Okay y'all let me give you some back story. For the past year and a half I would say I had the Samba on my radar. and NO. I am not saying that as the "oh I am a gatekeeper and blah blah blah, I find trends first" bs. Well.... I do gate keep sometimes, BUT moral of the story is that I had been wanting the shoe. I saw some of my favorite fashionistas wearing them, and what can I say, I am not gonna pass up a good staple shoe for my collection. To continue, I started looking through depop, direct retailers, and company sites for the shoe in hopes of finding them for retail value or LOWER cause girl I had no money because I had school and college softball (I am indeed a broke college student but that is why I am a finance girlie). Side note, can we talk about the struggle of loving clothes and fashion when you DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO AFFORD IT?? Like how am i supposed to dress how I want without the funds. I will go into this at another point in time, but seriously it's a rough time. Continuing my Samba search, one day I went to the thrift store in Tampa AND BABY IT WAS MY LUCKY DAY because I walked into Avalon Exchange and lo and behold a pair of good conditioned black sambas were waiting for me in a size up from normal, but girl I did not care. I snagged those puppies ASAP AND RAN. well obviously i bought them. However, my hunt for a colored pair continued. This was circa de samba surge we are in now. I would say this was last fall. Again, blah blah blah broke college student couldn't buy another pair, yet the goal was to buy THE EXACT PAIR in the picture I have on this post. They're stunning to this day, and I still want them. The spring continues, and I start to see the popularity rise on Tik Tok, and I am thinking oh h*** no because the way my brain thinks is I do not want a shoe that is on every foot. Well, yes for some I do, and will go into depth later, but I think uniqueness is what makes fashion amazing. Any how, I go to New York in the Summer right, drum roll please, EVERY GIRL HAS THE FREAKING SHOE ON. I swear I have never seen a shoe worn more than this soccer shoe besides the putrid air force 1's, which I will stand by to this day. It appeared that the shoe colors in question were the white and black sambas, but on occasion I would see the pair mentioned above, a blue or red gazelle, or the platform pink gazelle. In general, it was the neutral color ways. Now, I need to preface, I still like the Samba, I just wish I personally had gotten more vibrant colors. Fast forward to the present, and I see a Samba every day at my University. EVERY DAY. Tik Tok overflows with outfits that center around the Samba as it has become a more accessible shoe. Originally, as I stated when I found my pair in the fall, the demand and supply of the Samba made it not as accessible therefore providing it with more value. Anyone in the fashion world at the time was scrambling to get their hands on a pair ESPECIALLY the Gucci or Wales Bonner collabs. As popularity was gained, the demand increased, but the supply dramatically increased creating major surplus in the market. What was once unaccessible, was now easily bought in an Adidas store or website. Now, this idea, in my opinion, primarily applies to the black and white color ways. There is still scarcity with certain color ways and designs especially with rising collabs causing the resell market to still benefit, but in general, there has been mass production of the black and white shoes. Therefore, distribution to multiple consumers comes into play. Here is where I theorize. The question becomes what was the draw to this shoe away from the traditional Air Force one, Veja, or Converse? My theory is this: everyone has that one stylish friend right. so the chain works like this. that one friend starts wearing the shoe, then the others hop on, and so on so forth. This idea is similar to the Stanley water cup. the key missing factor in this equation is the consumer that causes the BOOM. Can you guess who it is? It is the Gen Z girl TAH DAH. right? think they consume media and products on the daily and are the considered cool hip generation. Once that group finds a product they like BANG it spreads like wild fire. The tendency from many girl groups I know is the sharing of trends. Often when one loves a trend like Lululemon clothing and the Stanley Cup what happens next? the whole friend group has it. Now everywhere i turn on campus I see this shoe. So what is next? does this become the next beater shoe? does it become the next converse or air force 1 worn with every outfit because of its simple color way and silhouette? Maybe. Personally, I am not sure if I will buy another pair in the near future BUT if a cool color way pops out that would be great with my style then maybe I will. Unfortunately, this will most likely by a short term trend until the next shoe takes a hold of the younger generation, but for now the Samba is EATING the market up.
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