 2021 are a lot of the smaller brands. Like we were talking about, I got the Hoka's on, that's a French brand, obviously known for running, but now making kind of like streetwear boots. Salomon or whatever. That's like Swedish. I'm excited to see what those guys come up with and who's almost market share they're going to take up or the market just gets bigger. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching this episode of Life of a Sneakerhead 2020 recap. If you guys have any agreements, disagreements, additional comments, leave them in the comments section below. Huge shout out to Richie Lee for being in it. You guys, we're in New York City on Soul Stage and until next time, we out. Peace.