Why sneaker speciality stores are the go-to choice for sneakerheads and first-time buyers alike

In India, sneaker culture gained momentum only five years ago. In a marketplace where online platforms and sneaker resellers are all the rage, where does the brick-and-mortar speciality store stand?

It was the 1984 Air Jordan 1, custom-made for Michael Jordan as part of a deal-sweetener by Nike when they were signing the young basketball player on, that is often credited with initiating sneaker fever. Cut to half a century later, and the culture is at peak popularity, more than ever in India. 

Sneaker culture began creeping into Indian markets in the late noughties, still decidedly niche, burgeoning through the early 2010s, and finally booming only in 2018. The contrast this creates is that a subculture that is nearly a hundred years old in the United States is just about five years old in India, where the  market is nascent but well on the uptick. With India being the world’s second largest footwear-purchasing country, with a share of 11.7 per cent (and contributing to production by 10.7 per cent). With an estimated 3 per cent growth in the shoe market, the estimated growth for sneakers is more than double, at 7 per cent. 

This fact is mirrored in the rise of the sneaker speciality store. A decade ago, the concept simply didn’t exist in India; 2023 is all about it. From specialty OGs Veg NonVeg becoming a business worth over a hundred crore, to Vedant Lamba’s Mainstreet Marketplace just having raised US$2.0 million in seed funding, to the New York-based premium sneaker boutique Extra Butter entering the Indian market with a store in Mumbai–the concept of a sneaker speciality store is having its day. We delve deeper into its inner workings, its USP, and its place in Indian sneaker culture.

Specialty versus Single-Brand Stores 

The speciality store is on the rise, but even the most discerning sneakerhead can count the quality speciality stores on their fingers. While the market is promising, it is still budding. For Vedant Lamba, founder of resale platform The Mainstreet Marketplace (MSM), “MSM came purely from hoping there was a market opportunity. I never had a strong passion for sneakers. I don't think I had even been to more than a couple of stores at this point.”

Abhineet Singh, co-founder of Veg NonVeg (VNV), spent 10 years of his life in the US being raised on hip-hop and basketball—something he couldn’t find in India. “We first tried to start VNV in 2012, and eventually did in 2016 because we couldn’t find places similar to those in the West that were about sneaker culture.” In the case of Adnaan Jassat, founder of Thriller–a Middle-Eastern speciality store that now ships sneakers to India–it was trying to bust up a cartel. “There was a monopoly in the market. Buying sneakers in the Middle East was always a bit unfair. You had a whole lot of resellers, and only one store with ridiculous markups. No one could buy them at a fair price, because no one knew what that price was. We wanted to create the largest go-to marketplace in the entire Middle East, also acting as a platform and indicator as to what prices should be at, tracking live bids, live asks and live sales in real-time.”

For the ardent sneaker buyer, there are a number of reasons why the speciality store is preferred to single-brand ones. “Variety and a better buying experience, plus independently-owned stores have a sense of personalisation,” says Anant Ahuja, sneakerhead and co-founder of creative agency Irregulars Alliance. Photographer and sneakerhead Nandith Jaisimha likes their attention to detail. “Specialty stores carefully double-box pairs when they ship; most single-brand stores don't care enough.” Sneakerhead and production designer Dhara Jain thinks the experience is superior because “in India, we don’t have direct dealings with the brand; each brand is under an Indian company and so the protocols are not the same. If we had an original Nike World experience (or Apple or Adidas), it would be very different.”

The Specialty Store-Sneakerhead Relationship

The key connecting thread between the sneakerhead and the specialty sneaker boutique is a deep interest and a sense of being well-versed with  sneaker culture and history. “When I watched The Last Dance and how Jordan revolutionised the basketball world, it drew me to sneakers,” says sneakerhead and digital creator Suhana Sethi. “I wanted to be ‘like Mike’ and wearing Jordans makes me feel a little like I’m in his shoes.”

For Jaisimha too, the obsession began with basketball. “That, and the influence of rap and hip-hop from the 90s. It was the Nike Air Uptempos that caught my attention; you didn’t see kids playing games in that kind of pair back then. A fellow basketballer at my basketball club was wearing them and they kicked off a lifelong love [for me].”

It’s indeed a lifelong love the speciality store echoes, and each has found a go-to. “For me, it's been Veg NonVeg from the get-go; there's a backstory to it and that's what I vibe with,” says Ahuja. Jaisimha feels a similar kinship to VNV, as well as Superkicks. “It's a community and neighbourhood thing, and I’ve been closely associated with them from the start. The relationship matters to me.” Meanwhile, Sethi’s list is longer: “Superkicks, Veg Nonveg, CDC, Sole Search, MSM…” Jain, on the other hand, is less discerning. “There’s no particular one—mostly whoever offers a better range in my size.” While the speciality store wants to make a convert of everyone, Singh concedes that in reality, the sneakerhead is rare and not the store’s bread-and-butter.

