You absolutely cannot deny it. Sneaker culture is on the rise. It seems that these days, everyone’s a sneakerhead; be it the geek who got bullied in high school or that annoying guy from church who’s constantly flexin’ and for some strange reason always has a guitar with him, or even the girl you have a total crush on- being a sneakerhead gives people a sense of identity, a sense of individuality and a sense of community.
I mean, of course it helps that it’s also a multi billion dollar industry where the right drop can be resold for triple the price. Streetwear- and namely sneaker culture- is booming. That being said, it is for this reason exactly that Instragram has introduced it’s latest feature- Drop reminders for in app shoppers.
The feature, which is aimed at keeping shoppers up-to-date on when their favourite products will be available for purchase is a long time coming, especially since 80 percent of Instagram users have a business account, and around 130 million people tap on an in-app product tag each month.
The whole concept probably stems from Chinatown Markets recent limited-edition release of T-shirts exclusively available via Instagram’s in-app checkout.
“Instagram is the main place we connect with our fans, and the response [to these Instagram-only drops] has been incredible. We have yet to see any other platform that even scratches that surface.”
Dan Altmann, Chinatown Market president
How it’ll basically work is brands will be able to add reminder stickers when they post about a new launch on their Instagram stories, here they can add details such as the details of the product along with launch date tags. So when you happen to be browsing your insta story feed and see the launch story, you can just click on the sticker or tag and you’ll be prompted to enable reminders for the launch. You will then get push notifications one day before the drop, and 15 minutes before. Sounds pretty nifty.
Unfortunately for us, this feature is currently only available in the US with 30 brands on board. I doubt the feature will ever see the light of day in Malaysia, but here’s to wishful thinking.
