THE THREE PARTY SNEAKER COLLAB

WHERE KITH SHINES
AND OTHER FAULTS

What does X-Men and ASICS have in common? How does Clarks end up working with the New York Yankees? Who puts Adidas and Clarks in the same room together? – The answer to these questions is Kith. Over the past years, Kith has been the core of these three-way collaborations. Only Ronnie Feig has the pull to put a Clarks sole on an Adidas Samba and put the New York Yankees logo on the toe box of a Wallabee. But why is it only Kith doing these three-way collabs? The collabs are captivating, bound to cause discussion, allow the brands to gain earned media (look at me writing about it right now), and will always hit when done correctly.

Collabs and the sneaker industry have formed into a normality. Every year a new boat of collab sneakers arrives on the scene. With collaborations now a standard in the industry, footwear brands are seeking the next partner to bring in and stamp their brand on a pair of sneakers. These collabs cross many parts of culture; from music, sports, entertainment, retail empires, mum-and-pop stores, food & beverage, and everything in between. If you don’t believe me just look through the Nike SB Dunks collabs that formed over the past 10 years – Ben & Jerry's, Powerpuff Girls, Gundam, Jarritos, Grateful Dead, and Run the Jewels just to name a select few. Due to how collabs have been an aspect of the footwear/fashion culture for a minute now, brands have had time to work with various brands in which in some cases, partnerships have formed where brands have done multiple projects together.

Retail empire, Kith has done collaborations with the likes of New Balance, Adidas, ASICS, Clarks, Coca-Cola, Marvel, Star Wars, and Tommy Hilfiger. Kith has touched all aspects of culture, from sneakers to high fashion, sports, and entertainment. This puts Kith into a higher class where they have various connections across many spaces allowing them to enter a middle-man position and pull multiple brand partners into a single project leading to these collaborations with three parties involved.

Kith is currently at the forefront of these three brand collaborations, but it doesn’t mean others can. With various sneaker brands, not only have they worked with a range of brand partners, but many of these footwear brands have what I call the “go-to collaborator.” These collaborators are typically a designer or brand related to an individual designer. They are also in either a long-term exclusive contract or have a deep relationship that brings them back to do multiple projects. With the two ingredients of "go-to collaborations" and a network of brand partners, the question now is why Kith is only executing the three-party collaborations when there is a clear opportunity for other brands to do these.

The next ideas below surrounding why sneaker brands might not execute three-party collaborations are general assumptions:

• The first hurdle comes with contracts. Contracts have many different elements and terms that may halt production or stop people from talking to other companies even if they are not in the same space or competitors.

• The second hurdle comes for the brands themselves. Let’s say I work for a trending soda company, and I want to do a collab with Nike and I want to work with Ambush. As I know Ambush has ongoing projects with Nike, I understand that we could all collaborate on a project. Where this could be halted is If my brand is in trend Nike can cut out the middleman and do a direct collab with my soda brand. Nike understands its brand, and they know the hold market share, so they won’t lose a collaborator if they do a one-off project with my brand and do another project with Ambush.

• The third and final hurdle comes from fear. From my recent memory, the only people that have a triple collab is Kith with various brands as mentioned and an interesting case study where Nike produced a collaboration between themselves, sacai, and KAWS. For the period this shoe was released, and the names involved, this collab should have been a sure thing, tons of sales, lots of hype, and a shoe that will gain earned media. Instead, full-size runs of this shoe ended up in bargain bins at Nike outlets across the world. The biggest factor in my opinion for this flop was because:

  • A) It was done on Blazer - Not Nike's strongest model which comes in and out of fashion rapidly and

  • B) Nike had milked the sacai relationship and there was the third lot of sacai Blazer colourways which let it to feel stale.

  • Even with these factors being the core reason this collab flopped, Nike might now be too scared to attempt another three-way collaboration.

Going forward, traditional sneaker brands must start being different and pulling multiple brands into singular projects. These traditional sneaker brands need to start being the middleman and use their models, branding, and connections to bring a new flavour to the industry that is only being pioneered by Kith.