The Russian sports shoe market is divided into 3 segments:
performance – specialized shoes for sports;
outdoor – shoes for walking, hiking, trekking;
sports inspired /athleisure – fashionable shoes in a sports style for everyday life.
The three categories together occupy about 30% of the footwear market, which amounts to 142.3 billion rubles
performance – about 10%, 49 billion rubles.
outdoor – about 4%, 19.6 billion rubles.
sports inspired – about 15%, 73 billion rubles.
Fashionable sports-style shoes are the most dynamically growing segment in the footwear market; the forecast for the growth in turnover of the fashionable sports shoes segment in 2023 is quite high — up to 25-30% after the negative dynamics in 2022.
Such high growth is possible for 2 reasons:
Low base 2022, during which there was a 10% reduction in turnover of sports fashion footwear in value terms.
A continued increase in shoe prices in 2023 by 15-25% in the autumn-winter season of 2023.
At the same time, over the past 5 years, prices for sports shoes have been growing steadily:
2019 – 8-10%
2020 – 5-8%
2021 — 10-15%
2022 – 4-5%
2023 – growth is predicted to be up to 20-25%
Prices for sports shoes reflect the general trend of rising prices for shoes and clothing. The average cost of 1 pair of sneakers in 2022 was 4.7 thousand rubles (in 2018 it was 3.5 thousand rubles)
If inflation processes stabilize, stable growth in the consumption of sports shoes is expected, outpacing the dynamics of the footwear market as a whole, which is consistent with the global trend.
Changes in the sneaker market in Russia from 2022
The sporting goods market in the Russian Federation was developed and highly competitive. All the world’s leading players were represented on the market in offline and online formats; they developed both their own networks and wholesale sales to Russian sports multi-brands: such as the Sportmaster group of companies, the Planet Sport, Kant, Champion, Ultrasport, Sport Point networks , Trial sport.
The departure of direct representative offices of international companies led to:
to the termination of their sponsorship programs with teams;
to stopping local collaborations and special sporting events for the population;
to the closure of their monobrand networks.
But since “free demand” appeared, this stimulated the emergence of an alternative supply.
ALTERNATIVE SUPPLIERS OF SPORTS FOOTWEAR TO THE RUSSIAN MARKET UNDER THE SANCTIONS REGIME ARE DEVELOPING:
— Parallel import, which ensured an influx of sellers/buyers to marketplaces;
— Partner import in agreement with the brand rights holders, which was carried out by wholesale distributors of departed brands. In place of former monobrands, local multibrands are developing (more details below).
CHINESE COMPANIES INCREASE ACTIVITY:
Anta – currently 35 stores are open. This is one of the largest sports companies in the world, whose retail network consists of more than 10,000 stores. Of these, 25 are located in Russia and the CIS countries, 10 have already been opened in Moscow.
Li Ning — the first store opened in December 2022 — currently 5 stores are open.
THE GROWTH OF LOCAL PROCUTION
Growth in local production of sports shoes: according to MINPROMTORG, local production of sports shoes in 2022 increased by 52%, and provided the market with an economical offer — 20% cheaper than imported analogues, according to CRPT (labelling system operator).
THE GROWTH OF RESALE
Both large projects, for example, Avito (online platform), The Cultt, Oskelly, Second Friend Store, and interesting niche projects, for example, Nikita Efremov, are actively developing.
DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONAL ORDER-DELIVERY SERVICES
The services of personal shoppers are actively developing both at the company level — the largest of which is CDEK.Shopping — and at the level of individual entrepreneurs who find their clients through social networks. This way you can get the desired model from Europe, the USA or Asia.
FROM MONOBRANDS TO MULTIBRANDS
Local partners of sports brands, who were engaged in wholesale sales, opened alternative multi-brand stores in the places of departed brands, and now these companies themselves make decisions about store design, choice of brands, style of models, and service. For example:
— Reebok: Flo Retailing, Turkish partner and manufacturer of Reebok opens multi-brand Sneaker Box stores: plans to open — 100 stores with brands such as Reebok, Puma, US Polo ASSN, Lumberjack, Lotto.
— Nike: Inventive Retail Group, a wholesale supplier of Nike in Russia, is launching a multi-brand chain of sportswear stores Amazing Red: Puma, Nike, New Balance, Reebok, Asics. The chain will have about 100 stores in 20 cities.
— Adidas: Lamoda is showing interest in the Adidas heritage, which suggests the possibility of opening about 300 sportswear and footwear stores.
— Helly Hansen – MOVE multi-brand (13 stores): Adidas, Reebok, Puma, as well as brands Kronos, Etonic and many others.
A variety of niche projects are actively developing — clothing and footwear stores where you can buy trendy sports or casual sneakers for adults and children
— Street Beat (60 stores)
— Sneakerhead(3 stores)
— Superstep (43 stores)
— Urban Vibes (17 stores).
— Brandshop (2 stores), etc.
Sneakers resale in Russia
Sneaker resale projects are a separate subculture and a large, promising market. The leaders in terms of volume are large players. First of all, the AVITO platform, where you can find almost everything.
Leaders in deep expertise, unique offers and service are specialized niche projects. These are specialists with deep knowledge of the specifics of the market, the ability to assess the prospects and value of new and past releases, collabs and limited editions.
For example:
NIKITA EFREMOV – 3 stores, including a two-story flagship on Petrovka,
Beegz is a specialized street-wear project by Oskelly, an online and offline store, with a concierge service through which you can pre-order popular models around the world and from collectors’ archives.
KicksMania online store and showroom in Bryusov Lane.
Sneakers as a resale item are a serious investment asset. Even the famous auction house Sotheby’s resells individual models of sneakers for tens of thousands of dollars.
This is a separate and large market segment, comparable in size to bags, but with higher dynamics and a completely different target audience:
Sophisticated collectors, dynamic “sneaker coin collectors” of generation Z.
Less sophisticated, but richer young yuppies from large companies, lovers of signature and iconic models from Balenciaga, Gucci, Off-White, Nike. For them, sneakers are replacing old-school watches as a marker of success.
Since there are collectors who are willing to pay any money for limited edition models, there is certainly an offer for them. It is provided by experienced sneaker hunters who purchase sneakers solely for the purpose of resale. And the brands themselves create the ground for this. This is a game between brands and customers, in which brands deliberately leave room for enterprising “hunters” to make money. Warming up the race participants is part of the brand strategy and promotional companies.
With expertise, investing in sneakers has a very high return. In the medium term of the next five years, the sneaker resale market is expected to grow steadily.