Courtesy of Zia Bradley
After the Jordan Brand announced last year that it was going to increase the price of Air Jordan’s in order to remaster them and get them back to their original quality, there was a noticeable decline in sneaker sales.
It isn’t just a decline in Jordan sales, but in sneaker sales overall. Newly released shoes are sitting on shelves in shoe stores all around the nation, where they used to sell out on the first day.
Cedric Henderson, Assistant Manager at Hibbett Sports, feels that resellers are the reason behind the decline in sneaker sales.
“I buy shoes for the beauty of it, I get what I like, not what’s in style,” Henderson expressed. “People today see buying shoes as a quick come up. They buy shoes they think are highly sought after in hopes of reselling it, only to realize they can’t. Then they bring it back to the store.”
Miya Maxwell, sales associate at Foot Locker, feels like the price of the shoes has a lot to do with the decline in the sales.
“Sales are declining because of the escalating prices of shoes,” Maxwell explains. “For example Retro Jordan's cost $190, when they used to cost $170 just last year. If the prices of certain shoes could stay the same, then maybe sales could increase or become steady.”
Brandon Edmonds, fourth-year Computer Information Systems student at Florida A&M University, isn’t happy at all about the increase in sneaker prices.