Steve Leugers owns 186 pairs of sneakers. Elijah Bowe waited 24 hours outside Puffer Red's in Ypsilanti, Mich., to buy a pair of DMP Jordan IX's. Mike Daurio spends five to seven hours each day researching sneakers online.
They call themselves sneakerheads, and they are part of a growing culture that has elevated the once-prosaic athletic shoe to the exalted status of fashion statement, collectible and investment. Helped along by Nike and other sneaker makers, an entire network of Web sites, magazines, boutiques and competitions, along with a dynamic resale market, has sprung up to serve this youthful, Web-surfing crowd.
A couple of summers ago, the first International Sneaker Battle was held in Edison, N.J. Sneakerheads from as far away as Amsterdam competed for cash and trophies in categories ranging from "best rare collection" to "best Jordan pair." Celebrities like sneaker enthusiast Phat Joe and New York City radio celebrity Funkmaster Flex helped promote the event.
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“It was a very cool atmosphere,” said Daurio, who organized the event. “Young kids hanging out, talking about sneakers, listening to celebrities.”
While no one can pinpoint the exact moment when sneakers became big business, many sneakerheads point to the release of the original Nike Air Jordan basketball shoe in 1985. The online store instyleshoes.com recently listed a pair of those original Jordans for $5,000.
But that price does not apply to a pair of beat-up Jordans gathering dust in the back of a closet. The highest prices are reserved for pristine, never-worn sneakers still in their original box. Used pairs sell for thousands only if they have been worn by NBA stars like Vince Carter or LeBron James.
New styles are now hyped in online chat rooms like solecollector.com and niketalk.com (which is not affiliated with the shoe company) and often sell out in stores before being offered for resale on the Web, sometimes with markups of 100 percent or more. Nike Jordan Spizikes--an amalgam of five past Jordan shoes--were released on Oct. 21 with a retail price of $175. Less than a week later, online shoe seller Vintagekicks.com listed a pair for $530.
Nike dominates the market, but other companies have grabbed sneakerheads' attention with hip-hop and urban-themed styles like the Reebok Boombox Flavor, the Puma Ludacris Clyde Stitch and the Adidas Superstar.
But Nike sneakers far and away dominate the market. Nike helps transform sneakers into collectibles by releasing special designs in extremely limited quantities. Only 4,023 pairs of the Jordan Spizikes were released. Nike and rapper Eminem collaborated to produce 64 pairs of Air Max sneakers. Proceeds from the sale of both styles are going to charities, according to Nike's Web site.
The extremely limited additions have alienated some sneakerheads, who say that Nike is looking the other way while average collectors struggle to afford the styles they want. KeJuan Wilkins, a spokesman for Nike, declined to comment.
Nike has also increased sales by re-releasing earlier hit designs. “Retro” versions of Jordans, Nike Air Max running shoes and Nike Air Force 1 basketball shoes, from the 1980s and early '90s, have been big sellers. Hundreds of enthusiasts lined up for hours recently before the midnight release of the Jordan Retro V's--a remake of the 1990 Jordans--at a Foot Action store in Manhattan.
Limited production and dramatic increases in resale values have encouraged many sneakerheads to adopt an investor's mentality. “I buy three pairs of everything,” said Bowe, of Ann Arbor, Mich., who started his own online store selling custom shoes when he was 16. “One to wear, one to sell and one to save.”
Steve Leugers, of Cleveland, broke into the business by selling two pairs of sneakers on eBay. He founded uptempoair.com, an online store that specializes in Jordan clothing and shoes. He expects sales to climb to $3 million in 2006 from $300,000 in 2000.
Investors, however, are only part of the culture. “Some people would frown on that,” said Daurio, 22, who has a separate room in his apartment for his collection and makes an effort to wear every pair he owns.
Two years ago, Steve Mulholland, of Satellite Beach, Fla., started the Niketown Sole Collector Sneaker Competition in conjunction with Nike. The event, held in San Francisco, Chicago and other cities, was an invitation for sneakerheads to show off their collections for a chance to win a pair of one-of-a-kind Nikes.
“We wanted people to meet in a safe environment" and see great shoes, said Mullholand, who runs a Web site called instyleshoes.com and founded Sole Collector, a magazine devoted to sneakerheads that he says has a circulation of 100,000.
Mulholland eventually became disillusioned by the growing competitiveness and the subjectivity of the judging in the sneaker competitions and dropped out. “How do you judge a new shoe against a pristine Jordan '85?” he asked. He is now working on a new event schedule, which he will describe only as “not a competition.”
Another feature of the growing sneakerhead culture is the emergence of boutiques that specialize in limited-run sneakers. At Nostylgia, a boutique in New York, an urban motif of park benches and faux fire escapes serves as the backdrop for an eclectic mix of Nike skateboarding shoes, slightly used Air Jordans and limited run recent releases.
But buyers are cautioned that counterfeiting is rampant.
Sneakerhead.com, an online store and archive of sneaker history, lists several tips for identifying fakes. Most important, the site said, is that each shoe is assigned a unique style/SKU number by the manufacturer, which should be displayed on any Web site selling sneakers.
Some sneaker collectors see their collections as a forum for self-expression or an informal initiation into sneakerhead culture.
“Your shoe choice allows you to express your creativity,” Daurio said. “You want to have a pair that sets you apart. You can walk up to somebody with a pair you know are rare and start talking to them.”
In an effort to retain the maximum resale value and style points, some collectors have become over-the-counter chemists, devising methods to keep their collections in top shape.
“I use clear vinegar to take out scuffs from my Timberlands. Don't rub it or nothing. It could take out a Kool-Aid stain,” said Jason Pichardo, a worker at Nostylgia, who has been collecting sneakers for a year and owns 120 pairs. “For the clear part, if it's yellowed, I use Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. For white sneakers: Soft Scrubb floor cleaner.”
The sneakerheads all agree on one thing: Sneakers have taken over their lives. When asked what the general public should know about sneaker culture, Bowe said: “Stay away from it. It's too addicting.”
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