adidas Harden Vol. 4 x Daniel Patrick | Influencer Marketing, Collaborations and the New Normal
Harden Vol 4 basketball shoes, featuring super light LIGHTSTRIKE midsole cushioning. Textile upper with adidas signature three stripe midfoot band for lockdown and stability.
Source: Harden Vol 4 / legacy green
First, by writing this article I will provide a pingback to the Daniel Patrick website and therefore increase the search quality of the Daniel Patrick website. The traffic to the site may not provide any sales and that is not my goal in writing this post, but at all times I like to teach and educate on how marketing works.
Second, this post is big in a long time discussion I’ve been creating on the site in regard to influencer marketing and collabs. A strategic collaborative effort can provide a connection to the consumer, but it doesn’t always work. In one article on the site I explained that Saucony took the easy path to creating a campaign in alignment with collaborators. I compared their strategy to what was a more authentic marketing approach by Vans:
Vans ‘waffleheads’ vs Saucony (or insert brands) Influencers | Influencing Must Be Authentic
In the discussion I make the point that all of Saucony’s collaborators were all Nike/Jordan heads. In other words when people were directed to those influencers websites the content was primarily about Jordan brand products. The Saucony collab was done for pay and it was obvious. It didn’t matter how amazing the shoe looked, there wasn’t any authenticity and that becomes problematic for a brand. So much so that Saucony completely abandoned hype and influencers and instead focused on more productive collabs:
Here adidas aligns with designer Daniel Patrick on a Harden basketball sneaker. The brand and the designer has had to resort to utilizing Facebook and social media ads to drive traffic to the site on a LIMITED sneaker release. Granted this release arrived during the quarantine crisis… but that is irrelevant as the Air Jordan 1 Royal sold out which released in bigger numbers than this Harden shoe I’m sure. The shoe dropped on 4-11. There are hardly any broken sizes on the DP website. On StockX the shoe has zero resale value and as pictured floral they are running ads to acquire customers for the model.
What Does This Mean?
This is not a swipe at adidas or Daniel Patrick. The sneaker world is in a strange place, well… for everyone except Nike who has been selling out of several drops in the last two months since quarantine began including the Air Jordan 4 95 Neon, The Air FOG, the Retro 1, and even the Jordan Brand Why Not Splash Zone Zero.3. This says more about Nike and Jordan Brand than it does about adidas. The only comparable shoe to the DP x Harden is the FOG made with Jerry Lorenzo. That shoe rings up at twice the price of the DP x Harden, was limited and still sold out.
Which brings me back to this discussion on collaborators and brands.
The FOG could have been attached to me and it would have sold out. The DP adidas Harden, could be attached to me and by default I would have sold a few pairs… That’s not saying I’m more popular than a famous designer, it’s saying that I have a sneaker platform that has X amount of daily visitors looking to buy kicks and learn about kicks.
Brands are at a point where the influencer/collaborator is becoming less important. In my new book (Sneaker Resale, Sneaker Retail and the New Normal) I talk about the opportunities to find jobs or create businesses in the sneaker industry. What I realize is that you can no longer lead with cost. You can no longer get someone cool to sell your stuff. What will resonate with buyers is a combination of all things: cool, design, history and availability. What will resonate and have a lasting connection will be things that are important to the buyer on a personal level. Are you doing something for the planet? Are you doing something for a charity? Are you doing something to give me, the customer, an experience?
The business is changing and small companies can rival bigger companies if they can simply outlast this economic downturn and provide value, not just a product. This is not the time to invest in collaborators for a quick fix, this is time to invest in oxford brand building and educating the consumer.