China's Hottest Investment: Overpriced Sneakers?

China's Hottest Investment: Overpriced Sneakers?

Forget stocks, real estate, even cryptocurrencies - China's hottest investment nowadays may be the Nike, Adidas, and Puma basketball shoes that "sneakerheads" fight to get their hands on.

Enthusiasts worldwide have fuelled an expanding bubble in high-priced sneakers, often limited-edition collaborations between big names in sportswear and fashion, rappers or athletes.

But in China the craze is at fever pitch, with devotees driving soaring trading volumes on online "sneaker exchange" platforms, prompting warnings from authorities about dangerous speculation as resale profits approach 5,000%.

The craze's appeal owes to two main factors.

NBA stars such as Michael Jordan have been idolised for years in China, where basketball is arguably the most followed sport, and the associated streetwear culture finds a huge and growing market.

And with Chinese authorities limiting individual stock-market price movements to contain volatility, sneakers are embraced by younger investors seeking quick profits in a commodity they can relate to.

The phenomenon is spurring quick growth in Chinese sneaker-trading platforms such as Poizon, whose annual volume is around 15 billion yuan, according to Chinese tech consultancy iiMedia Research.

That is more than triple the volume of StockX, a leading US platform.

Platforms like Poizon and Nice also have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investment from foreign and domestic venture capital, according to Chinese media reports.

The global market is taking notice.

But the commodification of sneaker culture does not sit well with everyone.

Source: AFP

Editor: Crystal Huang

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