Editor’s Note – Global Sky Quarterly 2022 Q3

There are many ways and methods that you could use to predict the direction that your country’s economy is heading. For some, it is the sales of trucks; for others it is the sales of coffee from fancy coffee shops. But one of the ways that the newer generation of owners use is the state of the sneaker market.

For the uninitiated, the global sneaker market was worth USD$131.1 billion in 2021 according to online statistics database Statista. The value comes mostly from the resale market, with some of the more limited and coveted pairs – mostly collaborations with the likes of rapper Travis Scott, the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh’s Off-White, Tokyo streetwear designer Fragment, or an exclusive pair released at a special event – worth thousands of dollars, which is a big jump up from the USD$200 or so that they would have cost at retail.

It is this exclusivity and scarcity that drives up values. Take the Jordan 5 Retro Tokyo T23s as an example. At retail, the sneakers would have cost around USD$200, however, they were only released to celebrate the opening of the Jordan Tokyo 23 store in Japan in 2011. The current value? USD$2,800, for a pair of size US 11s sold in October 2022 by online clothing and sneaker reseller StockX. Seems a lot for a pair of almost regular sneakers, especially as the only discernible difference is a Japanese stylized number “23” stamped on the heel. But, perhaps most shockingly, is that the USD$2,800 resale price is one of the lowest seen in recent years. The highest? USD$5,249.

This is where we can start linking the sneaker market back to the global economy. Whilst our economic expectations were high during the first half of 2021, by last month, the grim reality had set in. But why is the sneaker market so important, and why does it matter? Vista’s big boss Thomas Flohr used to frequently wear white Converse to meetings and events, and I’m willing to bet a Chrome Hearts gift card that you’re more likely to see private jet owners wearing Off-White Jordan 1 Chicagos these days, rather than what my mother would call a pair of “proper” shoes.

As the most recent sale of a pair of Jordan 5 Retro Tokyo T23s alludes to, the bottom has fallen out of the sneaker market in recent months. Much like with trucks, or coffee from fancy coffee shops, when we have to tighten our belts, we also stop buying things that aren’t essential to us. Fancy coffee? You can make your own less fancy one at home. USD$5,000 sneakers? Maybe those can wait. Because less people are buying, prices have gone down. What we were willing to pay when times are great is not the same price we are willing to pay when times aren’t as good.

We have also seen this in the pre-owned private jet market, which, much like the sneaker market, is backing down from historical highs. This is something that we hinted at in the previous Global Sky Quarterly, with data from the International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA) suggesting that we had seen the top of the market, and that prices were going to begin stabilizing.

This quarterly also includes the latest IADA market report, which suggests that whilst the market is slowing, many transactions are forecast to take place before the end of the year. Though the last quarter of the year is usually the busiest quarter for transactions, we are unlikely to witness the same record level of transactions seen in the past two years.

Alongside all the usual hard data and intel that you have come to expect, we have a feature contributed by Dassault about the Falcon 6X’s world tour. We look back on the 2022 NBAA-BACE which was held in Orlando, Florida in October, whilst our senior reporter Jeremy Chan covers advanced air mobility (AAM) companies that have gone public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Last, but very much not least, we zone in on the pre-owned Gulfstream G650/G650ER market.

As always, we would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody that contributed to this issue of Global Sky Quarterly.

Sincerely,
Alud Davies
Editor-in-Chief
Asian Sky Group