Live Client
Consumer Research + Branding Recommendations
Reimagining Nike’s SNKRS as a platform for identity, community, and cultural engagement.
Ask
The core objective of this project was to explore the values, behaviors, and social dynamics within Gen Z sneakerhead culture to understand how the brand can authentically connect through their reservation and secondary market apps.
Solution
Through the use of niche hobby apps such as Goodreads and Letterboxd, the Nike SNKRS app can reconnect with Gen Z through a similar platform to regain their attention.
Research Objective
To understand the values, behaviors, and social dynamics of Gen Z sneakerhead culture in order to identify how Nike can more authentically connect through SNKRS and its secondary platforms.
Methodologies
Man-On-The-Steet (MOS)
Survey (100 responses)
25 In-Person Interviews
Research Results
Sneaker culture has shifted from a single mainstream community to fragmented subcultures.
In other words, Viva La Subculture.
For Gen Z, identity isn’t owned, it’s performed.
Gen Z expresses identity through what they buy and share, turning everyday choices into visible signals of who they are in real time.
46% of Gen Z say they judge others based on the brands they use or buy.
Identity is no longer owned, it’s performed and validated online
46% of Gen Z judge others based on the brands they use
Products act as signals of taste, knowledge, and belonging, not just possessions
Platforms like Goodreads and Letterboxd succeed by turning consumption into self-expression, tracking, logging, and community interaction.
Key Insights
The monoculture has fractured into subcultures.
Instead of one shared mainstream culture, people now organize into smaller interest-based groups that define their own trends and norms. Identity is no longer broad or general. People are building highly specific versions of themselves. And they aren’t doing this in person, they’re doing it online.
48% of Goodreads users are Gen Z out of 120 million users.
Favorite Features
Logging
Goal-setting
Lists
Ratings
Reviews
Activity Feeds
How Can SNKRS Take Action?
Using all of the research we gathered on Gen Z and figuring out what they liked on these niche hobby apps, there are three ways that SNKRS can transform their app into a cultural corner of the internet.
Making Personal Taste, A Social Status
SNKRS can tap into that social aspect by incorporating an activity feed where users can see what their friends are up to. (or possible new friends!) This allows the space for community conversations and drop reactions.
It’s not about ownership, it’s about signaling who they are.
The products that Gen Z chooses to buy is evidence of taste, knowledge, cultural awareness, and their own personal narrative.
73% of Gen Z say self-expression is essential to their happiness.
Gen Z is hiding in niche hobby apps like Letterboxd and Goodreads. Not Instagram.
Approximately 25–30% of Letterboxd’s 14+ million users fall within Gen Z, with nearly half of all users under 35.
Making Users’ Collections Visible
Users have the ability to track their sneakers, whether they own them or plan on buying them. Can showcase their closet, especially how they're styling their sneakers. It gives them the space to create that visual identity.
Make It Easy To Make Their Identity Clear
SNKRS can incorporate a simple, customizable profile page into the app. Users can create favorites showcases, styling categories, and gives them a space to express their taste.
Why does this work?
Aligns with how Gen Z already expresses identity online
Shifts SNKRS from transactional → cultural platform
Creates ongoing engagement beyond drop moments
Repositions Nike as a leader in culture, not just product
“A generation born with a mic in their hands doesn’t just want to buy culture. They want to broadcast who they are within it.”
-Tyler Britt, ‘25
Behind the Work
My Role:
Deck Design
Primary Research
My Team:
Serena Loomba
Tomás Williamson
Benjamin Bailey
Resources Used:
Gemini (Image Generation)
Canva (Slide Deck)
Want to see more?
Click here to download the final presentation deck.