Exclusive: GOAT Group’s Trend Report Shows ‘Panda’ Dunk Is Still King, New Balance Is On the Rise, and Gorpcore Is Still Strong
GOAT Group has compiled its annual Alias trend report for 2023, presenting key findings for the sneaker landscape based on data from its GOAT and Flight Club resale platforms. Footwear News has the exclusive on presenting select takeaways.
For the second consecutive year, the black and white Nike Dunk Low commonly referred to as “Panda” was both the top selling and most wanted sneaker on GOAT and Flight Club. Bigger picture, Dunks were also the dominate silhouette on the two platforms, as they accounted for 26 percent of all sneakers sold. The next best performing model was the Air Jordan 1, which accounted for 15 percent of all sales.
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The top three best selling brands remained unchanged from 2022 to 2023, as Nike sits on top and is followed by Jordan Brand and Yeezy. New Balance and Adidas swapped fourth and fifth place, with the former now outperforming the latter. New Balance also rose to third place for most wanted brands, supplanting Yeezy while sitting behind Jordan Brand and Nike. Just like in 2022, the New Balance 550 was the top selling model from the brand, but the 2002R is now the most in-demand.
Performance running and gorpcore were both top trends on GOAT’s platforms, which saw sales for Salomon rise by 120 percent. Hoka and On saw their sales rise by 131 percent and 204 percent, respectively.
One of the most staggering figures from the report is 2,876 percent, which was the amount sales grew for the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66. Sister brand Asics also enjoyed unspecified growth across the platforms, which GOAT says has been in part driven by its collaborations with Kiko Kostadinov.
In what shouldn’t be a surprise, collaborations continue to have a strong presence and saw a 22 percent rise in sales among the 500 top performing sneakers.
Among signature basketball sneakers that aren’t Air Jordans, the Nike Ja franchise that just launched this year enjoyed an impressive performance. The Ja 1 “Day One” colorway was the best selling, while the “Hunger” and “Trivia” editions came in at eighth and ninth place, respectively. Among the top ten, the only shoe from another player currently playing in the NBA was the Nike PG “What The,” which released in 2022.
Among Air Jordans, the top performing models were, in order, the Air Jordan 1, Air Jordan 4, and Air Jordan 3.
The persistence of so many trends from 2022 has led GOAT to suggest fatigue is setting in among consumers because oversaturation and stagnancy in supply. Including its broader business in apparel an accessories, GOAT points to Y2K, Barbiecore, and Gorpcore as trends that have continued to dominate through 2022 and 2023. Although it didn’t find any singular standouts for this year, the report points to Blokecore, Indie Sleaze, Cyber Gloom, Varsity, and Performance Runners as microtrends that did well.
You can read the full GOAT Group Alias report here.
About the Author:
Ian Servantes is a Senior Trending News Editor for Footwear News specializing in sneaker coverage. He’s previously reported on streetwear and sneakers at Input and Highsnobiety after beginning his career on the pop culture beat. He subscribes to the idea that “ball is life” and doesn’t fuss over his kicks getting dirty.
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