Good morning, friends! Welcome back to The Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you giving me a bit of your time. Happy Friday! Cheers to the weekend. Hope you’ve got some exciting plans.
The big sports moments on the calendar aren’t quite over just yet. The 2026 Winter Olympic Games are coming to a close this weekend on Sunday, which means we’re about to get some more great fits (along with some great competition throughout the weekend!). Something to look forward to for your sports fix this weekend.
Speaking of the Olympics, shoutout to Laila Edwards becoming the first Black American gold medalist in hockey. Happy Black History Month!
Quick hits:
- This is a fascinating article from Malique Morris (his last for BoF!) about Sporty & Rich’s Emily Oberg doing her best to break the founder-CEO curse.
- A$AP Rocky’s and Nas’ spot for Ray Bans here is the coolest thing I’ve seen so far in 2026. Absolutely love the “Belly” reference here.
- Stone Island is on fire. The brand’s sales shot up 16 percent in the fourth quarter and four percent for the full year in 2025. That’s some positive momentum for the brand and good signs for Moncler all around.
Alright. Let’s get into it.
Challengers Can Still Thrive
There’s been a lot of concern in 2026 about Adidas and Nike taking up too much space in the sportswear marketplace as the two brands battle it out at the top for supremacy.
The thinking is that the market is shrinking and casualisation is waning, as we’ve discussed before. If the pie is truly shrinking and both Nike and Adidas are outsized slices of it, theoretically, that wouldn’t leave much room for the challenger brands on the periphery.
But… If New Balance’s latest numbers are any indication of the marketplace, there’s plenty of room left for challenger brands to maneuver and grow.
What’s new: New Balance CEO Joe Preston shared the brand’s latest sales numbers for its 2025 fiscal year with CNBC. There wasn’t much to worry about in what he shared.
- The brand’s sales reached $9.2 billion in 2025, according to Preston, a 19 percent year-on-year increase.
- Preston estimated that the Boston-based sportswear brand could achieve its goal of becoming a $10 billion sportswear brand by the end of 2026.
Why this matters: Achieving that goal would put New Balance in conversations with companies like Nike, Adidas, Lululemon and Anta as sportswear brands with annual sales numbers exceeding $10 billion. That would be quite the accomplishment for an independent, privately held manufacturer like New Balance.
Zoom out: While this success for New Balance is impressive, it’s not necessarily unique. Despite the struggles the market has had over the last couple of years, some niche brands still seem able to find some success.
For all the hand-wringing we’ve seen from industry experts and analysts, things seem to be alright so far.
Don’t get it twisted: Obviously, all three of these brands have a lot more room to grow than their bigger competitors in Nike and Adidas. New Balance’s $9.2 billion number here pales in comparison to Nike’s $46.3 billion figure at the end of its last fiscal year in May 2025, for example. But the rate at which these brands are growing is something the industry’s biggest brands haven’t been able to achieve in years.
The big picture: That growth rate shows us two things.
- First: Contrary to what some seem to believe, the era of the challenger brands isn’t quite over yet. Some have slowed down and fallen off, but others are growing — even if it isn’t the same as the pandemic boom we saw previously.
- Second: There’s still a very strong appetite among consumers for casualisation. That hasn’t gone anywhere.
Sorry for the anti-sneakers-at-work crowd. The nightmare continues.
EBay Enters Its Fashion Era
In news that I certainly didn’t expect but actually makes a ton of sense, eBay acquired Depop from Etsy for $1.2 billion in cash (!!!!). The deal for the secondary fashion marketplace was announced on Thursday and is expected to be closed in the second quarter of 2026.
The why: For Etsy, the reason it’s making a move here is obvious. The craft-focused online marketplace is looking to lean further into its core business as it tries to rev up growth after its sales growth slowed from 2023 (7.1 percent) to 2024 (2.2 percent).
- Etsy is selling Depop at a loss. It bought the online secondary marketplace in June of 2021 for $1.6 billion.
For eBay, this move gets a bit more interesting. The company has always been marketed as the marketplace for everything. You can buy and sell almost anything on the platform. But it’s never quite leaned into fashion as heavily or as well as Depop has.
- Of course, you’ve always been able to buy goods like sneakers, handbags and coats from eBay. Certain pieces have always been available.
- And the company’s “Authenticity Guarantee” programme has added another value proposition for consumers, too.
When you factor in the younger audience that Depop’s platform attracts, this was a no-brainer for eBay.
Here’s more: BoF’s Cathleen Chen explained this perfectly through a staggering stat.
“While eBay is easily the everything giant in online secondhand commerce, Depop offers a critical entry point into the Gen Z and Millennial demographics; nearly 90 percent of its 7 million active buyers are under the age of 34. “Depop’s social-forward marketplace perfectly complements our scale,” eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said in a statement.”
Just like everyone else, eBay is looking to capture that entry-level fashion consumer in its funnel. You start buying vintage secondhand pieces on Depop and, eventually, you make your way to eBay’s bigger platform for more.
What a shrewd move.
An Update on Bad Bunny’s Impact
We talked (and some of you are still talking!) about Bad Bunny’s impact at the Super Bowl. The Puerto Rican pop star was undoubtedly the most interesting part of the game. New numbers are backing that up.
What’s new: New media impact value data from Launchmetrics shows that Bad Bunny’s performance generated nearly $1 billion in the week following the game.
- Zara saw $19.9 million in MIV, according to Launchmetrics. Adidas saw a solid $7.7 million on top of that.
- The $942.4 million in MIV from Bad Bunny is up 37 percent from the figure for Kendrick Lamar’s show from the previous year and more than six times the impact of Rihanna’s halftime show in 2023.
I don’t know what it was about the show or if the game was just that boring, but it’s pretty clear that Bad Bunny moved the needle for the NFL.
Roc Nation and Jay-Z’s contract with the NFL is up, but I think it’s probably a safe bet that they’ll be back picking the NFL’s halftime show talent for years to come.
The Gold Dress That Won Gold
Alysa Liu might be the best story of the 2026 Winter Games so far. She became the first US women’s figure skater to win gold since 2002. When you read about her comeback story, that makes her accomplishment a tad bit sweeter.
Yes, but: Did you see that gold dress? My goodness. What a look. This is art, y’all.
The background: The dress itself was designed by Lisa McKinnon, who designed the costumes for Liu and reigning US national champion Amber Glenn.
It took thousands of dollars and several hours to create Liu’s gold-winning look.
- McKinnon charges $90 per hour to make her costumes, according to Forbes, and it typically takes her around 50 hours to complete one.
To have one of these pieces ready to go every time these figure skaters touch the ice is incredible. Salute to McKinnon and the other designers out there. Y’all are incredible.
#TheKicksWeWear
This is the community section of the newsletter where you (Yes, you!!!!) send me your best fits and kicks from the week. Feel free to send submissions to michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or shoot me a message via social channels @MikeDSykes
LET’S GET TO IT, GANG!
First, the homie Max got us popping with these Prada joints. Prada you, buddy! Thanks for sharing.
The homie Penz came through with the Jumpman Jacks. Still the best version of this shoe, if I do say so myself.
The homie Jimmy came through with the Nike Cosmic Unity joints. WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE?!? This was a great shoe. Feels like a missed opportunity.
Then the homie Sumeet took us home, all the way from Puerto Rico, in a pair of Bad Bos! What a sneaker. Shoutout Bad Bunny.
Appreciate y’all sharing! Good stuff, gang.
Thanks for reading, gang!
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, reach out to me via email at michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or shoot me a message @MikeDSykes via socials.
Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
