Bags / Shoes & Accessories

Xiaojie, who is still in his senior year, is a Sneaker (a shoe collector). As the main force of the school basketball team, Xiaojie has loved basketball shoes since high school. "My current sneakers can fill a storage room."

If you search Sneaker on a social platform, you will find a group established in 2017. Their profile is "The most turbulent trend in a city, which is attacking the younger generation with a ‘thunder and thunder’."

Sneaker, originally meant to be rubber-soled shoes, is also commonly known as one-time vulcanized rubber shoes. Later, as people's love for shoes continued to rise, the meaning extended to people who love sneakers. This type of person is also called Sneakerhead (toe cap, refers to people who are obsessed with sneakers). They look at the shoes first when they meet each other, which is the way for toe caps to greet each other.

With the sudden emergence of the hundreds of billions of tide play market, Sneaker's love of trend culture is no longer limited to the pair of sneakers at their feet, but about all aspects of sneaker culture.

For example, the rising trendy shoe storage, those transparent and translucent shoe boxes, because of the IP co-branding or limited edition, can even be sold at a price increase of thousands of yuan, which is more expensive than many shoes inside. After fashionable shoe storage has become a new trend of fashionable culture, what follows is another hidden "post-trend market" driven by the fashionable market.

Popularity of non-rigid products

In fact, the discussion about who makes more money from digging for gold or selling shovel started from the California gold rush in the 1890s.

Behind the high prices of trendy shoes such as Bubble Mart, Nike, and AJ, there is a market that focuses on selling trendy surroundings and has become the main force in the gold rush. This market is called the "post-tide market". In the post-trend market, the most concerned is the trendy store market. According to data provided by iiMedia Consulting, in 2020, the scale of Tmall's trendy storage consumer users will increase by 100 times compared with 2019.

"The love for sneakers is real, and the worry about storage is also real." Anyone who likes a box is first of all a Sneaker.

Looking back at the development process of storage boxes, the memories of those born in the 1980s may still be in traditional storage box materials such as MUJI and Alice. These brands are mainly made of healthy and environmentally friendly PP material, which is of drawer type and only the heel can be seen.

With the growing trend of culture, in the eyes of post-90s and post-95s, fashionable shoe storage boxes have more ornamental attributes. No deformation, no blind spots to watch, current brands mostly use hard plastics such as acrylic, which will make the storage box stronger. At the same time, the shoe box is side-opening, so that the side of the shoe can be fully presented.

For Gen Z, who likes technology, the shoe box also adds technological elements such as LED lighting effects and voice control systems. At the same time, in order to extend the life of trendy shoes, they are increasingly picky about shoe boxes. "Shoes are most afraid of oxidation, especially white shoes." Tight airtightness guarantees that the shoes will not be attacked by dust and humid gas and prolong their lifespan.

It is worth mentioning that the "sugar" of trend culture has also ushered in the attention of business leaders.

In 2019 Taobao Maker Festival, the largest fashion shoe storage booth ushered in the visit of founder Jack Ma. At the later Yunqi Conference, Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong also mentioned the trendy shoe wall created by the new brand for trendy shoe storage when describing how new creations and new supplies meet the new needs of consumers.

At present, there are already many entrants in the evening reception market. Tech Planet combed and found that the market as a whole is divided into three categories. The first is brands like SupBro and GOTO, which are relatively early in the domestic market, focus on market segments, and have higher recognition. According to public information, in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, 60,000 GOTO shoe boxes were robbed within 3 minutes.

The second type is brand original shoe boxes launched by trendy communities such as Dewu and Hupu, such as the trendy brand WHITE HOT. The third is that after sniffing business opportunities, the factory-operated stores that originally made traditional storage boxes have broadened the trendy storage categories.

One by one, the strong grass ushered in the east wind of the trend. Hidden markets have gradually surfaced.

Buyers increase prices, everything can be fried

In the shoe ring, there is an effect called the "AJ effect". To increase the sales of a sneaker care agent, if it is only for AJ, I am afraid it would be more appropriate. Similarly, a pair of AJ can be fried from 1,000 to 10,000, and an AJ storage box can also be fried from a few hundred to 800.

The production threshold of the storage box is low, and the revenue ceiling is visible to the naked eye. Therefore, engaging in IP co-branding and releasing a limited edition is the first step to give shoe boxes a premium space.

"Look at my storage box, which is a joint model with Nike SB & Hey Tea. Now I can sell 2,500 one. I sold half of it. There are two left," Chen Jie told Tech Planet.

Note: Provided by the respondent Note: Provided by the respondent

At first glance, the matte appearance is not suitable for men. But in the eyes of Sneaker represented by Chen Jie, the color is not the main thing, the important thing is his rarity. This ultra-limited shoe box is not only voice-activated LED, but also unavailable on the market, commonly known as non-commercial. At the 2019 exhibition, this shoe box was only displayed for two days in the hi tea pop-up store in Sanlitun, and was not sold.

In fact, this is not the first time a shoebox has been released in limited quantities at an exhibition, and it dates back to 2018. Li Long revealed to Tech Planet, "My home is in the northeast, it is a luxury to participate in the shoe box fashion exhibition." The core of the fashion is culture, and the exhibition is usually selected in cities where young people gather. For example, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Chengdu are trendy and attitude places.

