Saucony Has Entered the Chat

Fire Footwear: Sneakers Talk (with Matt Frates)

Host Matt Frates explores the recent resurgence of Saucony within sneaker culture, positioning it as a rising force capitalizing on Nike's c

Key takeaways

• Nike is currently facing challenges with stock numbers and a perceived dip in product quality for retro releases.
• Saucony has leveraged its long history, dating back to 1898, to build a brand rooted in storytelling and American heritage.
• The transition of influencer J Tips from Saucony to Nike marks a significant shift in the brand's collaborator landscape.
• StockX reports indicate that Saucony is becoming a highly sought-after brand in the resale market, signaling high hype levels.
• A sense of 'collector's fatigue' is emerging among older enthusiasts who are tired of constant retro releases from major brands.

Main topics

• Nike's market decline
• Saucony's brand resurgence
• Sneaker resale and hype

Notable quotes

It's not just about who's falling, but it's who's coming up behind them.

Conclusion

The episode highlights the importance of innovation and discovery for

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) We're going to talk Saucony and their glow up recently, this time on Fire Footwear. What's up everyone? Welcome back to another episode of Fire Footwear. As always, I am your host, Matt. I want to welcome everybody back who has been here for a while. And if you are brand new, I want to welcome you too, because it is always great to have new people here in the Fire Footwear community. A couple of things before we move on. YouTube, Fire Footwear, if you're listening to this in audio, you can go to YouTube if you want to see my lovely face out there in the video space. And of course, Matt Freights on YouTube, if you are interested in some other things that I do. I do some filmmaking things. And lately on Instagram, I've been doing a bunch of filmmaking-related content when talking about cameras and lighting and things like that. And I've been really enjoying doing that. So if you're interested in that, consider going to one of those YouTube pages, giving me a follow, share, whatever is applicable. I definitely appreciate it. And if you have been listening for a while and you've been quiet, feel free to give me a review here on either Apple or Spotify or whatever it is you're listening on, however that works out for you. So we've been kind of on a heater with this podcast. If you remember earlier this year, I took a little bit of time off. And even last year, I wasn't as consistent with this pod, but Lately, I've kind of been feeling it and I've been feeling it in the space of family. I've been feeling it in the space of sneakers and just, I think, putting out consistent content. And so I wanted to deviate a little bit because we've been talking about Nike a lot. We've really been honing in on just how they have been falling behind. And if you look at the stock numbers, if you look at just how things are sitting, I think you can make some healthy guesses as to why things are happening. It's not just about Nike. And while Nike does take up the space in terms of social media and in terms of the money space, and I'm talking about being at the top of the heap in terms of revenue, and that's one thing I should definitely bring up here is even with Nike struggling, they are the top of the heap. The chasm between them and Adidas, the very clear one and two, is very, very large. And that actually reminds me. We did mention this. I was recently on the 12 Hub podcast and Kari, Hugh, and Drew, that almost sounds like Huey, Dewey, and Louie, but I swear that it's not. But please go check them out because I always say this on the pod. I say this in Instagram too, is support those who support me. They had me on. We talked a bunch of sneaker stuff, but we didn't mention this. We didn't mention how Nike stock is falling. But I think the other part of the equation here is not just who's falling. but it's who's coming up behind them, and I believe that Saucony is a brand we should be talking about. Nike, Adidas, New Balance, all of them have a place in sneaker culture. We've seen it now. All you need to do is go on social media, go to any of the release apps, and you're going to see a ton of those three brands. But one brand that has been making a come up and having a glow up recently is Saucony. Now, Saucony definitely has had a moment with J Tips. And now that J Tips has moved on to Nike, many have been questioning what is going to happen to them. But I think it's worth noting that Saucony is a brand that has been around for a very long time. If you recall, I've talked about it many times that runners, while big right now, are not a space that I traffic in because I ran marathons. Starting in 2010, when I started losing weight after my heart attack, I rediscovered or discovered running. When I started doing