KYW Monthly Mailbag — 📩 Tremaine Emory's foolishness, a Taylor Swift sneaker? And more
Hopefully, we don't have to keep talking about this.
Goooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate you! Hope you’re well.
Any good weekend plans? If think I’m going to pop the grill out one last time before the cold weather kicks my ass. Have a few friends over this weekend. We’ll see.
Let’s jump in.
Did Tremaine Emory help or hurt himself with his recent interview?
I was hoping to never talk about the Supreme thing involving Tremaine Emory again. But he’s still talking about it so we’ve got to talk about it. Appreciate the homie Rick Dubb for asking about it.
Emory did on the Touré Show about his exit from Supreme. We know where I stand on what Emory did and how bad of a look it was. I maintain that stance.
My thoughts: For someone like me? No, Emory’s interview didn’t help change my perception of him at all. It’s just so clear to me that he still doesn’t get where he went wrong.
Touré asks him what he thinks the intentions of the everyday customer who would’ve worn one of his t-shirts with a lynching on it would’ve been. He took the opportunity to once again grandstand about “provocative” work.
“If the customer is intelligent and they’ve been following Supreme, Supreme puts out provocative art with artists. They just never do it with Black artists,” he said. Because, of course, commodifying Black pain is just super high-brow stuff.
At the same time, he tried to tell us that he didn’t leave because of the shunned Arthur Jafa collab. He says he left because of Surpeme’s “thoughtlessness and their lack of response when I was trying to garner discourse” through this proposed project.
And I’m just curious, man. I wonder exactly what sort of discourse lynchings and whip scars on a t-shirt was going to lead to. I’m just curious. It certainly wasn’t going to be good.
Here’s my thing: Emory made the mistake I think a lot of creatives out there make. He, himself, valued shock over thoughtfulness. He conflated provocation with quality. Just because something upsets people doesn’t mean it’s good. For whatever reason, he still doesn’t see that.
He brought up Supreme’s infamous nun t-shirt and the Saddam Hussein New York Post shirt to justify what he was trying to do.
I said it before and I’ll say it again. Lynchings are images of real people. Not animated nuns. Not political adversaries. Real people who were tortured, maimed and murdered in the worst way possible. There’s a distinct difference there.
And, look. Emory isn’t wrong about Supreme and the way it cannibalizes Black culture without giving much of anything back. It’s been that way for a long time now.
The brand has done so many collaborations featuring so many Black luminaries. Michael Jordan, Three 6 Mafia, Prodigy, Gucci Mane. The list goes on.
How many Black artists have they worked with behind the scenes, though? What are the demographics of their workplace? It’s mostly white. And they sell to mostly white people. That’s who would’ve been wearing Emory’s shirts.
That’s a huge problem. It’s not even just a Supreme problem — it’s a big issue with pretty much every brand we consume at this point. Racism has plagued our society for a really, really long time and is embedded in our capitalistic economic structure. Kudos to Emory for wanting to battle against that. However, the proposed Arthur Jafa project was not the way to go about doing that.
The bottom line: Tremaine Emory still doesn’t get it. And that’s such a shame because he could do so much good from his position. Hopefully, one day, he’ll figure out where things went left and course correct.
I won’t hold my breath, though.
Travis Kelce boom is crazy.
The reader continues: Could he (or any non-hoops athlete) have a major signature shoe?
That’s right, folks. Not even the Kicks You Wear can avoid the Swelce craze these days.
The backdrop: You probably know that Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and pop icon Taylor Swift are kind of dating, but not really, maybe? I don’t really know. It’s become a whole thing though.
Swift showed up to the Chiefs game and sat in a suite with Kelce’s mom last week. Then the two left the Chief’s stadium together. HOT GOSS ALERT.
Kelce’s jersey sales hiked up 400 percent with rumors swirling, according to ESPN. The Swifties seem to love him.
This newfound popularity for Travis Kelce kind of makes the reader’s question interesting, doesn’t it? He seems to have a lot of new fans these days. Could that translate into a major signature shoe?
To be bluntly honest: No, I don’t think so. An NFL player can carry a signature model — Deion Sanders has one of the best signature shoes ever, for example. Travis Kelce just ain’t poppin’ like that without Taylor Swift. He’s not that interesting.
