Are Males’s Baggage Overtaking Sneakers within the Resale Market?

On YouTube, there’s a complete subculture of sneakerheads displaying off their spectacular shoe collections. In one 2020 video, which has over one million views, a 17-year-old walks us by means of his $1 million assortment, together with a pair of Air Jordans signed by basketball participant Chris Paul. There’s additionally a preferred Advanced sequence that goes buying with movie star sneaker fanatics like Pete Davidson and Bella Hadid (the latter of whom as soon as famously mentioned, “If he comes by means of in these…homeboy’s gonna, like, get it”). Within the luxurious menswear resale house, it’s clear that the urge for food for accumulating one-of-a-kind sneakers nonetheless persists. But it surely seems searches for uncommon males’s purses are more and more arising on its heels.

There was as soon as a time when purses had been seen as a girls’s-only accent. Keep in mind that scene in The Hangover when the crew makes enjoyable of Alan’s man purse? “It’s known as a satchel,” Alan quips. However as the fashion industry (and consumers) have embraced a extra genderless method to design, skirts, heels, and luggage are (lastly) changing into extra of a unisex merchandise. On Rebag—a preferred designer-bag resale web site—males at present make up one-third to half of the client base. “Our expanded assortment of luxurious purses by labels like Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Prada, and Chanel—particularly crossbodies, messenger luggage, sling kinds, and duffels—are well-liked amongst male shoppers,” says Charles Gorra, the CEO and founding father of Rebag.

Within the U.S., the purse buyer base on StockX—one other well-liked on-line resale market—is now evenly cut up between women and men as effectively. Rachel Makar, StockX’s director of equipment, says the rising curiosity in luggage just isn’t dissimilar to how males have been sneaker obsessed prior to now. “Most of the elements which have influenced sneaker tradition and made limited-edition sneakers so wanted are additionally fueling demand for males’s luggage and equipment,” she says, including that unique bag drops or one-of-a-kind designer collaborations have made luggage that rather more covetable. On StockX, for example, the Louis Vuitton x Supreme luggage proceed to be a hot-ticket merchandise and gross sales for Louis Vuitton equipment on the whole (together with luggage however not sneakers) have elevated virtually 90% within the final three years.

It’s no coincidence that each the runways and pink carpets have been crammed with stylish males’s luggage as of late. Because the variety of bag choices for males has grown, the resale market has elevated as a ripple impact (although it’s to not say males aren’t shopping for girls’s kinds too). Simply this spring 2022 season, there have been loads of males’s luggage to behold. Jil Sander had large brown leather hobo bags on its runways, whereas Hermès confirmed its basic Birkin carryalls and Dior provided new takes on its signature Saddle shoulder bags. The kinds are nonetheless decidedly mens-y, although much less conventional than a briefcase or backpack. On the step-and-repeats, in the meantime, A-list celebrities like Jaden Smith, Harry Types, and Lil Nas X have all stepped out and confirmed luggage are common items—Types favors a basic Gucci Jackie model and Nas a bolder dog-shaped bag by Thom Browne.

The craze for sneakers remains to be going sturdy too. In accordance to leading menswear buyers for Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, the designer sneaker market remains to be as scorching and strong as ever—see the brand new Gucci x Adidas sneakers, that are already on StockX. The brand new curiosity in accumulating luggage is extra piggybacking than an entire overtaking. “The boys’s bag resale market isn’t a lot taking on the sneaker resale market as it’s constructing on it,” says Makar. “There’s been a shift amongst male sneaker fans. As a substitute of sneakers being the dominant spend class, equipment at the moment are competing with sneakers for share of pockets.”