Despite the basketball shoe category’s recent struggles, today’s top athletic brands are still investing millions into Nike Air Max 2017 Mujer showcasing product. (The extravagant events throughout Los Angeles for NBA All-Star Weekend are proof.) But sneaker industry experts still don’t have faith that the hoops sneaker market will rebound anytime soon.
“The consumer is very clearly Adidas Superstar Mujer Rosa spelling out for us that they want non-performance footwear right now, and I don’t see basketball growing in 2018,” said Matt Powell, senior industry adviser for sports with The NPD Group. “It’s not a matter of product; it’s a matter more of Nike Air Presto Damen the big fashion trends.”According to data provided by Powell and NPD, the top three sneakers at retail in 2017 were the Nike Tanjun, Nike Air Max 90 Damen the low Chuck Taylor All Star and the Nike Air Huarache, none of which is a performance basketball style.
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And Nike Air Force 1 Damen Peng Cheng, owner of the West Coast-based boutique Bait, agrees — despite a recent uptick in basketball shoe sales in his store’s doors. But his reason for why the category is performing poorly isn’t that the looks are no longer fashionable.Aside Nike Air Max Zero Womens from trends and too many products on retail shelves, Cheng believes there’s another issue hindering the category’s growth in 2018 — which www.wimatherm.de he suspects applies more to Nike than other brands.

“There are some distinguishable design aesthetics Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 Damen between [Nike signature] lines that you can tell if you are in the business, but to the public, a lot of the shoes could Nike Air Max 90 Mujer easily be someone else’s shoe. Every shoe looks very similar,” Cheng said. “The new LeBron [James] shoe could very easily have a ‘KD’ [Kevin Durant] logo on it. I just don’t see any significant design aesthetic changes every year, and that Adidas ZX 750 Mujer may be because of the technology — I don’t know if that limits the design styles.”
“I don’t see [basketball sneakers] becoming popular anytime soon, but I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as the last four years, and it’s picking up — I Nike Air Max Command Damen see that in my stores, too,” Cheng said. “[And] don’t think it will ever come back because there are frankly too many SKUs that every brand Nike Air Max Thea Womens puts out, and there’s no more collectability to the basketball lines. That’s what has driven that business.