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SUNDAY TIMES - BUSINESS TIMES

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3

Date

Sun 02 Feb 2020

AVE (ZAR)

338108.74

82H I I H

The number of pairs ofshoes South Africansbought last year

Business Sunday Times

The Big Read

Trend jSneakers are thebiggestdriver of SA'sfootwear industry

By NTANDO THUKWANA

© Millennials setting the fashion agenda -ditching the traditional suit, tie and dressshoes - have given steam to the athleisurefashion phenomenon that has seen sales ofsneakers boom.

Athleisure, the fashion trend that's a crossbetween athletic and everyday comfortwear, has become a global sensation and SAhas not been left behind. It's a trend thateven names that formerly specialised in for-mal footwear, such as Grasshopper, havejumped on.

According to 2019 data by market re-search provider Euromonitor International,the sneakers category is the biggest driver ofSA's R90.6bn footwear industry.

Euromonitor International says the cate-gory in SA is worth over R15bn.This includessports-inspired shoes and those sold by gen-eral apparel brands such as H&M, Zara andGap.

South Africans purchased 264-millionpairs of shoes last year, with over 58-millionof those produced locally, says Unathi Mat-wasa, research associate at Euromonitor In-ternational.

In terms of value, men's shoes grew 6.7%,women's shoes 5.9% and sales of children'sfootwear rose 3% in 2019. Sales of men'sshoes outstripped women's shoes mainlybecause the average unit price for men'sshoes tends to be higher than that of wom-en's footwear, says Matwasa.

Adidas is market leader when it comes tothe local shoe sector, followed by Nike,Woolworths, Reebok and Mr Price.

Nicola Cooper, a trend analyst and cultur-al strategist, says amore relaxed approach towork, fostered by millennials entering theworkplace, is the reason behind the growthof the sneakers industry.

Cooper describes this as "office attire thatis translating into the necessity of clothingthat is of a high-quality finish with the [com-fort] ofathleticwear".

Bernard Mostert is co-founder of MrTekkie, which recently merged with the NewHouse of Busby for which he is CEO, whichholds distribution rights for brands such asAldo, Guess, Steve Madden and Call It Spring.He says the current trend in the street-stylecategory was kickstarted by the comebackof iconic Italian brand FILA's chunky plat-form sneakers 18months ago.

Chunky platformsBalenciaga has a version of it, dubbed thedad shoe, which Mostert saysis "a big throw-back to the heritage era of the late '80s andearly '90s, [with its] big chunky platformsneakers. Various companies have done iter-ations of it. Quite a few brands from that erahave developed it very nicely in the last twoyears."

For the more playful adult consumer, Al-do's Disney collection was a hit, selling out"virtually instantly", says Mostert. Aldo keptits traditional profile sneaker, adding Disneystyle elements with the Mickey Mouse char-acters emblazoned on the shoes.

"Aldo has played to its heritage, stuckwith its DNA sneaker and has this collabwith Disney in quite a unique way that hasturned out to be very popular," saysMostert.

TFG, owner of- Totalsports- andsportscene, which sell sporting goods andinternational brands such as Nike and Adi-das, among others, says it has incorporatedexperiential retail strategies to lure youngercustomers, such as at its Sandton City flag-ship store, which features a wide range ofsome of the biggest footwear and apparelsportswear and streetwear brands.

The concept of the store is modelled on arecording studio and houses events. It is alsothe base for sportscene's "Put me On" cam-paign to uncover musical talent, saysTFG.

"Spaces were built and allocated to up-and-coming entrepreneurs, from sneakerlaundry services to tattoo artists. It also fea-tures a fully equipped basketball court, digi-tal kiosks and mobile payment options," thecompany says.

~Th et

A young man wearing Converse sneakers walks past a mural of Caster Semenya running a race. Picture:LungeloMbulwana

Footwear in SACategory Market size ($m) Year-on-year growth (%)

2018 2019 2018 - 2019Footwear 5,896.8 6,281.6 £5

Children's Footwear 526.0 558.5 #1

Men's Footwear 3,550.3 3,789.8 6.7

Women's Footwear 1820.5 1928.2 $9

Footwear - brand ranking of market share

1. adidas 2. Nike 3. Woolworths 4. Reebok (adidas Group) 5. Mr Price

Graphic: Ruby-Gay Martin Source: Euromonitor

The sneaker trend is firmly on the fashionrunway. "We are starting to see a strong shiftfrom strictly formal shoes on the runway;however, there will always be a space forthese. We are also seeing new trends andmanufacturing techniques - from mules tomidi-heels to luxury sliders, I do think com-fort is vital," she says.

The rise in sneaker purchases isn't threat-ening the salesof heels.

"The high-quality, more formal street of-ferings such asAldo continue to do well butacross the board sneakers are certainly on amuch stronger trajectory than historic dressshoes. There are certain times of the yearthat heels do particularly well - more to-wards the end of the year," saysMostert.

a@Younger marketssuch as Generation Zwant to dresscomfortably, but betrendy to reflecttheir lifestyle

TFG says customers aren't buying fewerformal shoes, they are simply purchasingmore sneakers.