The Core Customer

There’s no denying the boom in sneaker sales. According to a report by Statista, in 2023, the sneaker segment in India is forecasted to generate a revenue of US$2.63 billion, to grow annually by 6.18 per cent. But the average buyer is still testing the waters. “Most buyers are still buying their first pair from us,” says Singh. “About 60 per cent of VNV buyers are first-time buyers and easily about 30 per cent come back for their second. The sneakerhead definitely buys from us but they’re already in the game and are after very specific pairs, so they actually form quite a small percentage of buyers.” 

For Thriller, it seems the opposite. “We get the occasional sneakerhead just as much as the grail-seekers, but more customers come in for that special pair,” shares Jassat. Anchit Kapil, co-founder of Crep Dog Crew, says it’s “the Indian youth, who are the newly converted sneakerheads that constitute a large part of our consumer base, in addition to the OG sneakers and collectors.” Most sales still happen in the metro cities, Singh concedes, but “we easily make 30-35 per cent of our sales in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. These are places where the interested buyer can’t walk into the on-ground store and pick up a pair.” It’s about the same at MSM, confirms Lamba, who names Pune and Surat as two of the top-seller towns. For CDC, it’s closer to 45 per cent, Kapil shares, naming a whole host of smaller cities (topped again by Surat), like” Guwahati, Raipur, Indore, Nagpur, Ranchi, Dehradun, Vadodara, Bhubaneswar and Jalandhar, amongst others.” 

The Buying Is (Mostly) Online

It seems indicative–from the fact that there’s plenty of buying in tier-2 and tier-3 cities–that most purchases happen online, and the founders confirm it. “We are a fully online marketplace,” says Jassat, while MSM’s Lamba says  they’re “a 90 per cent online business.” Singh puts VNV’s figures closer to 65 per cent, though Kapil sees a somewhat even split. “Our sales are similarly split across the website and our two physical stores, but the number of orders are higher on the website (albeit with a lower ticket size) whereas CDC Experience (the on-ground store) gets more orders with a higher ticket size.” 

The sneakerhead often has a different process. “I keep myself abreast of new launches,” says Sethi. “I’m clear about what I want, and if the sneaker is released then I contact the resellers and ask them to source it. Or if it's yet to be released then I’ll try to cop it from Nike’s SNKRS website.” Jain prefers to have them align with the athletes she admires. “There was a Bowerman series that I thought I should have, for instance. Then there is new tech–especially on soles–or a special series like the Space Jam collection; that’s the stuff that excites me.” It calls to question that if sales are concentrated online, does brick-and-mortar matter? A resounding ‘yes’ echoes from both the founder and fan arenas.

Why The Offline Experience Counts 

“The kind of culture we want to create–the music, the design, the events–is something that can only come from a physical space,” says Singh. It gives people that subscribe to and love such a culture a place to go. Kapil believes it’s imperative for people to partake of the culture as well. “We wanted them to engage with the history and culture. Add to that, luxury sneakers are a heavy investment; they’re limited-edition pieces or status products. A consumer experience where people can look, touch and feel these products makes them more confident buyers. It’s like buying a luxury bag, seeing it in 3D counts.” Lamba has a similar point of view, adding,“It’s all about building trust and deeper personal connections with end consumers.”

Those consumers think the concept is great, too. “They are very systemised,  happy stores, and I couldn't be more happy with their growing numbers,” Jain says. “They’re comfortable and curated; specialty stores give you an opportunity to pick from styles and drops around the world much ahead of what the brand merchandisers of the company have been thinking the Indian consumer wants.” Ahuja likes them too, but more for the sense of fraternity. “These stores give people a sense of community, belonging, purpose. It's not just the people who buy from these stores, it's also those who work there, those who want to work there. There's always an aspiration angle involved, especially when it comes to sneakers. Wherever there's a community, there will be gatekeeping, but that can't be a deterrent.” 

The Future Of The Specialty Store

We’re not caught up with the culture but the numbers–and viewpoints from the experts–assert that we’re getting there. Jain thinks we’re still behind, in a “beginner's stage," but our spending power and awareness is increasing rapidly and fast-intertwining with the West. “There’s a 3-5-year lag,” Lamba sums up succinctly, while Singh thinks it's “catching up quickly, because the world has become flat with social media. But we have to remember—it’s a 45-year-old mainstream culture that only really boomed in India around 2017/18.” A boom owed, in no small part to the sneaker specialty store, for which Ahuja predicts a surge in the market. “There’s likely to be a huge network of sneaker specialty brand chains with their own apparel lines and special collaborations with bigger brands. Things like customisation, graphics for apparel will have a larger local context; we will start looking inwards rather than looking at the West for inspiration, ” he says. Singh agrees, citing VNV’s own apparel brand as proof. “We do streetwear silhouettes with Indian fabrics, prints or techniques. It’s already doing well and we intend to grow it exponentially.” Jaisimha believes specialty stores are the true carriers of the culture, one that’s nascent but exploding. “Organising special events like customising edits, special sneaker drops, sneakerhead meets is how you grow a culture, and no one can do that like the specialty store.”

Also Read: Vedant Lamba is here not just to sell shoes, but to immerse you in the culture of sneakers

Also Read: Rising Star: Crepdog Crew’s Anchit Kapil on creating a dynamic online marketplace for sneaker enthusiasts

Also Read: A round-up of the best sneaker resellers in India