Everyone is searching for what comes after the Adidas AG sneaker that has been the hottest shoe for the past couple of years. Nike has delved into its archives for some serious contenders: the Killshot and Cortez. Both are being elevated, and they have a good chance of picking up from where Adidas’ viral shoe left off.
Nike
If Chief Executive Officer Elliott Hill can take advantage of the buzz, it could ease the pain of clearing out stale models such as the Air Jordan 1 and the Dunk. The damage to revenue and profit from this clean-up exercise will be laid bare when the company reports third-quarter earnings on Thursday.
But Hill will have serious competition from his counterpart at Adidas, Bjorn Gulden, who won’t give up the retro shoe crown without a fight, and is now encouraging fashionistas to dress for the boxing gym rather than the football terraces.
When it comes to revived styles, Adidas’s sneakers, led by the Samba but also including the Handball Spezial and SL72, still dominate, bolstering the company’s sales and helping it lift operating profit by €1 billion ($1.1 billion) last year.
But Samba mania appears to have cooled. The craze peaked in March 2024, according to market intelligence company Trendalytics. Since then, Google searches for the Samba began to fall steadily, with Trendalytics’ ascribing a 70% likelihood that the trend will continue to decline over the next three months. It’s a similar picture on TikTok.
Some Nike models, meanwhile, look to be in the ascendance, particularly the Killshot, a gum-soled tennis shoe, with a distinctive “Swoosh.”
Consumer interest in the style began to pick up as the Samba topped out, according to Trendalytics. Google searches for both sneakers in March 2024 were about 230% up on the year earlier. But searches for the Killshot have continued to move upwards, perhaps aided by being featured in Challengers, the tennis movie starring Zendaya. The style is also gaining traction on TikTok. Weekly posts featuring the model have increased by 475% from a year ago, with views up almost 2000%.
The Killshot is now enjoying stronger demand than the Samba, according to retail intelligence company EDITED. However, both lag Adidas’ throwback running style, the SL72, a slight variation from shoes that took inspiration from football fans.
Another wild card is Vans’ checkerboard skate shoes, which have faded since their heyday a decade ago. These have been building on TikTok and popping up again IRL, but have yet to enjoy broad adoption. Vans sales have improved over the past year, although they are still falling.
It’s encouraging that both Nike and VF Corp. are recognizing their own retro potential, even if they are trailing Adidas, which began to propel its 1980s styles back into popular consciousness in 2021 and 2022, with collaborations with Gucci and British Jamaican designer Grace Wales Bonner.
As well as producing the Cortez in a wide variety of colors, last year Nike introduced a premium version of the Killshot. Low-rise styles typically sell for about $100, compared with around $200 for high-end basketball, running and football shoes, and so have lower margins, according to David Swartz, analyst at Morningstar Inc.. But Nike pumping out the more popular models could cushion the blow from the pull-back from over-exposed styles.
As for Vans, last year VF Corp. appointed Sun Choe as the brand’s president. The former chief product officer of Lululemon Athletica Inc. has already taken a leaf out of the Adidas playbook, with collaborations with Proenza Schouler, for example.
But Adidas isn’t letting go of its lead. The company is continuing to push the SL72, according to EDITED’s data, part of a broader move into fashionable running. It’s now also managing the supply of Sambas into some markets so that they don’t become saturated.
Last year, Gulden delayed the relaunch of the Superstar, because there was so much interest in the Samba. He’s now moving ahead, with a raft of collaborations, including with Pharrell Williams.
The executive, who displays a merchant’s instinct for what is hot, is pushing sneaker boundaries in other ways too, with models that sit low on the ankle and have very slim soles, such as the Japan, Tokyo and Taekwondo, and even a high-top boxing shoe. The Taekwondo, leading the “barefoot” trend, was relaunched last year, and is gaining particular traction according to EDITED.
Ultimately, Nike’s recovery depends on developing must-have performance shoes that have the power to not only be hits on the field or track, but part of everyday wardrobes too. After all, Nike and Adidas are fashion brands as well as sportswear companies, something that Gulden clearly understands.
Given that products can take 18 months from design to delivery to stores, new Nike blockbusters could be some ways off. For Hill, finding the next viral sneaker, before consumers’ obsession with archive styles dissipates, is a useful interlude.