But…There is a more interesting question here. And that is whether or not Taylor Swift could have some pull in the sneaker game. We saw that work out a bit this week. Taylor is apparently one of the New Balance girlies.
Swift was spotted at the Chiefs’ game in black, red and white New Balance 550s.
After she was seen in these, the joints were trending on NBs website.
Other retailers got in on the act, too, and sent out promotions for those very sneakers.
It was honestly a bit jarring to see Taylor Swift have such an immense impact on a sneaker. Like, y’all. We know the 550 is dead. And she single-handledly gave it life again. It was like that time Travis Scott wore the Newcastle Dunk they started reselling for crazy numbers on StockX.
I don’t know if Taylor Swift will ever have interest in a signature shoe, but I do know this: New Balance — or whoever else — should at least think about putting in a call.
M/F/K sneakers (or sneaker lines) - GO
WOW. Did not expect this to pop up in the mailbox. For sneaker purposes let’s call this game rock, stock or drop. Rock means I’m wearing the sneaker, cop means I’d at least buy it and drop means I’m passing on it.
Let’s do…the three most interesting Dunks of 2023: The Crenshaw Skate Club SBs, Born x Raised SBs and the Jarritos joints.
I’m rocking: The Crenshaw Skate Club SBs. I know there was the whole t-shirt controversy behind it, but man, I love this shoe. It’s the flyest one out of the three, in my opinion. If you skate the swoosh off you get a cool message, too. I love that.
I’m copping: This is extremely hard. But…I’ve got to go with the Born x Raised SBs. I mean, what a sneaker, right? Yeah, I get there’s a lot of hype behind it. But it’s a beautiful sneaker. The story of its development and what it meant to Chris Printup is also so inspiring. Plus, people who are actual fans of the brand were able to get it through early access from BxR. That’s always good for points in my book.
I’m dropping: The Jarritos Nike SB. This was a hard one for me. But, man. I’m kind of tired of brand Dunks. It was cool back in 2020 with the Chunky Dunky. Partnering with corporations has never really been a Nike SB thing, though. As good as these shoes are, the Jarritos partnership is just kind of a turn-off for me. I do really, really like these shoes, though.
OK. Now you can roast me.
What's more corny? People who buy fakes? Or people who call out/make fun of people who buy fakes?
I’m assuming this is related to the tweet of the dude who flexed on the internet by *checks notes* admitting that he wears fake shoes while also driving a …*confusedly checks notes again. Wait, are y’all sure? This can’t be right. Right? RIGHT? Ok. Ok. I guess. /finishes checking notes* … driving a Porsche 911.
I don’t even know what to say about that unfortunate situation. I’m sorry for everyone involved, though.
But to answer your question and make a long story short, yes. The answer is yes.
My take: It’s super corny to wear fake shoes and then flex those fake shoes like you’re the hottest thing living. You’re not. That’s super corny. Absolutely would not recommend it.
It’s also pretty corny to constantly rail on people who buy fakes. This is not an endorsement. I hate fake sneakers as much as the next person. There’s more than enough heat out there that ain’t Travis Scott or Off-White for you to wear. Go buy some Asics, dog.
But, hey, man. I can’t control how people spend their money. I also don’t intend on trying to do that. I’m only here to talk about the stuff that I love. I’d hope that’s what we’re all in it for.
Except for Porsche guy. Please stay away.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBES! LET’S GOOOOO.
The homie Aman popped out with the classic 990v3s in that BEAUTIFUL grey colorway. The way to my heart is a pair of grey New Balance joints, man.
Then the homie Sam came through with the Leo Baker SBs. Shoutout to this sneaker, yo. What a special one.
My dog Sumeet came through with the Albino & Preto SBs and I’m REALLY digging these. I hope he ends up peeling these a bit! We need to see that color.
The homie Big Crawf came through with the Every Game Air Ships. These joints are BEAUTIFUL, man.
Then the homie Rube closed us out with the Union x Bephies Beauty Supply AJ1s. WHAT A LOVELY SNEAKER, man. People were hating on these hard! They’re nice.
That’s a wrap, folks! Y’all did that. SHEEEEEEESH.
Thank you so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate you. Have a fantastic weekend, folks!
Until next time. Peace and love. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. And we out.
-Sykes💯