KYW Holiday Special — 🍾 The best everything of 2023!
Somebody give me a drum roll, please!!!
Goooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me in 2023. It was a difficult year for me on the personal side. Through it all, you all held me down. I’m forever grateful to you for it.
Housekeeping: This is KYW’s last send of 2023! I’ll miss y’all. The newsletter will be back on January 8.
If you just got hip to KYW, thanks for giving me a shot. Hope you’re enjoying it so far! Look forward to more greatness in 2024.
Let’s jump in.
Sneaker of the Year: Kith x Asics x X-Men Gel-Lyte III
I so badly wanted to pick something else here for my sneaker of the year.
Here’s why: This isn’t a sneaker that I own. It’s not something I can necessarily personally attest to. It’s also a triple-collaboration and I hate this whole threesome trend in sneakers. It’s brand overkill.
But, man. I could not resist this sneaker.
Let me explain: My process isn’t the most scientific or anything, but the more I dug into these joints the more I found that these pairs just checked every single one of my boxes.
The sneaker world today is missing so much fun, creativity and (maybe most importantly) connectivity. These brought all three at a high level.
The criteria: I’ve usually got three things I consider when picking these things: Hype aesthetics and accessibility (being able to cop is important!). The good news is that there were a ton of shoes this year that performed well in all of those areas. The bad news is that, for my fake award, I had to choose one. Can you say conundrum?
It was the creativity of this drop that pushed it over the top for me.
Here’s my thought process on this one.
Hype: It was a Kith drop. Of course, there was hype. People are usually eager for Gel-Lyte IIIs, but the Marvel tie-in made boosted things a bit more. It’s a rare case where a triple collab didn’t feel too forced.
Aesthetics: The sneakers are beautiful. There were seven colorways featured and every single one slapped hard. The yellow, red and black Wolverine is the most notable of the bunch, but I’m most partial to the Gambit colorway. I would’ve been happy with any pair, though, honestly.
Accessibility: This one gets dinged a bit here by me. If I had to give it a grade here, it’d be a 7 out of 10. The raffle did allow folks to get these. There were lots of Ws that came from this — some folks came away with multiple pairs. That’s the good.
The bad is that, as a reader previously pointed out, it’s not necessarily a good thing that people were willing to spend gobs of money for a mystery box without knowing what pair they were getting.
Creativity: I know the mystery box concept isn’t always great, but I think that made me a bit more excited about these. It was like trading cards, man. Really took me back. I’m a millennial — nostalgia always works. No, I’m not ashamed.
In the end, there were plenty of other choices here that would’ve made a lot of sense. The J Balvin Jordan 3s, both of the Jae Tips drops, the SB Jordan 4, Joe FreshGoods’ Belly 990v4s. But, ultimately, the Kith drop was probably the highlight of the year for me. It’s a pair I’m going to have to circle back on.
It’ll probably be a controversial pick — I haven’t seen many folks talking much about these joints lately. But I think this love is deserved.
My top 5:
Feel free to let me have it, folks! Comments, emails, phone calls. Whatever. I want to hear from you. What do you think of my list?
Best collaborator: Jae Tips with Saucony
Honestly, this one wasn’t close. There wasn’t a better collaborator this year than Jae Tips and the energy he brought to Saucony.
A review: The designer brought attention to Saucony through two drops with three sneakers.
First, Tips released the Grid Azura 2000 with Saucony back in May. It was his first full collaboration with the brand.
He followed that up with the Shadow Grid 2 release in a couple of colorways at ComplexCon, and then via online drops throughout December.
The big picture: In a world where everything feels like it’s constantly online, Jae Tips got out there and touched the people. That’s what made this collaboration particularly great. It was about getting outside and showing appreciation.
With both drops, there were physical elements to the release that came into play and completely transformed how people perceived things went with the individual release of his sneakers.
For both releases, Jae Tips personally hosted pop-ups in different locations where he sold his shoes.
He also made an appearance at ComplexCon, too, where he signed folks’ boxes, their shoes and more.
