Trendy slippers-the next blue ocean market
Why has slippers become a fashion business?
How much market size can a pair of slippers promote? Crocs, famous for its "hole shoes", has set a five-year growth target of more than US $5 billion, which is expected to be achieved by 2026. The brand has achieved a record-breaking sales performance of US $2.3 billion in 2021.
Crocs and Balenciaga, a luxury brand, have worked together for three times this year to make slippers trendy. Also accelerating the trend of slipper trend is the German shoe brand Birkenstock. In recent years, there are many partners including Rick Owens, Proenza Schouler and other fashion designers.
Players who "hype" slippers to the top of the trend certainly need the help of "topic king" Kanye West (now called Ye). He once appeared in a suit and slippers at a friend's wedding, making the slippers of his brand Yeezy the focus of traffic.
Today, slippers, which used to be just a supplement, have become a new market blue ocean for major brands to seize. However, slippers have long passed the bonus period, and it is difficult to be effective to rely on the strategy of making popular items. Especially after the entry of sports brands, slippers began to enter the white-hot competition stage of pursuing the sense of technology, functionality and fashion.
1.A Brief History of Modern Slippers
At the beginning of June, EQLZ INC., a sports technology company, completed the pre-A round financing of more than US $10 million ® The sports slipper OASIS launched by the brand has been sold out quickly several times, which is one of the reasons why it has become a "troublemaker" in the field of sneakers. Therefore, another brand of EQLZ ® EQLZ # 1 series was also launched a few days ago. The three shoes # 1000, # 1100 and # 1050 are slippers.
In the two or three years before EQLZ INC. obtained financing, slippers and shoes have ushered in a new situation. The mutual cooperation between Crocs and Balenciaga, Salehe Bembury, Beams and others has greatly increased the image and performance of "hole shoes", which was called "ugly shoes" in the early years; Birkenstock cooperates with the brand in the "1774" series, and has opened up its own new way in the fashion field; The two slippers, adidas YEEZY SLIDE and Fear of God "The California", have become popular shoes since they were launched... From the action and market reaction of various brands, slippers are becoming a major trend in the current sneaker market.
To this end, let's review the history of modern slippers and slippers from the first pair of flip-flops and plastic slippers to today's slippers with EVA, TPU and other materials and futuristic design, and analyze some causes of the current trend of slippers and slippers.
2.The slippers are integrated with technology and a sense of the future
The essence of sports slippers is more like a kind of rehabilitation product, which is generally provided for basketball players to wear after high-intensity competition or training, because these professional athletes also have certain requirements for cushioning off the court.
After 2010, the comfort of slippers and shoes gradually attracted attention. American shoe brand OOFOS launched slippers with sports recovery as the core, incorporating exclusive OOFOAM technology; The adidas YEEZY SLIDE made of lightweight EVA material is light, durable and comfortable; Adidas applies its proud BOOST technology to adilette slippers; Nike launched Nike Offline, using "Sensation" insole to provide massage experience and increase wearing time
3.Strong and powerful co branding cooperation drives the trend development
Although co-branded cooperation is often criticized as too widespread, there is no doubt that it is still one of the effective means to innovate the brand image, endow products with more diversity and create echoes, and the key always lies in the selection of partners. At present, slippers and shoes can be selected by many consumers, which can not be separated from sandals/slippers-based shoes brands, especially the effective effect brought by Crocs and Birkenstock through strong and powerful co-branding cooperation in recent years.
4.The matching of slippers is accepted by the public
Early flip-flops have become a part of the beach lifestyle, and also began to contact with fashion brands in 1999, but they still haven't really entered people's daily life. It was not until the CHRISTO slippers launched by visvim in 2003 that slippers became part of the daily collocation of young people for the first time And other brands, and quickly became popular after being worn by celebrities such as Hiroshi Fujiwara and Edison Chen. Now, as the classic shoes of the brand, they continue to introduce the old and bring forth the new, and slippers are being accepted by the public as part of the matching.
5.The functionality of slippers and shoes is becoming stronger and stronger
From the pursuit of the sense of treading on shit at the beginning, to the pursuit of rebound and shock absorption later, slippers have started to use supercritical foaming, a very professional sports shoe manufacturing technology, which is mainly used for sports shoes in professional fields such as basketball and marathon. Supercritical foaming has super shock absorption and cushioning effect, ultra-light weight and good elasticity. The more prominent feature is wear resistance. Its wear resistance is three times that of natural rubber. With the increasing demand of consumers, the major brands are also involved. In addition to keeping improving on scientific and technological materials, now in the field of slippers, other aspects are also benchmarking professional sports shoes on the same frequency. Therefore, today's slippers can almost compete with top running shoes.
6.The bonus period has passed, and the slipper track is also "rolled in"
This shoe brand, which is controversial in the fashion industry, has been the co-branded object of many brands in recent years. The famous brand effect and celebrity effect continue to promote it to become a sharp tool for people's concave modeling. Slippers are not a flash of smoke. Driven by the dual factors of the brand's younger transformation and the continuous entry of sports brands, the category of slippers has instead begun to have richer design forms and more diverse functional attributes.
It also promotes more and more brands to be crowded on this track. Among the fashion luxury array, brands such as Givenchy, FENDI and Prada have launched relevant products. Traditional sports giants are also catching up, accelerating the trend of slippers.