The most secure way for Li Long to get his favorite shoe box is to find a local part-time buyer. According to Li Long, these buyers are generally part-time students. In the "Jiangshan" of the shoe wall he spent more than 100,000 yuan, he had three experiences of finding a buyer.

In the first week of the airing of the variety show "This Is Slam Dunk 3", Supbro sold the joint series of shoe boxes at the Guangdong exhibition. At that time, four styles were released, and Li Long bought a total of 12 shoe boxes. Among them, the series of "Vitality Orange" is priced at 318 yuan. He found a buyer on the second-hand trading platform, starting with 500 yuan, and increasing the price by nearly 200 yuan.

People like Li Long who really like sneakers will not hesitate to pay for the buyer, even the box dealer.

In the second-hand trading platform, search for shoe boxes, there will be many entries. "There are a lot of shoe boxes online, and they are basically box dealers," Li Long told Tech Planet.

Some shoeboxes are sold in the same logic as shoes, not that they can be bought once they go, but lottery must be drawn in advance, and those who are drawn are eligible to buy shoeboxes. "That was the first time I looked for a buyer. I bought the 299 box and I bought it at 800". I bought a joint model of Supbro and Donald Duck, which was sold in a limited number of draws at the exhibition.

In the two years of playing with shoe boxes, Li Long's identity has occasionally changed from a consumer to a "box dealer". The most time, he and his friend bought fifty or sixty each, monopolizing the shoeboxes sold in the current period.

According to Li Long, the original price of this box was 369. He sold it for 800 yuan. Although the premium was not high, he made nearly 30,000 yuan. "In the entire secondary market, only I have this shoe box in my hand." Although there is no guarantee that every box will make money, Li Long lost once in the process of reselling shoe boxes. "Things are rare and expensive, and if the number of shoe boxes sold is calculated, there is no problem."

But sometimes, it is difficult for Sneaker to figure out the routine of the brand. Xiaojie, a high school student mentioned above, has always been a loyal fan of a certain brand and has been "harmed" by the brand once. The shoe box on sale in the current period was originally a limited edition, and Xiaojie found a buyer to buy the box. It didn't take long for this shoe box to be found on the brand's official website in large numbers, and it was given to others in the form of welfare in the store. "By doing this, it is difficult for the brand to retain fans, because I was buying a limited edition because I wanted to be unique."

Is this a good business?

It is undeniable that young people are the largest consumer group, and businesses targeting young people are mostly good business.

In 2016, the domestic sneaker market was in a relatively mature state, "there are already many people playing shoes". Supbro founder Cody introduced to Tech Planet. Cody found that foreign brands such as Crep and Jason markk are relatively mature and the market is stable, but there is a big gap in the domestic sneaker care segment.

Cody, the founder of Supbro, told Tech Planet, "I have targeted high-end sneaker enthusiasts from the very beginning." 40% of the fans are from men under the age of 23. This is a crowd portrait of Cody fans. This directly shows that the trendy shoe storage box that intervenes between functionality and social attributes belongs to a small group of consumers.

Sneaker needs to wear shoes to show their attitude, so the shoe box is just needed for them, and it is also their new way of socializing. But in the hearts of ordinary young people, what they value more is the functionality of the shoe box.

"I buy a shoe box, not for decoration or viewing, but for better storage and maintenance," a consumer revealed to Tech Planet. "I have a storage box for Bubble Mart now. Maybe because of its small size and less consumables, the price will be lower than the shoe box."

Perhaps I realized this, "If you don't find a precise customer group, the product conversion rate will be very low." An industry source said that some storage box brands will adopt to enter shoe stores to obtain more customers.

Tech Planet discovered that there is a fashion shoe collection hall located on the first floor of 33 Shopping Mall in Sanlitun, Beijing. In addition to all kinds of sneakers, dozens of storage boxes are stored between the cash register and the showcase. Cody revealed to Tech Planet that it currently has 130 sneaker shops, which are equivalent to agents. At the same time, live delivery on the platform is also an important sales channel. "Personally, I am a video creator of trend culture."

New opportunities in the market are emerging, and the storage box market is still in a stage of barbaric growth. The entry barrier is low, fakes are rampant, and at the beginning of the brand's rise, they can't escape the vicious circle of paying for traffic. According to Cody, Supbro's annual marketing expenses are around 7%-10%.

In the trendy play market of more than 30 billion yuan, Bubble Mart undoubtedly occupies half of the country. If the Chaowan brand does not keep up with Bubble Mart's footsteps, it may be left behind. Cody told Tech Planet: "They are designing storage boxes for trendy toys, and the target group is young female users."

On Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street, the busiest street in Shanghai, the largest Nike store in Asia is still crowded with people. This is not only a shopping paradise for toe caps, but also a new social venue for young people.

One of the problems facing players in the market is that products require innovation to continue breaking the circle. After all, only after the wave receded did I know who was swimming naked. Whether the post-trend market is a good business, it needs to be tested by the market.