Carbone confirms that there is a thriving trade in highly collectible sneakers on eBay. “As soon as the limited edition sells out, you will see them offered on eBay.” Designer Narciso Rodriguez trolls eBay for rare finds, and likes to buy three pairs of the same shoe at a time: one for the gym, one for walking around, and one for posterity.

Twin trends are turbocharging the industry: limited editions to fuel collectibility and customization to satisfy the wearer’s need for individuality in a sea of mass. The sneaker fetish scene is well documented on new websites such as hypebeast.com, crookedtongues. com, as well as freshnessmag.com, sneakerfreaker. com, and solecollector.com; there are also innumerable sneaker-specific blogs with exuberant reviews of recent sneaker releases (“The aqua/chrome colorway and the crocodile skin chosen for this shoe are wild! Definitely one of my favorite Nike releases this year, and will most definitely be rocked as much as possible!”).

SneakerPimps, “the worlds largest global touring sneaker exhibition,” visited 40 cities in 2005, including Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and The Philippines. The SneakerPimps website describes the exhibition as “over 600 of the rarest footwear on the planet” featuring historical models and newly customized sneakers from over 300 artists, including limitededition sneakers from BAPE, Nike, JB Classics, RBK, Puma, Converse, Adidas, Ice Cream, Madfoot, Pro Keds, Pony, Asics, New Balance, Tasmania, KKOK, DC, Sole Technology, DVS, Royal Elastics, K-Swiss, and more.

Sneakers are very big business. In early August, sneaker giant Adidas bought competitor Reebok for $3.8 billion. This acquisition creates a company with combined annual sales of $11.1 billion. Nike’s sales in its 2004–2005 business year through April were $13.7 billion. Puma, the world’s fourth-biggest sporting goods company, also unveiled aggressive expansion plans through acquisitions and entry into new sportswear markets.

More than 1,400 people attended the August launch party in London for Nike’s Diamond Dunk, designed by Nick at Diamond Supply Company and inspired by Tiffany’s aqua packaging and platinum jewelry.

The limited edition has many variations: To celebrate its 35th anniversary, Adidas will be releasing 35 different versions of the Adidas Superstar shell-toe throughout the year. The first was the Jam Master Jay sneaker, released in memory of the late deejay.

Carbone says that all of the major companies have their own take on customization. Most offer customization on their websites, but the widest array of choices is only in their biggest urban stores. Puma recently launched a “Mongolian barbecue” customized shoe in New York, Santa Monica, and London; it has now rotated to several other cities. Shoppers can choose each of the 13 components needed to make a sneaker; the completed pair arrives five weeks later ($130). At Adidas’ new lower Manhattan superstore, the customer’s foot and performance level are measured by sophisticated equipment before choosing the elements of the shoe.

On Nike’s website, a wide variety of sneaker customization options are available, starting with an “inspiration shoe.” Nike declares that “the days of picking things directly off the shelves, or ordering off the menu as it appears, are over.” Nike has extended Nike iD to its exclusionary store Nike iD lab, a private design studio “by invitation only,” handpicking A-listers and in- fluencers to create their own one-of-a-kind shoes from an array of styles, materials, and colors.

So the simple sneaker has moved light years beyond mere sports attire, becoming an object of fetish and desire that defines who you are in today’s urban tribes. How did a utilitarian pair of shoes become so fetishized? No longer dominated by the hardcore sneaker freak, anyone can participate in the cult of the sneaker and can, by extension, feel younger, hipper, street-credible, cooler-than-thou. How many other collectibles can make that claim?