Since 2000, retail collaborations have become the go-to creative outlet in which major sportswear brands can share distinctive stories and inspirations from retailers who are pillars in their community.
Three years ago, we partnered with Highsnobiety to uncover the biggest retail collaborations of 2017. Our data showed that Kith and Undefeated dominated the rankings, claiming the largest share of the retail collaboration market. Since then, a lot has changed. The popularity of retail collaborations has continued to increase, resulting in the appearance of new collaborative releases on StockX every month. Some of the best selling shoes on our platform have been retail collaborations. Last year, a total of 105 collaborative releases were added to StockX, all averaging a price premium of 63%. With the average retail collaboration hitting the secondary market at prices significantly greater than retail, we decided to once again rank which ones were the biggest of 2019.
To uncover the most popular retail collaborations in 2019 on StockX, we looked at the total sales from all retail collaborations. Our data set consisted of more than 850 different colorways from nearly 30 retailers – everyone from atmos to UBIQ. We then ranked each retailer and collaborative sneaker release by their market share of total sales on StockX. That is, we looked at the total dollars spent on sneakers from each retailer, then calculated it as a percentage of total dollars in the retail collaboration market.
Here are the retailers and releases that entered our rankings:
Retail Collaborations by Retailer
Coming in at #1 was LA-based sneaker and streetwear powerhouse Undefeated. They amassed a whopping market share of 25%. In other words, if you took at every dollar spent on retail collab sneakers in 2019, one out of every four of those dollars would be spent on an Undefeated sneaker. Out of their 18 sneaker releases in 2019, by far the most popular was the collaborative Kobe 4 Protros, which accounted for 72% of Undefeated sales. Sales for this silhouette alone would have ranked third on our list when stacked against total sales from each individual retailer. These sales have driven Undefeated from a runner-up to KITH in 2017 to a standout leader in 2019.
Chinese retailer CLOT entered our list at a close second, boasting a market share of 20%. Their strong performance on StockX last year was driven by their silk-covered Air Force 1 collaborations with Nike. The Air Force 1 silhouette was a popular silhouette for CLOT, with several popular releases, and as a group, AF1s accounted for 60% of CLOT sales.
In addition to these familiar faces, 2019 also saw some new retailers joining the collab rankings. Newcomers like Trophy Room and A Ma Maniére entered our rankings for the first time, replacing some household names like KITH and Bait that usually rank as the biggest retail collabs. Despite Trophy Room and A Ma Maniére’s small number of collaborative releases in 2019 – they only released six sneakers combined last year – they still managed to make a big impact on the overall market.
Retail Collaborations by Sneaker
The chart above looks at the market share of specific, individual colorways to identify which sneaker was the biggest retail collaboration in 2019. Not surprisingly, given our findings above, we see that Trophy Room, Undefeated, and CLOT dominated StockX last year, yielding the biggest spikes in sales.
Trophy Room took StockX by storm with its release of the Air Jordan 5 Trophy Room Ice Blue. These Jordan 5s averaged a massive resale value of $758 with premiums of 279%. In terms of total dollars spent, the Trophy Room 5s ranked as the biggest retail collaboration by a mile, with an individual market share of 17.5%. That’s more than double the market share of the next biggest release, the Nike Air Force 1 CLOT Blue Silk. This record-setting sales performance has helped Trophy Room compete with familiar retail giants in total sales despite only releasing two sneakers in 2019, one of them being a Friends and Family exclusive.
CLOT and Undefeated both placed multiple shoes in our rankings for best retail collaborative releases. These two retailers accounted for five out of the top ten best releases in our rankings. Nike and Jordan were by far the most popular brand partners to retailers last year, accounting for nine of the top ten best selling releases. New Balance took the remaining spot with their absolute smash hit New Balance 997S Bodega No Bad Days.
Altogether, 2019 was a new look for which retail collaborations are skyrocketing in value and taking over the secondary market. As more retailers are given the opportunity to share their stories through design, we expect to see new companies take the reigns and release tomorrow’s most coveted colorway.
Shop the biggest retail collabs from 2019 below:
