In the sneaker business, Nike owns the performance sports position and the performance athlete. In order to find new ground, Adidas pivoted to entertainment and aligned with celebrities and rappers. K-Swiss couldn’t compete with either of these mega-brands with mega budgets if we went head-to-head on sports or entertainment. But then we had an insight: Young people these days want to be Entrepreneurs. So why do we keep marketing sneakers by talking about who can run the fastest? Enter K-Swiss and Gary Vee, the voice of entrepreneurship, to launch ‘Generation K’, a brand anthem about the new aspiration of young people….
Gary Vee:
‘Back in the day, athletes wanted to be rappers and rappers wanted to be athletes. Now both of them want to be entrepreneurs.’
K-Swiss’ brand mission became ‘To Outfit and Inspire The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs’. This changed everything for the brand, creating real emotional connections to our consumers and building a community of passionate brand fans. Gary Vee’s own signature K-Swiss sneakers sold over 50,000 pairs across 8 releases. This is the power of differentiation and finding your own lane.
Barney Waters: