185,959 Reviews Say Expensive Sneakers Aren’t Worth It [Research]

Put your money away!

As the price of a pair of sneakers goes up, user satisfaction does not increase with it.

To the contrary, RunRepeat data suggests that shoppers are more satisfied with cheaper sneakers than they are with expensive sneakers.

After analyzing 185,959 reviews of the 1,000 most popular pairs of sneakers in the RunRepeat database, regression analysis shows that there is no statistical correlation between the price of sneakers and how highly it is rated by users.

Key takeaways

1. As the price of sneakers increases, satisfaction decreases
2. The 10 cheapest sneakers (avg. price $44.50) are more satisfying (0.4%) than the 10 most expensive sneakers (avg. price $657.50)
3. The three best-rated brands are: #1 DC, #2 The North Face, and #3 Tretorn
4. The three worst-rated brands are: #1 Steve Madden, #2 Airwalk, and #3 Taos
5. The three most affordable brands are: #1 Airwalk, #2 Keds, and #3 PRO-Keds
6. The three most expensive brands are: #1 Balenciaga, #2 Gucci, and #3 Cole Haan
7. The most satisfying sneaker for the lowest price is Vans Primary Check Old Skool with a user rating of 96 and a price of $60.00
8. The least satisfying sneaker for the highest price is Balenciaga Triple S Trainerswith a user rating of 73 and a price of $795.00.
9. Adidas sneakers are the tied 5th best brand for satisfaction and the 7th most expensive.
10. Nike sneakers are the tied 17th brand for satisfaction and the 6th most expensive.

Results

Price vs rating: As price increases, satisfaction decreases

To generate this graph, we plotted 1,000 of the most popular shoes in our database from the previous month with the price on the x-axis and user score on the y-axis.

You can see that as price increases, user satisfaction decreases.

This holds up when you put all the shoes with the same score into a bucket and calculate their average price. At this point, you have the average price for each populated score from 0-100.

For example, the average price for all sneakers with a score of 98 is $96.77. Whereas, the average price for all sneakers with a score of 44 is $245.