The International Woolmark Prize returns to Milan in April and to mark that there’s a strong Italian contingent on the jury as eight of the world’s most promising design talents compete for the accolade and cash prize.
The jury
And the biggest name joining the select group is Donatella Versace, Versace, who recently announced that she’ll step down from the creative helm of her label to become its chief brand ambassador as of the start of next month. She’s the chair of the judges this time.
Also on the panel is Alessandro Sartori, artistic director of Zegna; Alessandro Dell’Acqua, N°21 founder and creative director; and Simone Marchetti, Vanity Fair European editorial director and Vanity Fair Italia editor-in-chief.
But it’s not an all-Italian affair with the prize’s guest artistic director IB Kamara, and “image architect” Law Roach, among others, judging the finalists.
Donatella Versace said: “Supporting the next generation of fashion talent has never been more important. I am so excited to host the Woolmark Prize in our home city of Milan and to meet the designers selected. I am sure they will all be winners in their own way. I am honoured to be chair of the judging panel for the 2025 Woolmark Prize alongside my fellow amazing judges. Woolmark has always been such fantastic supporters of the future of fashion.”
The finalists for the prize this time include Italy’s Act N°1, Duran Lantink from the Netherlands, Belgium’s Ester Manas, and Meryll Rogge, France’s LGNLouis Gabriel Nouchi, and London-based Irish label Standing Ground.
The 2025 final event is the first edition of the International Woolmark Prize in its new biennial format. One finalist will be awarded the International Woolmark Prize and receive the increased prize fund of A$300,000 for business development, while all of them “will have the opportunity to be stocked at some of the world’s leading stores”.
M&S’s fashion operations are bouncing back with a vengeance and the newly-confident retailer has unveiled the spring collection and the campaign that it hopes will drive sales growth further.
We’re told the ‘Love That’ campaign “marks a step change in season with a bold and stylish statement, focused on spreading joy through style, and encouraging individuals to embrace the uplifting energy that comes with spring”.
The retailer said it’s celebrating “how a well curated look that makes you feel good on the inside, can positively impact those around you — creating a ripple effect of happiness”.
The ad “captures the journey of a compliment as it reverberates from woman to woman. It begins with a subtle, almost unspoken exchange, gradually building in strength and culminating in an openly expressed compliment. Closing with a close-up of a woman’s lips, gently curling into the beginnings of a smile, symbolising the warmth and connection created by a kind word — championing the powerful ripple effect of giving compliments and leaving viewers with a sense of joy and a desire to keep the positivity flowing”.
The campaign includes daytime and evening looks “from jackets so iconic you’ll want to double up, to shoes you’ll fall head over heels for”.
So, let’s look at the practical details. The campaign includes 10-second and 30-second AV content, set to the upbeat R&B track 1 Thing by Amerie, the visual narrative aiming to “reinforce our position as a leading destination for stylish, quality clothing”.
Running across VOD, billboards, digital and social platforms, it should reach an estimated 183 million people across all channels.
The retailer’s OOH presence “will dominate” London, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and Bristol, with London TFL escalator ribbons in Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street tube stations, billboards across London Underground, and fly posters in “high-impact locations, maximising visibility”.
It will also exist as a “takeover” on its own webstore, as well as in-store.
Fashion e-tail giant ASOS announced a date for its half-year results on Friday (they’re due on 24 April) but more importantly it issued the briefest of brief trading updates and the news looked good.
ASOS Arrange
The company reiterated that — as it had said in its November update — it expects “a significant improvement in profitability in H1 FY25, despite continued volume deleverage, following a strong gross margin development driven by lower markdown activity and increased full-price mix, and continued cost discipline”.
In fact, it expects revenue growth in line with, and adjusted EBITDA ahead of the consensus among analysts. The company-compiled consensus for the first half (as of this week) is for total sales growth in constant currency to be 13%, while adjusted EBITDA should be £34 million and the adjusted EBITDA margin 2.6%.
Behind those dry figures, ASOS added that it was encouraged by the fact that “own-brand full-price sales, a core engine of its customer proposition, returned to growth in the first half. This was enabled by its market-leading Test & React model, now more than 15% of own-brand sales and growing”.
It’s all upbeat news for a business that has been somewhat battered by intense competition and consumer caution since the glory days of the pandemic-driven e-tail boom.
Entertainment8 years ago