Biggest YEEZY Release Ever: What It Means for Australian Sneaker Community
After months of anticipation, the time has finally come.
Sneakers In Australia
Everyone wants to get their hands on the hyped and limited sneakers.
It's the way our sneaker community functions.
But unfortunately with the law of supply and demand, not everyone is able to cop a pair for themselves.
In fact, if you compare the Australian sneaker market to the likes of America and Europe, you can confidently say that Australia finds it much harder to get our hands on such shoes. Which means only one thing. More and more people are missing out.
And so, brands such as Nike and Adidas have created second tier lines to cater to the market of those who are not able to get their hands on those hyped sneakers.
Such examples include Nike replicating the Nike x OFF-WHITE with their "Just Do It" pack and Adidas doing the same a few years ago with the Tubular Shadows to mimic the Yeezy 350 V1 silhouette.
Recently Nike has also teased the community with a "React Element 55" that will be a general release, unlike the highly sought after React Element 87 that was extremely limited in supply.
Source: Nicekicks.com
The Sad Truth
There is completely NOTHING wrong at all with rocking shoes like these.
We believe that if you do not have the kind of money to pay resell on certain shoes, then by all means settle for something similar. They're just as dope.
As long as you like what you rock, then we're all for it.
Sadly however, the sneaker community in Australia has seen numerous guys ridiculing such shoes - labelling them as "knock offs" and "fugazzi"...
Yeezy Consumption In Australia
Looking at the numbers we have at PUSHAS, we can see that:
- Butters are the most popular despite many predicting a dip in demand due to mass production and ease of copping
- Frozen Yellows ranked lowest, indicating that people have been sticking with the more subtle tones (which we expect to remain the same for a while)
Bottom line is people will still buy into Yeezys regardless of their exclusivity. As long as they have are affiliated with Kanye, the demand will remain the same.
And we believe there won't be any changes any time soon with this demand expected to remain the same with the upcoming release.
What does this YEEZY release mean for the Australian sneaker community?
Kids and general consumers alike who may not have the money to pay ridiculous resell prices will now have a better chance to cop the Yeezys.
There's nothing worse than seeing a kid trying to be part of the community belittled just because he cannot afford to pay the resell price of certain shoes.
We believe that Kanye's promise will do nothing but good for the sneaker community.
The release will close the divide between those who find no trouble copping sneakers regardless of difficulty and those who take L's on every raffle.
Not only that, it will break down this Australian stigma in the sneaker community where you have to own a pair of limited sneakers just to be deemed credible or at least be "in the know".
Even better, the mass release of Yeezys will hopefully see the decline of counterfeit consumption in the market.
Sure it may hurt resellers and turn people away from the hype, but for the greater good of the Australian sneaker community, this release is needed.
Final Word
Despite being a sneaker marketplace, we're all for the release.
Too often we see people being ridiculed for opting to alternatives when they cannot get their hands on a particular shoe and as a result go the extremes just to feel accepted.
That shouldn't be the case, not in Australia anyways.
An ideal community should be a collective group of people united by common interests who support and elevate each other's individualistic passion.
That is how the sneaker community in Australia should be and that is what PUSHAS stands for.
And with this release, that is how it will head towards.
By Daniel PUSHAS
