The Contested Terrain of Sporting Consumption: Navigating Meaning, Identity, and Late Capitalist Marketing through Sneaker Customization

Brandon T. Wallace, David L. Andrews
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Abstract

This discussion critically examines and questions assumptions about the meanings and motivations of sporting consumption. We argue that the practice of sneaker customization demonstrates the contested terrain of sporting consumption, wherein contemporary consumerism is characterized by a dynamic interplay between top–down structural determination (by mass commercial forces) and bottom–up creative agency (by everyday consumers). Based on in-depth interviews with 15 sneaker consumers, we narrate the complexities of late capitalist consumer culture through three overlapping “tensions” between the commercial sneaker industry and everyday sneaker consumers: (1) Sneakers as a vehicle to express individuality versus to demonstrate conformity; (2) Sneaker customization as a means of artistic expression versus being a commodity rationalized to maximize profit; (3) An affective versus instrumental attachment to sneakers. Overall, the analysis illuminates how the cultural and affective meanings that consumers attach to sneaker consumption operate; sometimes in conjunction with, more often in opposition to, but always in tension with the meanings that the sneaker industry attempts to embed through its ever-expansive means of marketing and advertising.
运动消费的争议地形:通过定制运动鞋领航意义、身份和晚期资本主义营销
本次讨论对体育消费的意义和动机进行了批判性研究,并对相关假设提出了质疑。我们认为,运动鞋定制实践展示了体育消费的争议领域,当代消费主义的特点是自上而下的结构性决定(由大众商业力量决定)和自下而上的创造性能动性(由日常消费者决定)之间的动态互动。基于对 15 名运动鞋消费者的深入访谈,我们通过商业运动鞋产业与日常运动鞋消费者之间三种重叠的 "紧张关系",叙述了晚期资本主义消费文化的复杂性:(1) 运动鞋是表达个性的载体,还是展示一致性的工具;(2) 运动鞋定制是艺术表达的手段,还是为实现利润最大化而合理化的商品;(3) 对运动鞋的情感依恋,还是工具性依恋。总之,分析揭示了消费者对运动鞋消费所附加的文化和情感意义是如何运作的;这些意义有时与运动鞋产业试图通过其不断扩张的营销和广告手段所植入的意义结合在一起,更多时候则与之对立,但始终处于紧张状态。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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