In the 21st century men live in a deeply toned down world. The suit is of sober colors; dark grey, charcoal, black, or a deep blue. It’s conservatively cut, designed not to be flamboyant or eye catching but to blend in. The shoes are leather and invariably simple and black. The only opportunity for a splash of color is with the tie, but even that is muted and often mono hued. And with the advance in working from home, have things improved? No, they have not. The so-called lounge wear is still predominately black, dark blue, white or a shade of light or dark grey.

Hence, it’s not surprising that some men yearn for more. One of the few ways a man can stand out these days is in his choice of watch wear and his casual shoe wear on the weekends.

Although fashion aficionados may state that sports shoes should stay on the tennis or basketball court, the rise of the sneaker has indeed snuck up on us. According to Statista, the 2021 US athletic footwear market is estimated to be worth more than $21 billion, with the resale sneaker market standing at over US$2 billion.

And in the past two decades, the demand for hot new sneakers has overtaken the demand for watches.

The modern-day peacock does not promenade the town or take a tour to Italy to purloin his watches and sneakers. No, he is couch bound in his Nike or Reiss sweatpants and tee shirt at home checking out what’s crucial on eBay, the marketplace with troves of inventory breadth and depth. With a global treasure trove of prized items to choose from, some pre-loved, some brand new, some exceedingly rare, high priced, low priced, and crazily priced, there’s simply no inventory quite like eBay’s.

eBay has been around since 1995, but the perception that it’s full of dodgy dealers and fake products is almost as outdated as Regency Gentleman callers.

eBay has taken giant strides to ensure products bought and sold are verified authentic, and implementing their new Authenticity Guarantee service for all watches sold above $2,000 in the US ensures they are genuine and that traders must stick to clearly defined rules and regulations. The same applies to sneakers retailing over $100 too. They have to be every bit as authentic to be sold on eBay. In fact, eBay recently celebrated a milestone of 1 million authenticated items across watches, sneakers and handbags. And, with the new escrow service, eBay provides an additional level of protection to buyers and sellers for luxury watches over $10,000. A trusted third party Escrow.com, holds the funds securely until the transaction is complete.

Matching Watches With Sneakers

Both sneakers and watches happily break the rules when it comes to monotony in color and hue. Today, for both men and women, these prized items are a great way to express a true sense of style. There has developed a symbiotic relationship between sneakers and watches whereby the colorways of one can be made to complement the colorways of the other. It may be no accident that the market worth of both product categories is so close. Both sneakers and watches these days have fancy titles, and both come in a range of iterations to give you plenty of choice. Limited editions and celebrity partnerships are hugely popular in both product categories, and they often sell out before you can put your trigger finger to the mouse or button.

Where watches experiment with exotic metals and ceramics, sneakers continually push the envelope with new breathable and supremely flexible and comfortable fabrics. Both are pure eye candy to the collector, and when you can match the sneaker to the watch it’s a win-win situation.

Here we have put together a few examples of how you can enjoy the pleasures of both sneaker and watch purchasing. In all cases the watches cost considerably more than the sneakers, so you can gauge just how many sneakers are being bought to outpace watches. Here we go.

1. Air Jordan 5 Retro Oreo & TAG Heuer Aquaracer Bamford Limited Edition

2. Bodega X New Balance 990v3 & H. Moser & Cie Endeavour Perpetual Calendar

3. Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG Hyper Royal & Patek Philippe Aquanaut Advanced Research 18K White Gold Ref. 5650G Double Sealed

4. Asics Evoride Running/Gym Workout Shoes & Roger Dubuis Excalibur Spider Flying Double Tourbillon

5. Adidas Yeezy Boost V2 Blue Tint & Grand Seiko Power Reserve Spring Drive

6. Louis Vuitton Luxembourg & Cartier Calibre Pink Gold Automatic

7. Adidas EQT Support Primeknit “Shenron” Dragon Ball Z & Rolex Daytona Diamond Rainbow Edition