Recently, the “shoe speculation” trend has spread to domestic products, causing the prices of some single products of some domestic brands such as Li Ning and Anta to soar. News of rising prices and shortages of domestic sneakers once became a hot search term.
Domestic sneakers are highly speculated
On the Dewu APP, the “base camp” of the shoe speculation party The most exaggerated shoe is Wade’s Way 4, a joint model between Li Ning and Wade. The original price was 1,499 yuan, but now the highest price has reached 48,889 yuan, an increase of 31 times. Because the price is too outrageous, there is no transaction record yet, and it is in a situation where there is a price but no market.
Similarly, Li Ning Wade’s Way 7 wow7 The Moment is beyond the limited edition. The price of 40 sizes is 10,889 yuan, which is nearly 6.4 times higher than the launch price of 1,699 yuan.
Anta brand’s Doraemon joint casual sneakers are white and black. The price is 4599 yuan in size 42.5, and the reference price is only 499 yuan. It has increased more than 8 times, and there are nearly 9,000 recent purchase records.
No wonder ordinary consumers shout: Please let go of domestic brands!
Who is disrupting the market?
In fact, it is not new that limited-edition sneakers from well-known domestic brands command a certain premium in the second-hand market. However, this wave of price increases clearly exceeds the premium category and is far away from the law of value. The price of a commodity has increased dozens of times in just a few days, which is obviously not a normal phenomenon in the market.
Experts analyze that in recent years, as the downward pressure on the economy has increased, there have been fewer and fewer varieties available for speculation, and some private speculative funds have focused on investment circles that were relatively niche in the past, such as the “shoe circle”. According to a sneaker enthusiast, there are many “routines” behind shoe speculation: First, on the day the shoes are released, shoe speculators will start to collect goods. When the goods on the market are almost sold out, they will start to raise prices. . In order to create the illusion that the shoes are very popular, shoe speculators will also increase the number of times the shoes change hands by buying and selling them themselves, further raising the price. After the Xinjiang cotton incident, consumers became more patriotic, and many shoe speculators began to switch to domestic brands.
The central media said: “Wear shoes, don’t speculate”
In this regard, the central media have commented: consumption of patriotic shoes, evil spirits must be severely curbed.
The People’s Daily commented that due to the recent unreasonable and brutal boycott of Xinjiang cotton by some multinational companies, they have been condemned by the majority of patriotic netizens. As a result, some foreign brand sneakers have been ignored by the market. Netizens voted with their feet, supporting domestic products and placing orders for well-known domestic brands such as Li Ning and Anta. This is a normal thing. However, some shoe speculators “captured” business opportunities, as if smelling “blood”, and took the opportunity to move to the domestic sneaker market and make trouble.
Shoes are for wearing, not for frying. To curb this crazy practice and unhealthy tendencies, regulatory authorities should resolutely take action and use legal means to cool down this round of shoe speculation. Manufacturers need to come up with more effective ways, such as increasing supply according to circumstances. In addition, dealers and brand owners must also work within their capabilities to reduce the space for shoe speculators to “act as monsters”.
CCTV News stated that shoe speculation will also cause great harm to the domestic shoe industry. Shoe speculators use abnormal means to raise the price of domestic sneakers to abnormal levels, deviating from the true price of domestic sneakers, and ultimately harming the entire industry. After all, shoes are for wearing, not for speculation. This crazy practice and evil trend of “speculation of shoes” must be curbed. Only in this way can the legitimate rights and interests of ordinary consumers be guaranteed, and the healthy development of the industry be ensured without being harmed.
The platform involved removed 23 sneakers from the shelves
On the morning of April 6, Dewu The official Weibo also had to respond to this matter. Dewu released a statement on the recent price fluctuations of individual shoes, stating that among the three sneakers involved in the online picture, those with excessive price fluctuations listed by the sellers have been removed from the shelves.
At the same time, we checked the products on all platforms and found that 20 sneakers had the problem of large price fluctuations listed by the sellers. These sneakers were removed from the shelves and 3 A seller suspected of maliciously affecting price fluctuations of goods was banned.
After Dewu issued a statement, there are no more Li Ning sneakers on the APP priced at more than 5,000 yuan. The highest priced pair is 4,309 yuan, as mentioned in previous reports Several “high-priced shoes” have been removed from the shelves.
60% of netizens support domestic sports brands
In fact, new sports brands with high prices and avant-garde designs Domestic products have continued to explode in the past two years. As early as 2018, China’s Li Ning made waves by participating in New York Fashion Week. At that time, “China Lining” set off the “national trend” and triggered panic buying.The craze set a record of 1,000 pairs of sneakers sold out in one minute, and revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan for the first time. Since then, Li Ning has been favored by young people, especially those born in the 1990s. They not only value the cost-effectiveness of products, but also pursue different levels of social attributes, aesthetic styles, and cultural connotations of products. It can be said that China’s Lining has received praise based on its strength.
Due to the Xinjiang cotton incident, netizens have initiated the topic of replacing the overseas brands involved with domestic brands. Domestic sports brands such as Li Ning, Anta, Xtep, and Peak have once again become the focus of the public.
According to the survey results of the 21st Century Business Herald, Chinese people are currently enthusiastic about consuming domestic products. Nearly 60% of netizens support domestic sports brands, such as Li Ning and Anta. , Hui Alai are the top three favorites among netizens.
Poll results show that when purchasing sports products, nearly 60% of netizens only consider or prefer domestic sports brands, while less than 30% of netizens choose foreign sports brands. Many netizens believe that we should support domestic products and advocate rational consumption.
Li Xi, executive director of Roland Berger, said that “national trend” has become a new wave of phenomenal fashion. “National trend” brands represented by China Lining, Hui Li, etc., through the “Chinese spirit- The extraction and expression of “Chinese Stories – Chinese Symbols” fully carries the cultural identity and value proposition of the new generation of young people. Driven by the ‘cultural self-confidence’ of China’s young people, national fashion brands will have market potential to be seen and chosen by more consumers in the future.
Brand image needs to be jointly maintained
In recent years, domestic brands have made great progress in technological research and development and appearance design. , indeed have the confidence to move towards the mid-to-high-end market. In addition, some foreign brand sneakers are currently being ignored by the Chinese market due to their malicious “blocking” of “Xinjiang cotton”. Consumers have voted with their feet to support domestic products, and domestic brands have encountered good development opportunities. However, if sneaker enthusiasts are unable to buy the sneakers they want due to “shoe speculation”, and domestic brands lose the trust of consumers, it will be tantamount to squandering the entire lake and ending the way for domestic brands to upgrade.
Worker Daily commented on this that it is a good thing that more people are paying attention to domestic products, but if speculators control the supply of goods through abnormal means and make the price of domestic shoes abnormally high, it will undoubtedly affect consumption. The enthusiasm of investors ultimately caused losses to the entire industry that was developing for the better. If the trend of speculating on domestically produced shoes cannot be stopped, people’s patriotism may be hurt whether they buy shoes or not.
As the comment said: Patriotism should be expressed in actions, rather than shouting slogans while scheming against one’s own compatriots. Regulatory authorities should promptly take action to cool down the situation, and brands and dealers cannot sit idly by or even add fuel to the flames—the hard-won brand image and reputation need to be jointly maintained. </p