VANS AND PROPER - NAUTICAL... BUT NICE!

Is the collaboration model still as appealing as it used to be for a store’s profile?
I think it’s still definitely a viable way for stores to increase their exposure to a wider audience, while at the same time helping to create something beneficial to the company as well provided that it’s approached with the right mindset. Often it seems like there’s too much of a focus on either what’s ‘in’ right now or what’s going to be the immediate quick-sell. Collaborations can be a bit of a double edged sword and for many companies they have become nothing more than a marketing strategy. For example it seems like there is a never ending supply of artist collaborations. You go back ten years, very few companies were partnering up with artists and it currently seems like every brand from shoes to backpacks to liquor to clothing, whatever, everyone has an artist series now which depending on the artist, devalues the effectiveness.

Just because you’re a great artist doesn’t mean you should put your shit on a shoe.
Yeah. I have to agree with that as well. A lot of artists contend that they work with some of the large scale brands because they really want their product to be accessible – ultimately I’m not sure that aim is achieved with a limited edition shoe that only a small number of people can obtain.