Well, it’s here. Through many doubts and hopeful wishes, many of us probably never had expected the Coronavirus to get this bad. Now as infected rates continue to go up, companies have had the hard task of shutting their doors.
As of now multiple stores that are up our alley have decided to halt in-store shopping to try and do their part in flattening the curve of the COVID-19 rates. Nike lead the pack which followed now by Kith, Supreme, Under Armour, Urban Outfitters, Patagonia and even more. At this point other brands have not announced stores being temporarily shut down but with the situation getting worse by day, expect more brands such as adidas, New Balance, asics and Palace to be doing the same. Now you may be wondering how this might effect the sneaker and fashion industry and at this point in time all that really has changed are releases will be going down on-line instead of in-store. But with testing being made more available today in the US, the numbers of cases are only expected to go up which can cause this situation to get bad really fast.
Currently, states and cities are closing down bars, dine-in eating, and limiting public gatherings to only 25 to 50 people. There has also been a word floating around categorizing business as “essential” or “non-essential” and its hard to imagine our industry not being deemed as the later at this point and time. Malls have even started taking it upon themselves to start altering store hours and again with the situation only expected to get worse, this could change to malls temporarily closing so retailers like Footlocker, Shoe Palace, FinishLine, and Champs would all have to rely on online releases. Which online releases would not be a bad thing for many, it would mean higher online stock and would provide more of an opportunity to people who don’t rely on in-store releases. But again with the rumors of city, state and national lockdowns increasingly intensifying, we haven’t dug as deep as the situation can get.
For one, a “National State of Emergency” isn’t a term that should be taken lightly. With all the drama, and worry about what we might see in the next couple of days or weeks, the economy has taken a huge hit. If things do get out of hand here in the US like they have in other parts of the world, it’s hard not to imagine sneakers and street-wear not being the main focus for a lot of us. Not to say if I were quarantined I wouldn’t be thinking about the next Jordan 1 dropping or even wishing Supreme would have released their Oreos ahead of time (so I would have a nice hypebeast snack while being on lockdown), those are probably all true but at a time of crisis, I’m sure most, if not all of us will halt buying unnecessary things and yes that could involve sneakers and street-wear pieces. And as more consumers start to shy away from releases, brands will have to make the hard decision to suspend releases fully due to items not selling out like they expected them too.
Now one important thing to remember, the potential outcomes that we have discussed thus far are outcomes that brands have taken upon themselves to make. But what happens when UPS or FedEx decides to protect their employees by halting deliveries, then those companies have no choice to cancel all on-line releases, regardless of how they perform or if the demand is still there. This directly hits the secondary market as well as StockX, Goat, and StadiumGoods have all cancelled their in-person drop offs but has continued on-lines sales thus far. So if this impacts you in any way, whether you have to get a new pair of shoes, or need to sell some items, now is the time to do it. At this point, there’s no such thing as being overly prepared.
Hopefully, we never see it get this bad but with stores shutting down and the government beginning to take action, it’s hard to imagine this not getting worse before it gets better. Right now, it’s even hard to imagine or write this post on where we’re headed and at this time, there’s a lot more to worry about than expensive shoes and streetwear clothing. So from the JustFreshKicks team we say stay safe! As its our passion, we’ll always be providing new sneaker content to keep you guys entertained through thick and thin, so keep it locked for all the latest sneaker news as always. And hopefully this will all be over soon so we can all go back to stressing about Supreme sell-out times and the inevitable Nike SNKRS L.
Words By: Irven Sykes
Image: CNN
