By now, brands have understood (or are beginning to understand), the sneaker game is open to all. Yet the question remains constant: are women getting involved just for marketing or because there is a real awareness?
Women’s communities have been trying for years to bring the issues to light and help brands sharpen their sensitivity towards female sneakerheads. We asked some of them to tell us about themselves and explain what are the greatest difficulties and victories in their journey?
In this first episode we interview @sneakersisterhood, a women’s community in London.
1- How was Snekersisterhood born?
It all started from the lack of female representation we were seeing, but knowing that a lot of women were in and around the sneaker scene. In 2019 a group of women were meeting on a fairly regular basis in London at sneaker pick ups at Offspring. Strangers were becoming friends through our shared love of kicks, and we decided to capitalise on it and create a safe space for women to express themselves and be represented, given the space to shine and the much needed focus and attention that had been lacking. What started off as an Instagram community grew into much more, a network of global friends that can connect wherever with a shared love.
2- What were your goals at the beginning of the adventure? Do you feel you have achieved them?
The goal was quite simple, and we went way beyond that. Initially we just wanted to provide a space and platform for women to be seen and shine. Now it has become much more than that. Through in person events, collaborations with brands through a diversity and inclusion lens, spotlight series on women owned business, a merchandise line and more.
3- How do you approach your day-to-day life and what are the contents you are most proud of?
Our day to day really varies. All 3 co-founders have full time jobs so we try to be as flexible as possible to make sneaker sisterhood work. Ja’e is our creative mind because all of our content, Giulia focusses on brand partnerships and strategy, whilst Juelz is our photographer and videographer.
We have lots of content series we love that show women in different lights, from our women for women series all about women owned businesses, to Mani Mondays that showcase female creativity in the beauty industry, to our Spotlight series that showcases sneaker collection stories, all the way to our Athlete Showcase to show the very relevant connection between female athletes and performance and lifestyle sneakers.
4- What was the biggest difficulty you encountered on your path within the sneaker game?
There have been a number of obstacles throughout, but also a lot of support from other community members. The main difficulty has been the need to always work 10x harder to fit in certain spaces, be invited and considered, or even thought of as apt or knowledgeable enough to participate, purely because we are women.
5- How do you at Sneakersisterhood see the sneaker game of the future, especially for women?
We are hopeful that the game will continue to become more inclusive for women, whether it’s sizing, representation of creatives, storytelling etc. We’ve all been in the game for so many years we have seen so much positive change, and although some areas have developed more slowly than we would like, overall it has been a positive change.
6- If you had to give one piece of advice to a young woman approaching the world of trainers today, what would it be?
Be yourself and don’t feel like you need to follow trends. Buy what you like, connect to nice, genuine people, and don’t focus on hype or clout, and definitely don’t spend more than you can afford! It is okay to only have very few pairs and to slowly build your collection.
