Who do sneakerheads love?

It’s a toss-up between retailers and resellers, with one attracting more sneakers to India and the other helping you keep your footwear rotation strong

It’s March 3. The time is around 7.30 am in India, and thousands of sneakerheads across the nation are in front of their laptops, tablets, and phones (in some cases, all three), logged in with different IDs — waiting to select the right size, hit the ‘Add to bag’ button, and checkout, all within the span of a few milliseconds. This isn’t the first time they are doing this and the repeated failure of multiple previous occasions doesn’t deter them from trying again. What if I get a W (sneaker-speak for ‘get lucky’), they fantasise.

This is how most launches (Supreme x Nike SB Dunk High ‘By Any Means’ release, in this case) play out online. Whether the early morning stress is worth it or not is subjective, but the hype is definitely real. The sneaker space has grown, matured and expanded into one massive commercial addiction that isn’t going to be shaken off anytime soon. It’s widespread, gender-neutral, age-nostalgic, and volleys against the strict, stuffy rules and rituals of a conformist era. This movement isn’t just about comfortable shoes, it’s an embodiment of the idea of freedom, an unabashed statement of self-expression, a brazen declaration of your individuality. Never mind my verbose definition; as Gen Z would succinctly sum it up, ‘it’s a vibe’!

Although the sneaker craze has had the world in its grips since the late 2000s — with the more affluent Indians satisfying their covets by shopping abroad — it only caught on locally with the opening of the VegNonVeg store in the capital. This was in 2016, and it was early days. A shoe store with sports shoes that weren’t meant for running was quite a shocker for the many first-timers who walked in.

Contrast this with the recent opening of the 1,600 sq ft Mainstreet Marketplace store, by young entrepreneur and reseller Vedant Lamba, in the same city (at The Dhan Mill in Chhatarpur), where rare silhouettes, aka ‘grails’ are being sold for prices many times over their launch retail tag (and none of the walk-ins seem to be shocked), and you realise that in barely half a decade, things have come a long way.

But I have dived in deep too soon; let me dial it back a bit. A sneaker, essentially, is a sports shoe. But unlike active gear today, which is based on the latest R&D to make an athlete go faster and further, here the focus is on old styles that were “cutting-edge” back in the 80s when they were first launched. Today, while their performance prowess may be outdated, their comfort stays and, most importantly, their looks remain unparalleled. Think of it like a vintage car — it has a certain old-world charm and nostalgic appeal that can be quite timeless.

Ironically, for all its claims about nurturing individuality and democracy, the space is crowded by two major brands: Air Jordan (by Nike) and Yeezy (by Adidas Originals). Sure Reebok and Puma surf the scene, as do Fila, Converse and Vans, delivering some super pairs now and then — and New Balance has seen revived interest of late — but more often than not, when sneakerheads get together about the ‘one that got away’, it’s one of the afore-mentioned two or a collab thereof.

So how does one acquire these ‘grails’? Besides the early-morning rejection I described a few paragraphs ago, stores like Superkicks do a great service. They are the official channels to launch these shoes in India. “Retail being the first contact for new products makes it the place where we can tell the brand stories effectively and introduce the narrative of the products to the consumers,” says Sangeet Paryani, founder of Superkicks.