Lyst Index: Off-White is hottest global brand

In Paris, at the Roger Vivier
SS2019 presentation.
Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images For Roger Vivier 

Today we’re seeing a growing alliance not only between fashion and sport but also between luxury and sport, leading to the term “athluxury” - a blend of ‘athletic’ and ‘luxury’ - according to Pascal Monfort, fashion expert and founder of REC Trends Marketing, a specialist in sports, youth and street culture.

Photo © Lucia Carpio 2018

Presenting a series of conferences on Sport &Tech at the Autumn 2018 edition of Premiere Vision Paris in September, Pascal Monfort said: “The inclusion of sport in fashion is no longer simply a trend, it’s a necessity for many fashion brands, whether they come from the fast fashion or luxury worlds.”
In his view, 2020 will be the pinnacle of this success, the ultimate incarnation of the love affair between sport and fashion.

Still it is remarkable to learn that Off-White is officially the hottest brand on the planet, according to the latest edition of the London-based Lyst Index.  Over the last year the cult streetwear label has risen 33 places in the Index, now surpassing Gucci and Balenciaga at the top of the table for the first time.

Lyst said, thanks to a quarter packed with globally-hyped launches and collaborations, the Off-White buzz surrounding Virgil Abloh and his disruptive creative aesthetic continues to grow. Searches for Off-White across Lyst’s partner retailers are up 14% quarter on quarter, and Off-White is responsible for 3 out of 20 products in the hottest products lists.

Nike is the other sport brand on the list of top 10 brands in the index, having moved up five spots to take fourth place.  Nike’s recent Just Do It campaign starring American footballer Colin Kaepernick helped boost total search traffic to its related pages by 13% quarter-on-quarter. Four out of the 20 hottest fashion products in the Index this quarter are by Nike.  Continuing the popular Ugly Sneaker trend, Nike’s M2K Tekno replaced the Fila Disruptor as the most wanted affordable take on the look that had been pioneered by the Balenciaga Triple S (which remains in the men’s hottest products list for a second quarter.) The Nike shoe is the first product to appear in both the men’s and women’s hottest products lists at the same time on the Lyst Index.

Roger Vivier sports-inspired luxury footwear for SS2019.
Pascal Monfort said: “80% of sneakers have never been run in, nor seen a gym.
Sneakers have definitively become fashion footwear.” 
Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images For Roger Vivier

Photo © Lucia Carpio 2018

Pascal Monfort said: “What’s happening today is fantastic. Creativity isn’t dead, far from it. Together, fashion and sports can go a long way and we love that!”  

He added that the power of collaborations is incredible "We’re seeing the most unexpected and most surprising ones: Marine Green x Oakley, Vêtement x Oakley… Nike x Off-White for the team Nigeria fielded for the 2018 World Cup (3 million jerseys pre-ordered) … Koché x PSG: even football can become fashionable and cool!"

The fact is that fashion designers love sportswear, said Montfort.  The power of streetwear and sportswear designers is overturning norms. The most recent example is undeniably the appointment of Virgile Abloh (Off-White), a multifaceted American designer, as head of the House of Vuitton, an event which created quite a surprise in the fashion world.

Nevertheless, a series of collaborations with the biggest luxury brands and the creation of the “luxury” Nike City Ready line now places Nike on the pages of the leading fashion magazines such as Vogue.