The “man of the people” vibe is not something we typically see from creatives these days. It made it a bit easier to take an L on these sneakers if you did. At least you knew that there were some true fans out there who were getting pairs. That was nice to see.
Moving forward: This release could change the way Saucony handles things. Of course, the brand has had collaborations before. But it hadn’t seen hype like this.
For all of that to be driven by one person is extremely impressive. Hats off to Jae Tips.
Theme of the year: Variety
This year in the sneaker space was a weird one.
There wasn’t necessarily a heavy hitter out there that everyone felt like they needed to have akin to, say, the first Travis Scott Jordan 1 drop. If you ask 10 people what their favorite sneaker of 2023 is, you’ll probably get 10 different answers.
To me that’s a great thing. There was a lot to love this year.
There was lots of energy coming from the Nike SB line. It felt like there was a huge drop every month.
Asics did its thing this year and dropped some of the best sneakers of 2023. The Hal Studios collaborations are fantastic.
New Balance retroed some classics and had some heavy hitters between Joe FreshGoods and Action Bronson. Plus, the Teddy Santis GRs took another step forward.
Adidas shifted things with the resurgence of its basketball line. You could buy the Crazy Infinity 1.5 or Anthony Edwards’ new sneakers and they’d both be great. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the rise of the Samba.
I know many people disagree with Complex’s Sneaker of the Year list. And I have my gripes about it, too. But I thought this tweet from Matt Welty was spot on. There was something this year in sneakers made for everyone.
I’m not sure where the trends go next year. The mesh runner could die (I’d be in trouble!). Maybe Jordan 4s are the new wave. Maybe we'll all find another random brand to love.
But in 2023 we got a lot of heat from all directions. I’m thankful.
Comeback of the year: Adidas basketball
I mentioned it previously, but Adidas Basketball was on one this year.
Certainly, the numbers likely won’t point to this considering Nike’s presence when it comes to hoops. But I don’t think any other brand’s basketball sector came close to having as much success as Adidas from a public perspective.
A look back:
Adidas dropped the most creative basketball shoe of 2023, in my opinion, with the Crazy Infinity 1.5. It took a retro model that folks hated and modernized it into something that looks really good and fits the aesthetic of today.
Plus, Anthony Edwards easily has the best-looking basketball shoe out today from a signature model standpoint. It’s not close. It just has the look.
Plus Ant is extremely cool. He’s going to carry this brand into the future. Have you seen these commercials? They’re so cool, man.
This Ant Did joint? Come on, man.
The big picture: Adidas has been searching for something to hang its hat on since Kanye’s departure. It’s a long shot, but it looks like basketball could potentially be it.
#TheKicksWeWear
FINAL ONE OF 2023!!! LET’S GET IT, Y’ALL!
First, the homie Andrew Leist kicked us off with the Crenshaw Skate Club dunks. These are SO sick, man. Nike SB did its thing this year.
The homie Cord came through with the new Jerrys! That dude is nuts, but his sneakers are good. Very, very good.
The homie Kali Rhe popped out with these lovely Christmas flavored Dunks! We absolutely love to see it. Merry Christmas, homies!
My boy Adrian popped out with the April Skateboards SBs. MAN. Told y’all about Nike SB, dog. But you already knew that.
The homie CJ had CLEARLY been stacking the heat for weeks. SHEESH. Kobes, Js, Yeezys. ALLAT. Man.
Then the homie Petty came through and took us home with the Ant Man 1s. I ain’t calling these the AE 1s. They’re too good for a corny name like that. This shoe is amazing.
Y’ALL SMOKED THAT. Per usual, man. The KYW crew is the flyest crew out. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.
That’s all, folks! Thank you so much for reading today. I appreciate your time so, so, so much. I hope you have a fantastic holiday season and a fantastic new year. You absolutely deserve it.
The Kicks You Wear will be back in January with my predictions for the sneaker world coming in 2024. Until then, folks. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
I love the kith pick for SOTY, thankfully you are not the only one to mention it.