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.
Heritage continues to be a big theme on the limited edition launch front and Dr Martens is no exception with its premium 1460 MIE Pascal Love Letter boot stepping out today (1 April).
Dr Martens
Sixty-five years ago, the famous footwear brand launched its 1460 boot and started “a winning formula”. Over six decades later, “and with a bursting catalogue of iconic silhouettes under its welt”, Dr Martens has unveiled “a true collector’s item and one of the most premium iterations of the 1460 boot ever made”.
So the 1460 MIE Pascal Love Letter boot pays homage to the enduring legacy of DM’s most famous silhouette, made at the brand’s factory in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, England, where it all began.
In a nod to its name, only 1,460 pairs have been produced. The boot is made with full-grain Classic Calf leather from Leeds-based tannery CF Stead, and gains its rich deep burgundy colour via a blend of natural waxes and oils, offset with contrast stitch detailing across the upper.
Premium finishing details include a debossed 1.4.60 on the tongue, a debossed leather heel loop, antique gold eyelets, and tonal laces.
Exclusively available at drmartens.com and in selected Dr Martens stores globally, the boot is priced at £460.
Frasers Group has unveiled its latest Sports Direct store at Trafford Palazzo in Manchester. It follows the opening of its Manchester Arndale flagship in March 2023, with the new location spanning 30,000 sq ft over two floors.
Reflecting the brand’s mission “to serve the athlete with the best kit their money can buy”, the latest store showcases the world’s leading sports and lifestyle brands inlcuding Nike, Adidas, Puma, Under Armour, New Balance, ASICS, Skechers and Jordan.
Dedicated areas are set out for various sports categories and options for men, women, and kids. This includes Outdoor and Running concept areas to provide “an engaging and educational experience, allowing customers to test products in a dynamic, hands-on environment”. The areas feature specialist brands such as On Running, Brooks and Saucony in the Run category and The North Face and Columbiain Outdoors.
Meanwhile, the USC area houses trend-focused, lifestyle apparel and footwear, featuring brands such as Lacoste, Barbour International, Hugo, UGG,Levis, Steve Madden and more.
Lauren Barrie, group head of Retail at Frasers Group, said:“The opening… underscores our commitment to bring customers the best sports retail experience. As part of our ongoing Elevation Strategy, we’re opening impactful stores that showcase our global brand partners and deliver personalised, immersive shopping experiences.”
Vacheron Constantin, the oldest continually operating Swiss watch brand, just revealed the world’s most complicated wristwatch. The Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication is a double-sided technological feat that took eight years of research and development.
Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication – Courtesy
It boasts a record-setting 41 complications, including five astronomical functions—one of which is the first of its kind. And it was all developed, engineered, and assembled by a single master watchmaker.
Vacheron Constantin has filed 13 patent applications for this watch, whose new movement, Caliber 3655, consists of a mind-boggling 1,521 hand-assembled, hand-finished components. In fact, just the assembly of the movement itself (the engine of the watch) took almost a year to complete. In addition to the five astronomical complications that have never been combined in a wristwatch before, it also features a specially-conceived minute repeater with Westminster chime (which sounds the time on demand using four hammers and four gongs in different tones), for which seven of the 13 patents were filed.
Crafted in 18-karat white gold, the round timepiece is remarkably wearable at 45 millimeters in diameter and 14.99 mm in thickness. In fact, the main directive to the watchmaker (Vacheron Constantin won’t divulge his name) from brand executives was to “create something extraordinary but in a compact wristwatch,” says Christian Selmoni, Vacheron Constantin’s style and heritage director. The movement itself measures 36mm in diameter and just under 11mm in thickness. As such, the watch is hailed by the brand as a masterpiece in the art of miniaturization.
“To fit so many complications and components inside is a fantastic feat,” says Selmoni. Putting 41 complications into a timepiece “without rethinking the entire structure would mean a pretty big, pretty thick watch. Making it as compact as possible was a huge driver for innovation.”
So, what exactly can you do with this watch?Well, imagine tracking the tides, the position of the sun and the moon throughout the day, and even having the ability to find a particular star at night, all on the wrist. There’s also a Gregorian perpetual calendar, three lunar indications, including an astronomical moon phase indicator with the age of the moon displayed, a tourbillon escapement (to compensate for errors in timekeeping caused by the effects of gravity when the watch is in certain positions on the wrist) and a 24-hour second time zone and world time indications.
The technologically advanced movement’s unique architecture allows for three ways of telling time: civil (the 24-hour day), sidereal (the actual time—23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds—it takes for the Earth to fully rotate on its axis while revolving around the sun), and solar, or tropical, time (the time it takes for the sun to return to a certain position). All of these times vary throughout the year. The differential is called the equation of time, which is also displayed on the watch.
There are also five highly specialized astronomical complications (among the 14 astronomical complications on the watch) with three patents pending that offer information about the path of the sun. One innovation is a world-first: a celestial sky chart that lets the wearer locate when a specific star or constellation will appear in the night sky. This temporal tracker is linked in the mechanism to the watch’s split-seconds chronograph (that allows for timing multiple events with different end times) and the subject of one of the patent applications.
Another patent is for what the brand is calling the “plug and play” system, which was years in the development process. While not counted as one of the 41 complications, it’s an ingenious development designed to simplify the servicing of the watch.
“This system at the heart of the movement was created so that when the owner has to service the timepiece, the watchmaker doesn’t have to remove multiple hands or dials or complications. It is a sort of module that can be unplugged,” says Selmoni. “It was designed to save days and days of work in servicing.”
According to Selmoni, one of the fantastic aspects of this world’s most complicated wristwatch is the functions’ readability. “Our watchmaker, who is also an engineer, designed every dial, every indication so that it would be very easy to read. This is absolutely not easy to do. He had to reinvent the layout of the functions, create a new camsystem and even design a new case to fit the movement the way he envisioned.”
Of course, Vacheron Constantin, 270 years old this year, is no stranger to the world of record-setting complicated watches. Just last year it unveiled the Berkley Grand Complication double-sided pocket watch with 63 complications. It has also created multiple highly complexwristwatches in recent years, such as the Les Cabinotiers Celestia Astronomical Grand Complication 3600 in 2017 with 23 complications and the Les Cabinotiers Grand Complication Split-Seconds Chrono Tempo from 2020 with 24 complications. Each of those watches measured 50mm in diameter and 20mm or more in thickness.
The Les Cabinotiers Solaria, though, breaks not only Vacheron Constantin’s records, but the records of other top brands, as well. The watch is a unique piece, though Selmoni says he hopes that another rendition or two might be made in a different case material or with different dial colors. And the price? The Swiss manufacturer isn’t disclosing that. Previous highly complicated wristwatches from Vacheron Constantin often carried price tags of upwards of $2 million, and those had way fewer complications and patents filed.
Entertainment8 years ago