The best events don鈥檛 always start with a business plan. Often, they start with a spark. Someone has a passion they want to share, and a great idea about how to share it. They鈥檙e moved to bring people together around a vision, so they make it happen 鈥� even with no event planning experience. Here鈥檚 an interview with one of the founders of SneakerCon, whose love for sneaker culture led to a global event business.
When Alan Vinogradov, his brother Barris, and an unexpected partner Yu-Ming Wu, launched the first SneakerCon in 2009, it was to find and hook up with people who were as obsessed with sneakers as they were. They just knew there was a hidden community out there who would go crazy for the chance 聽to buy, sell, and swap rare pairs and more.
Today, SneakerCon has brought the underground sneaker culture to the mainstream, reaching nearly 70,000 attendees at 13 domestic and international shows per year. Last year, their New York event was held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center hosted 19,000 people.
But SneakerCon wasn鈥檛 always 鈥渢he greatest sneaker show on Earth.鈥� Learn how Vinogradov grew it into the success it is today 鈥� and why he thinks 聽his greatest success is still ahead of him.
What first sparked the idea or inspired you to launch your event?
Vinogradov: It all began with a trip to Tokyo, Japan in 2003. My brother and I visited boutique shoe stores that put a lot of care into the shoes they were selling. One of those stores was A Bathing Ape, who made a shoe called the Bapesta. I bought a pair of the shoes and, on a whim, decided to put them for sale on eBay 鈥� they sold instantly.
Over the next four to five years, we traveled to Japan over 30 times, buying and selling 鈥淏apes鈥� online. This led us to throw our first event in 2006, called Soled Out NYC. We didn鈥檛 know what we were doing 鈥斅燽ut it was a success.
Then, in 2008, SneakerNews.com posted one of the items we were selling and didn鈥檛 give us any photo credit. I sent an angry note, asking them why they ripped off my images, and got a reply from Yu-Ming Wu from SneakerNews.com. He said he was sorry, explained that he was a one-man team, but that he updated the site to give us credit. That鈥檚 when I realized his email signature had his office address 鈥� and it was literally two blocks from ours. So I hit him up saying we should link up.
It was during that meeting with Yu-Ming that I told him about Soled Out NYC and how we鈥檇 love to do more and get him involved. Yu-Ming said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a dope idea. We should do it. I own the SneakerCon.Com domain name. Let鈥檚 get started.鈥�
When did you know your event would be a success?
Vinogradov: A few months after meeting Yu-Ming, we did our first SneakerCon 鈥� and it sold out. That said, we never thought about becoming successful as our main goal. Our passion for sneakers is so deep and ingrained that even if we still operated on the scale of that first event in 2009, we鈥檇 still be doing it.
We never had the goal to reach a certain milestone 鈥搘e cared first and foremost about building the sneaker community.
Was there a moment you had to take the leap and go all in on your event?
Vinogradov: Right now. We have to double down and go all in. Sneaker culture is growing, so there is competition and commercialization. The secondary sneaker market has become a full-fledged business and a lot of companies are investing a lot of money trying to carve out their space.
So we鈥檙e doing a lot more events and creating a bunch of different experiences through partnerships and technology. We want to continue growing and stay real to the culture. For SneakerCon, it鈥檚 important that we remain a legitimate part of this community.
What was your first big failure and what did you learn from it?
Vinogradov: We didn鈥檛 grow SneakerCon outside of New York soon enough. For four years, all our energy was focused on growing that event. It wasn鈥檛 until we went to DC that we realized our biggest failure was not going there sooner to build our brand.
We learned that we needed to start hitting up other markets around the country and focus more on building a community and culture that spans cities.
Now you鈥檒l find us in Berlin at a 1,000-person event a week before our huge event for 20,000 people. For me, it doesn鈥檛 matter if it鈥檚 for 100 people or one million people 鈥� it鈥檚 all about building a community.
What鈥檚 your advice for someone just starting out in the events industry?
Vinogradov: If you鈥檙e truly passionate, just jump in. Don鈥檛 think about the risks. You鈥檒l never know if you鈥檒l be successful if you don鈥檛 try, especially in the events business.
The most important thing is to be aggressive and move forward. I wish we would have grown to other markets and expanded the business sooner.
Don鈥檛 let the moment pass. Follow your passion.
Vinogradova often wonders where SneakerCon would be today had they taken more risks sooner. If you, too, have a passion to share with others 鈥� don鈥檛 wait.
Whether you enjoy collecting rare products or discussing an odd interest with people online, this is your opportunity to start a brand new type of in-person event in your area.
Get started today and set up your event on 91国产 in minutes.
