[1,000-Person Survey] Sneaker Choice Decided by 'Own Feet' Rather Than SNS
iBridge's 'Rank+' conducted a survey of 1,000 people aged 20-59 regarding sneakers. Findings reveal brand preferences are sharply split by age and gender, while SNS influence remains minimal at 3.3%, emphasizing the importance of personal comfort and practicality.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 23, 2026 at 20:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 23, 2026 at 11:31
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 24, 2026 at 01:24 (13h 52m after Collected)
SNS influence is only 3.3%! Sneaker choices are decided by 'own feet'! 1,000-person survey.
iBridge Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Fukushima, Osaka City; CEO: Kazuya Arakawa), operator of the ranking site 'Rank+', conducted an internet survey about sneakers among 1,000 men and women aged 20-59 nationwide and released the results.
Questions like 'What brand would you buy?' 'Why choose that brand?' and 'What triggers a replacement?' were answered by 1,000 people, revealing the reality of sneaker selection.
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■ Key Findings
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[Discovery 1] Brand #1 completely differs by age and gender
When 765 sneaker wearers were asked about their 'favorite manufacturer,' Adidas was #1 for both men and women in their 20s and 30s. However, starting from the 40s, choices split completely: men chose Nike (22.8% in 40s, 16.8% in 50s) and women chose New Balance (18.1% in 40s, 20.0% in 50s). This reveals a 'Law of Age x Gender' in sneaker selection.
Additionally, 30.5% (233 people) answered they 'don't care about the manufacturer,' surpassing the support rate for any specific brand. This shows that 1 in 3 people choose based on feeling rather than brand.
[Discovery 2] Reasons for choosing Nike are 'opposite' for men and women
Among 111 Nike fans, the #1 reason for men was 'fashionable design/appearance' (58.1%), while for women, it was 'comfortable/less fatiguing' (61.2%). Even for the same brand, the reasons were reversed. This highlights Nike's depth in meeting both design and functional needs.
[Discovery 3] Influence of SNS/Influencers is only 3.3%
Only 3.3% (27 people) cited 'influenced by SNS/media' as a trigger to buy sneakers. This is about 1/21st of the top reason, 'when sneakers are damaged/old' (68.8%). No matter how stylishly an influencer introduces a pair, it cannot beat the reality of whether one's own shoes are still usable—proving that 'one's own feet and senses' remain the main actors in sneaker selection.
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■ Survey Overview
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Method: Internet Survey (Freeasy)
Target: Men and women aged 20-59 nationwide
Valid Responses: 1,000 (500 men, 500 women)
Period: April 17, 2026
Subject: iBridge Co., Ltd. (Rank+ Editorial Dept.)
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■ Future Outlook
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Rank+ will continue to expand the scope of themes covered and disseminate original data-driven content. We will also strengthen collaboration with SNS video content to support the 'slightly better every day' of more users.
iBridge Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Fukushima, Osaka City; CEO: Kazuya Arakawa), operator of the ranking site 'Rank+', conducted an internet survey about sneakers among 1,000 men and women aged 20-59 nationwide and released the results.
Questions like 'What brand would you buy?' 'Why choose that brand?' and 'What triggers a replacement?' were answered by 1,000 people, revealing the reality of sneaker selection.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Key Findings
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Discovery 1] Brand #1 completely differs by age and gender
When 765 sneaker wearers were asked about their 'favorite manufacturer,' Adidas was #1 for both men and women in their 20s and 30s. However, starting from the 40s, choices split completely: men chose Nike (22.8% in 40s, 16.8% in 50s) and women chose New Balance (18.1% in 40s, 20.0% in 50s). This reveals a 'Law of Age x Gender' in sneaker selection.
Additionally, 30.5% (233 people) answered they 'don't care about the manufacturer,' surpassing the support rate for any specific brand. This shows that 1 in 3 people choose based on feeling rather than brand.
[Discovery 2] Reasons for choosing Nike are 'opposite' for men and women
Among 111 Nike fans, the #1 reason for men was 'fashionable design/appearance' (58.1%), while for women, it was 'comfortable/less fatiguing' (61.2%). Even for the same brand, the reasons were reversed. This highlights Nike's depth in meeting both design and functional needs.
[Discovery 3] Influence of SNS/Influencers is only 3.3%
Only 3.3% (27 people) cited 'influenced by SNS/media' as a trigger to buy sneakers. This is about 1/21st of the top reason, 'when sneakers are damaged/old' (68.8%). No matter how stylishly an influencer introduces a pair, it cannot beat the reality of whether one's own shoes are still usable—proving that 'one's own feet and senses' remain the main actors in sneaker selection.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Survey Overview
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Method: Internet Survey (Freeasy)
Target: Men and women aged 20-59 nationwide
Valid Responses: 1,000 (500 men, 500 women)
Period: April 17, 2026
Subject: iBridge Co., Ltd. (Rank+ Editorial Dept.)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
■ Future Outlook
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Rank+ will continue to expand the scope of themes covered and disseminate original data-driven content. We will also strengthen collaboration with SNS video content to support the 'slightly better every day' of more users.