Sneaker collaborations are everywhere…

“We’d never seen anything like it,” says Cecilie Bahnsen. “The first drop that we launched, the black and white Mary Janes, sold out in three minutes, and people were logging in from all over the world. It was really quite incredible and introduced us to a whole new following.” 

The Copenhagen-based fashion designer, best known for her floaty, puffy dresses, collaborated with Japanese sportswear brand Asics for the first time last June. The shoe she launched (£185) used her design signatures – quilting, floral detailing and embroidery – to offer a dainty take on the brand’s GT-2160 shoe. A follow-up collaboration, launched in November, built on the original in vibrant pinks and blues.

“It’s helped us to grow footwear as a category,” says Bahnsen, who reports a four-fold turnover increase for 2023 on the previous year for shoes. “Working with Asics and learning from its technical expertise has allowed us to push what footwear is for Cecilie Bahnsen.”

The global sneaker market is expected to reach $165bn in 2023, according to Euromonitor, with estimates that it will grow to $190bn by 2025. McKinsey values the luxury and premium category within that at around $30bn, buoyed by collaborations such as Nike’s with Tiffany & Co, or Adidas’ designer tie-ins with Gucci and Balenciaga. 

For both parties, it’s about a new customer group

For smaller designers, such collaborations can be transformative. London-based Wales Bonner first launched its collaboration with Adidas in 2020 with a collection of ready-to-wear that melded Grace Wales Bonner’s Caribbean heritage and tailoring influences with the sportswear giant’s codes. The ongoing partnership has helped her reach a global audience that might have been unfamiliar with her work. Similarly, the collaboration between Nike and London-based Martine Rose, which first launched in 2022, has garnered the designer global traction; especially when a star such as Kendrick Lamar wears a pair to the Grammys, as he did last year. 

The Broken Arm x Salomon X-Alpages Gore-Tex hiking trainer

Wales Bonner x Adidas Samba sneaker

Brain Dead x HOKA Hopara sandal

Martine Rose x Nike Shox MR4 sneaker

Likewise, Rihanna – who wore a pair of red MM6 Maison Margiela x Salomon sneakers to perform at last year’s Super Bowl – has helped raise the global visibility of the French sports equipment brand, originally conceived as a ski company. Salomon first collaborated with Parisian boutique The Broken Arm in 2015, and officially launched its “sportstyle” category in 2017. In 2023 Salomon worked with partners including Sandy Liang, Palace and Comme des Garçons. Hoka, another French sportswear brand, recently collaborated with Brain Dead and New York-based upcycling designer Nicole McLaughlin, while the Swiss sneaker company On Running released a second collaboration with Loewe in October.

Smaller brands benefit from the hype of the sneaker market and the resources that the sportswear names offer, while the latter get to leverage their cultural clout. “For both parties it really is about a new customer group,” says Anita Balchandani, senior partner at McKinsey. “Typically these collaborations command a higher price, so there is an ability to charge more for the product and drive a premium price point. The media value with the coverage and storytelling that comes out of it is also one of the positives.”

London-based Bulgarian fashion designer Kiko Kostadinov first started working with Asics in 2017, using samples for a runway show and graduating to a collaboration of three styles that riffed on the brand’s running shoes. He has since released around 20 models across men’s and womenswear with Asics and has now collaborated with the sportswear company on a dedicated line, called Novalis, which also encompasses ready-to-wear. 

Kostadinov says the collaborations are compelling because they offer conceptual ideas in a more mass framework. “It’s easier for customers to relate to a pair of shoes than to a tailored coat that uses three different materials and has a strange shoulder,” he explains. He also notes that having staggered release dates between the Asics collaboration and his main brand helps to bring energy and attract customers at different times throughout the year. “Financially, of course, [the collaboration] also helps with the cashflow when you need it, if a store is delaying to pay you, or if you have to pay production costs.” 

The goal is to find new perspectives, to think outside the box

For each of Salomon’s collaborations, the brand will produce an average of between 2,000 and 4,000 pairs of shoes, and the business model varies between project, depending on each brand’s goals. “It’s a mutual negotiation,” says Thibault Mercier, collaboration project manager for Salomon’s sportstyle category, “and we always want it to be a win-win.” Sportstyle is now its second biggest category after running, with collaborative projects making around two per cent of the business. 

Loewe x On Running Cloudtilt trainer

MM6 Margiela x Salomon ACS Pro Advanced trainer, lyst.co.uk

Adidas x Balenciaga Triple S sneaker, mrporter.com

JJJJound x Asics Gel-Kayano 14 trainer, stockx.com

“Brands have become really smart in using this collaboration playbook,” says Drew Haines, merchandising director for sneakers and collectibles at online marketplace StockX. “The [big brands] work with a designer or an artist to release a very limited collab so that it sells out, and then that creates a secondary market demand, where our platform works.” Haines points to Montreal-based JJJJound’s collaboration with Asics on the brand’s Gel-Kayano 14. “Those sold out and quickly became popular, but when that release happened we started to see a wider demand for the Asics line… The JJJJounds are now $700 to $800 because they have become this cool collectable item, but you can get the Asics metallic plum colourway, which looks very similar, for $150 to $160.”

The main goal in collaborating, adds Mercier, isn’t to do big business. “It’s to find new perspectives, to think outside the box. To mix different visions and different worlds together to make something exciting and new.”