Is it a sneaker, a Subway ticket or a step in crossover marketing?
(Overkill)
It is Monday the 15th of January, noon, a cold windy day how it should be this time of the year in Berlin Kreuzberg. The street in front of a shoe store is packed with many small groups of people sitting in sleeping bags, eating soup, drinking tee, everything to keep warm.
One man is walking around with a clipboard every few hours to check the attendance list, who is not in line or on his waiting position is crossed out. 230 people on his list are already waiting since Sunday.
(Overkill)
So what is the fuss about?
In cooperation with Adidas Originals, the Berlin subway (BVG) has designed a special edition EQT-SUPPORT 93/Berlin sneaker, which is (or should I say was) available in only two stores in the German capital from 16 January and is limited to 500 pairs only.
The special feature: the pattern of the subway seat covers serves as a design element of the sneaker and makes it a unique collectors item. In addition, the BVG annual ticket is incorporated into the tongue in the model.
If the shoe is worn on the foot, it is valid as a ticket in all Berlin subways till December 2018.
It is an analog wearable, so to speak, based on the idea to integrate useful technical features in the clothing. Only this ticket is just not machine-readable or otherwise technically promising and therefore not on the stand of Smart Clothing. There are already shirts that can be used to charge your smartphone due to integrated solar cells, or bras that measure the heart rate and so on...
This sneaker with the sewn ticket is still more on the level of the first multiple use products, like a transparent pencil case with which students used to hang their monthly bus or subway pass around their necks, to not forget it at home.
(Overkill)
Maybe there are a few people who always wanted to look like a Berlin subway seat on their feet. At the BVG people are very proud of the recognition value of the black-blue-pink upholstery cover, which adorns the shoe.
180€ for the shoes are not cheap, but a similar subway ticket without the shoes, usually costs depending on the subscription 730€ or 760€.
As so often, it pays off to look at the fine print. The annual ticket on the shoes is only valid if you actually wear the shoes on your feet - both, so that nobody comes up with the idea of just putting on one of the metro stops and reselling the others. It is, let's say a rather strange idea that people would actually go out with two different shoes to save a few bucks, but honestly I have seen crazier things.
In the end, most of the sneakers will never see a Subway from the inside anyway. After all, limited edition shoes have long been collectors items, if they are not worn.
(Overkill)
For a few years, the limited sneakers of the big brands Adidas and Nike have become a business model for third parties. The shoes are sold online for many times the store price, like Yeesy Boost and many others these cooperations are sold for four to five times the original price online. The prices for EQT-SUPPORT 93/Berlin range in the network today between 700€ and 800€, already a considerable amount of winnings, trend upwards.
So what's the conclusion?
Adidas sold effectively another limited product with a lot media attention.
The Berlin subway has improved their image and made some advertising in the process.
And the sneaker obsessed have a new financial investment.
What is next?
I'm looking forward to bags × Lufthansa, cap × cinema, pants × parking lot, don't you? ;-P
Thanks for reading
NR