If Cinderella wore sneakers instead of glass slippers, she’d find the right fit at Sneaker Politics.
The sneaker and clothing store located on Bluebonnet carries popular streetwear brand names like Billionaire Boys Club, Publish, Stüssy, Stance and Zanerobe. From Jordans to Adidas, the shop offers men’s and women’s sizes.
Its Baton Rouge location is the third store to open under the Louisianian sneaker store franchise. Owner Dereck Curry opened up the original Lafayette location in 2005. After four years in Lafayette, Politics opened up a second location in Metairie in 2009. Following the success of both of stores, the decision to open the Baton Rouge location was made in 2011.
With the business doing well and sneaker culture on the rise, the store has opened up a second location in Lafayette. Baton Rouge store manager Fletcher Sanders has worked with the company since its opening in 2005.
“We don’t want to outgrow ourselves, but of course we wanna get bigger,” he said. “In Lafayette we currently have two stores. One is a higher end store called Regime, and we’re still going to do the streetwear with Politics.”
Regime has higher price points and represents the expansion of the always changing sneaker culture.
“If Regime works out in Lafayette, we plan to expand that idea to both Baton Rouge and New Orleans,” Sanders said.
Sanders mentioned that certain brands have evolved from graphic tees to longline extended tees. Sneakers themselves have also changed; Nike and Jordan Brand were once unstoppable forces in the sneaker game. While those brands still are dominant in sneaker culture today Adidas, with the help of Kanye West and his Yeezy line, has proven to be up to the challenge.
“I think it’s awesome to see Adidas compete with Nike on a larger basis,” Sanders said.
No matter how what sneakerheads prefer, whether it be Nike or Adidas, Politics carries it all.
The store has done collaborations with other brands like Saucony, Reebok and New Balance.
Many of Politics collaborations are done with a Louisiana theme as well. A pair completed in 2015 was a collaboration between New Balance and Sneaker Politics based on the first season of HBO’s “True Detective” called “the Case 999’s” which is set in Louisiana.
Sanders said the shop has new collaborations in the works.
With Sneaker Politics able to adapt with the dramatic changes in streetwear and sneaker culture in recent years, the company hopes to expand outside Louisiana. But no matter where the company goes, it will always cherish its Louisiana roots.
“Louisiana is home, it’s what made us,” Sanders said. “Of course we want to grow. But Louisiana will always be home. We want to bring sneaker culture to the south and make the south cool again. That’s why we do the Louisiana themed collabs.”

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Anjana Nair

Sneaker Politics is a sneaker and streetwear store with two original locations in Lafayette and a brand new location in Baton Rouge on Bluebonnet Blvd.