This is an episode of the Glossy Fashion Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the fashion industry. More from the series →
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On the Glossy Podcast, senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and editor-in-chief Jill Manoff break down some of the biggest fashion news of the week.
This week, we give a tariff update. The steep tariffs on China were delayed yet another 90 days, but tariffs on countries including Switzerland are now in effect, wreaking havoc on the luxury fashion industries. We also talk a bit about Gildan acquiring HanesBrands — both brands are giants in the world of comfortable plain T-shirts. Finally, we talk about the controversy around Adidas and Willy Chavarria’s Oaxacan Slip-On.
Later in the episode, international reporter Zofia Zwieglinska joins us for a roundtable discussion on the state of the sneaker market. There was a gold rush of sneaker collaborations and category expansions through the late 2010s and early 2020s, but now the market is evolving. New players like On and Hoka are taking market share from traditional stand-bys like Nike. And experimental new silhouettes — from the slim-fitted Adidas Samba and Puma Speedcat to the wilder sneaker-loafer and sneaker-ballet flat hybrids — are becoming more popular.
For this discussion, we also spoke with Alex Lotier, CEO of sneaker-focused Culture Media; Noah Thomas, formerly of Highsnobiety and currently the associate fashion director for men’s and kid’s at Macy’s; and Brendan Dunne, senior director of customer, community and engagement at StockX. Below are a few highlights from the conversation.
Noah Thomas: “Brands have to be lifestyle companies today. You can’t just do one thing because you’re fighting for everyone’s attention. Everything is against each other. A song is up against a YouTube video. That YouTube video is randomly up against a sneaker drop. I know that might not make sense, but I really believe that.”
“So there are a lot of these companies that have to just really make a lifestyle and make you want to be a part of their world, which is why it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary for a brand to have a festival, open up a pop-up that’s a restaurant, have a clothing line, do a sneaker collab or drop an album.”
Brendan Dunne: “I think that brands are more inclined these days to activate in physical spaces around sneakers and bring people out and have people congregate. That died down in the early part of this decade for obvious reasons. But I very much think that sneaker collecting, sneaker culture and sneakers as a hobby are back in the past year in a way that they haven’t been for a long time.”
“I still think that the default setting for sneaker brands existing on social media is to talk to people, not necessarily talk with them. So I think that people form communities around these things on social media.”
Alex Lotier: “One of the big things that has shifted the consumer’s attention and buying demand has been the people they look up to the most. The athletes and the Caitlin Clark shoe being a thing right now, over the last couple of months, is like a giant thing that we should focus on.”
