Yeezy’s first drop in India was an easy score for sneakerheads in 2016. When Parth Sharma, 26, a photographer from New Delhi, arrived, there were only about six other people in line. “Nobody wanted to spend a lot of money on a pair of shoes in 2016,” he says.
Interest and demand has since spiked. Sneakerheads queued for hours in January outside Olive, a New Delhi restaurant, to shop a Reebok x Pyer Moss pop-up, which sold out soon after. Travis Scott’s newest collaboration, the Travis Scott x Nike SB Dunk Low, makes Parth Sharma shake his head. “It’s impossible to get them,” Sharma says. The Indian hypebeasts have arrived.
India’s fashion industry is known for handcrafted, traditional clothing designs, techniques and fabrics. But the quickening development of international streetwear and sneaker brands in the region reflects changing customer tastes, signalling an opening for international brands and suggesting local designers and retailers need to broaden their scopes, or risk falling out of fashion. Adidas’s recent high-end drop this month in India, the A + P Luna Rossa 21 trainers created in collaboration with Prada, sold out on the day of its launch. According to the brand, key collaborations with global creators have been a big rage in India with most drops selling out immediately.
In 2020, spanning months of lockdown, running shoes and branded sneakers have been the top searched items on Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce portal Flipkart. India is the world’s second-largest footwear market after China, valued at $10.6 billion in 2019 and predicted to be worth $15.5 billion by 2024, according to the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of India. Still, the market for high-end trainers, like the coveted Nike Air Jordans, is limited to a handful of boutiques like VegNonVeg and Superkicks, which opened in 2018 in Mumbai. Heavy import duties mean prices are higher and brands have to contend with resale marketplaces like StockX, and independent resellers. Many sneakerheads have traditionally preferred to buy through international channels or on trips abroad, but that’s starting to change.
For the luxury sector, the surge in sales of higher margin sports footwear, driven by the emerging new sneakerhead culture, is one to pay attention to. The brands are maintaining this through high-profile collaborations, benefiting also from new trainer stores, media hype and even the emergence of some fledgling domestic brands.
An exposure to different cultures through travel abroad and social media platforms has played a key role in driving the trainer boom. “Instagram brings in a lot of Western influence,” says Shivani Boruah, marketing manager at India’s first multi-brand trainer boutique VegNonVeg, which opened in 2016 in New Delhi. “Everything you want to know about a sneaker, the cool trends, the cool lingo — you have it at the touch of a button.”
“When people see their favourite rapper or their favourite actor on social media they get inspired by it. Indian rappers and rock bands are collaborating with people outside. It goes back and forth, they’re bringing the culture home and the fans see them,” says Karan Singh, art director at communication design company Agenc, based in New Delhi.
While sneakerheads are often pegged as young, trend-driven customers, Boruah counters that the customer in India isn’t defined by a single demographic, and she sees college students and working adults come to shop VegNonVeg. “Things are changing and people are aware of what’s cool. There’s no specific target audience,” she says.
A younger wave of Bollywood actors, including Varun Dhawan and Ranbir Kapoor, were among the first to sport imported sneakers. Kapoor wore Jordans on multiple occasions back in 2016, a trend quickly noted by his Bollywood fans. “People see their favourite actors wearing a certain outfit, and that will become the trend,” says Henry Vinoth, founder of the blog Sneaker News. It was also the year international brands like Yeezy took notice of the demand in the subcontinent. India’s celebrity stylists now often source sneakers and arrange sponsorship deals for actors to promote their shoes to Indian audiences.
An opportunity for Indian brands
The local fashion scene has begun to respond to the shift in customer appetite. While India’s designer fashion scene is dominated by traditional names such as Sabyasachi Mukherjee, contemporary labels like Huemn, Jaywalking, Gundi and Nought01 are embracing sneaker culture. Designer Anamika Khanna, best known for bridal couture, used trainers for a 2016 collection, a first for a traditional Indian designer. “I think India is onto something bigger and the consumers are more woke and take pride in Indian-based streetwear brands and stories around it. Social media has changed a lot,” says Jaywalking founder Jay Jajal.
In October, Indian online shopping portal Ajio introduced its new vertical, Sneakerhood, on the official fashion week schedule with an online show. Sneakerhood features both international and Indian footwear brands, including special or limited-edition sneakers such as Nike Air Jordans, Fila Disruptors and Asics Gel-Noosa.
Changing consumer attitudes in India point towards a shifting fashion landscape, and some Indian brands are already responding. Jaywalking, for example, is looking to a global market with ambitions to sell to high-end stores in New York, Tokyo and Singapore. “Streetwear in India has given me so much,” says Jajal. “I have this incredible force backing me up on social media.”
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