"This is especially true for younger mar-kets such asGeneration Z who want to dresscomfortably, but be trendy to reflect theirfast-paced lifestyle. The trick is to convertnon-sneaker-wearing customers by arous-ing their curiosity with limited edition or'collab' products featuring big brand or artistpartnerships. This creates hype, whichbuilds demand," says TFG.

Generation Z are those agedbetween sev-

en and 22, according to Bloomberg.Adidas's latest partnership is with Bey-

onceé's Ivy Park collection, which sold out inan instant worldwide.

Puma also previously collaborated withRihanna's Fenty brand for its Creeperssneaker, while Nike previously partneredwith Kanye West on its Air Yeezy bright redsneakers. In SA, actress Nomzamo Mbathahad a partnership with Puma and rapperAKA collaborated with Reebok.

Nike had influential ad campaigns res-onating with today's woke society, withsportspeople such as Serena Williams whofeatured in the brand's "JustDo It" campaignfilm Voice ofBelief. With the slogan "It's onlya crazy dream until you do it," it follows thelife of Williams from a young age, when shewas coached by her father, through to herdays asa legendary tennis player.

In SA, Nike partnered with athlete CasterSemenya in a "Birthplace of Dreams" ad de-tailing her rise from humble beginnings, andhas continued to support her during her bat-tles with the International Association ofAthletics Federations.

Colin Kaepernick, who knelt during thesinging of the US national anthem at footballmatches to highlight racism in the US, part-nered with Nike in its "Just Do It" DreamCrazy film - which became controversialwhen it got the attention of US PresidentDonald Trump, who publicly disapproved ofKaepernick's Nike ambassadorship.

Bright Khumalo, portfolio manager atVestact Asset Management, says Nike likedthe controversy because it is "good for theirbrand's strength".

He saysNike is at the forefront ofbreakingthe status quo as part of modern-day mar-keting. "It helps their brand because millen-nials and Generation Z are very conscious,they want to know what the company standsfor or against and then they will either dis-tance themselves or become ambassadorsthemselves."

Nike was one of the first brands to spon-sor athletes aspart of its marketing strategy.

adidasstepsup useof recycledoceanplasticwaste® adidas will launch new fabrics made fromrecycled polyester and marine plastic wasteand expand the product lines that use themafter the successof shoesmade with the Par-ley for the Oceans initiative, it has said.

The sportswear firm first teamed up withParley in 2015and gradually ramped up pro-duction of shoes using plastic collected onbeaches and coastal regions to make morethan 11-million pairs in 2019, still only a frac-tion of a group total of more than 400-mil-lion.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a chari-ty that promotes a circular economic modelthat eliminates waste, says less than 1% ofmaterial used for clothing is recycled.

adidas will continue to make Parley-

branded shoesand clothes out of ocean plas-tic in 2020 and will also launch "Primeblue"fabric containing Parley marine waste that itwill use in existing lines like its popularUltraboost shoes.

In total, the German firm will produce 15-million to 20-million pairs of shoes usingocean plastic in 2020.

Recycled polyester costsabout 10% morethan the virgin material, but adidas wants toget the price down so more consumers canafford to choose sustainable products.

"It is a matter of time, it is a matter ofscale, of volume and we are trying to leadthat charge," said James Carnes, adidas vice-president of brand strategy.

adidas says it wants more than half of the

polyester it uses to be recycled in 2020,ramping up to 100% by 2024.

Criticism has been mounting of the envi-ronmental impact of the fashion industry,which is responsible for about 10% of allgreenhouse gas emissions, according tocharity Oxfam.

"Increasing the presence of recycledpolyester fibre has the potential to massivelyimpact global energy and resource require-ments," said Barclays analyst AnushkaChallawala. "Sportswear is leading a lot ofthe change."

Nike uses recycled polyester yarn for theuppers of its popular Flyknit shoes, sayingthat has helped it divert more than 4-billionplastic bottles from landfills. - Reuters

AThe growth of the at

"They started with track, and to this daythey still sponsor track athletes. For example[Eliud] Kipchoge - recently, the Kenyanmarathon runner broke two hours in [run-ning al marathon distance. That's all in theirstrategy, to sponsor the people who are good

ust casually boosts takkie sales

hleisure fashion phenomenon has seen sales of sneakers boom. Picture:MasiLosi

at what they do in terms of sports andputting their name on it," saysKhumalo.

Nike has just come out with a controver-sial Vaporfly sneaker, which is said to giveathletes an unfair advantage. This may bemarketing at no cost and may translate into a

salesboost for the company, saysKhumalo."You create such a superior product, ev-

eryone is sceptical about the product itselfand not actually that you're very good at en-gineering the next generation of shoes," hesays.