Remember the old days? Jordan drops, lines upon lines in front of stores, and StockX becoming a thing? If anyone does, it’s us.
Those were the days when Nike and adidas shared the sneaker throne, reigning over the market’s sales and aesthetics. In the words of Saucony CMO Wendy Kula: “When one brand, like Nike, was hyper-dominant, that did a lot of good. It made sneaker culture mainstream and turned athletic footwear into part of the fabric of style. But it also meant that a smaller group of people or brands was deciding what was cool for everyone else.”
More recently, the underdogs have staged an uprising, creating new aesthetics and brand propositions that real people want to see and hear. “In all my years in the industry, I’ve never seen a more dynamic consumer,” Kula says. “They’re craving authenticity, community, and that thrill of discovering something for themselves.”
So, if the days of freezing in a queue for limited-edition sneaker drops are long gone, what does that mean for today’s sneaker scene? For one, there’s no more mono-style, i.e. one thing or one brand on top. We’re seeing things like a growing trailrunner category and ballet flat/sneaker-hybrids. In an age where there’s a -core for everything, there’s a sneaker brand for everyone.
We’re also past the status-obsessed sneaker game; the scene is way more chill. “Everyone wears sneakers less… but you still wear them a lot of course,” said our own sneaker prophet David Fischer. “You just don’t want to be the clown with the ‘hot’ sneaker of the moment.”
Today’s sneaker culture is more inclusive, less hyped, and split up into smaller fiefdoms, like the one ruled over by Saucony. Recently, the brand is everywhere, with collabs that draw attention (including one with Highsnobiety that launched earlier this week) and resellers who can’t get enough. We sat down with Jason Faustino — previously the co-founder and buyer at Extra Butter in New York, now Saucony’s Senior Director of Global Energy — to drill into the brand’s recent success in expanding its footprint.
What made you want to join Saucony?
As someone super into footwear for my entire life, I always resonated with Saucony. When I was a collaborator of Saucony’s in my former life, I saw they had a deep archive that was being slept on. I knew it would be easy to turn people onto Saucony once they realized the amount of gems the brand has.
Just by nature, I gravitate to underdogs. I like things most when they’re in their beginning, just when they’re starting to make noise. That was the initial attraction, but I still think, even as the brand grows, there’s something very humble about it.
What’s your take on the current state of sneaker culture?
It needs a complete overhaul. The hype model and sneakers as a commodity for resale needs to change. I’m not saying for it to all go away; I just think it’s been on repeat for so long. Everyone [in the sneaker industry] is expecting different results, but we’re all doing the same thing. That’s why I’m in favor of massive change in the industry.
What does that massive change look like?
There isn’t one solution. When I had my own retail store, it was just nice to exist and be running the store and have an audience. It was the same for a lot of my peers. But we all grew our business; many of us became global brands. Sneaker culture got bigger and ushered in a new audience.
Gen Z doesn’t look at sneakers the same way we do. They don’t understand the line or not being serviced at stores or information being gatekept. There need to be fundamental changes in the sneaker world to welcome this new audience, nurture this new audience, and grow with it as opposed to expecting the same results as in the past.
So, the “hype” model doesn’t serve Gen Z?
I still believe that hype can exist, but the very limited, packaged way that we were talking about hype is a turnoff. People still crave excitement. It’s just how you do it. There’s nuance there: How is it communicated? What are the mechanics behind it? What can people actually access, or not? What can you do to ensure some fairness? Thankfully our partners really try to work through solutions and communicate with the customer. And that alone resonates more with Gen Z because there’s transparency, as opposed to, “You didn’t get it, you don’t know how this works — too bad.”
What defines this next era of sneaker culture?
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that infamous Fiona Apple speech at the MTV awards, but she essentially says, “Go with yourself.” It sounds cliché, but when everyone’s following the same trend forecast and producing the exact same thing, going with yourself — when it comes from a pure place — is exciting. When it is part of this thought-through playbook and just programmatic, because you are trying to meet this trend and hit this consumer, people can feel that.
There’s a special thing about people who work at Saucony. There’s a reason why they’re here. Our designs, our partnerships, our activations, that’s actually us, instead of this brand that evolved from PowerPoint strategy decks.
It’s also interesting in the sports space to see how the dominance of Nike and adidas has completely fallen apart, and brands such as Satisfy, District Vision, and other new players are on the rise.
Many of those brands came from people that were unhappy with how it works at other places and decided to create new rules and live by them. It definitely adds excitement, and it evolves everything in my opinion.
As Saucony grows and becomes more commercially powerful, how do you manage that?
It’s a big challenge, but I’m not worried. It’s about staying true to who you are. And I can say with confidence for the current team: We know exactly who we are. Maybe it’s not fully defined externally, but we know internally. I think we can get better at sharpening that, and we can get better at broadcasting that to a wider audience.
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