18 Comments

I don't know if it was a defect or not, but I bought a pair of black and blue Jordan 1's on clearance at Copelands - I am not sure if it was Copelands at the time yet. I played in them every day for about 2 weeks, and by the end of the second week I had worn completely through the sole, the insert and my sock on the left shoe. Both shoes were pretty worn out, and my left shoe did typically wear out faster than the right because that was my jumping foot. Also, Nike must have had some issues with their Air shoes in the mid 90's because three straight pairs of Airmax Uptempos popped on me.

Expand full comment
author

I'm unsure on the Copelands, but that Air Max thing is one of the worst feelings ever. I stopped wearing anything AM related for a while because of that.

Expand full comment

um... hello. i'll start. during a semester of college, i studied abroad and i put a lot of my belongings in storage. i put a ton of my sneakers in storage, including sneakers i had bought back in high school and middle school. the storage facility burned down. ✌🏾

Expand full comment
author

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Expand full comment

ok this isnt really quality control, but whenever i see "worst sneaker nightmare" i have to chime in 😂

Expand full comment
author

LOL it still counts just fine. I'm probably never going to put my kicks in storage now.

Expand full comment

definitely don't.

Expand full comment

Back in high school I had the carbon fiber insert in the sole of my Hyperizes rip out on *two straight pairs* one season. Switched to Hypermaxes for my third pair and the air bubble popped in like two months. Rough year for Nike's team basketball line.

Switched to Adidas for a couple seasons after that!

Expand full comment
author

WHAT. A. NIGHTMARE. I can't even imagine yo

Expand full comment

Quality probably impacted by new manufacturing constraints due to Covid

Expand full comment

It's not really a new problem though, right? Like the AJ6s could be because of that, but we've seen disappointing quality on hyped releases time and time again over the years well before covid was a problem.

Expand full comment
author

Definitely think that's a valid point but I'm with Conor. This is a thing that's been going down for years.

Expand full comment

I haven’t had anything out of the ordinary, the most has been extra glue. with that being said I feel like it's apart of the sneaker game. Now if a shoe has enough hype doesn't matter how bad the quality is people will buy it smh. I think brands are aware of this and don't care too much imo

Expand full comment
author

It's wild how we're sort of conditioned to just accept whatever from these drops. I mean, we're not even really taught to pay attention to the quality.

Expand full comment

I found an absolutely beautiful pair of blue embroidered shoes on ThredUp. Bought them in a size 9, which is occasionally too big but usually works for me.

But they are too small.

Fine. So I find a 9.5 on Ebay, and buy it.

Fits *exactly* the same as the 8.5.

FINE.

I hunt around on Ebay for a couple weeks before I find them in a 10, and buy them. Sure enough, they fit *exactly* the same as the 9 and 9.5. Much too small.

I finally give up. I hope that someone out there is able to enjoy them, presumably someone who regularly buys shoes 2 sizes bigger than their feet :lol:

Expand full comment

The pink soles on the Carmine 6's instantly reminded me of the Cherry 13's bleeding through. I wore mine in the rain one time and it was a wash after that, literally.

Expand full comment

Overall QC has been an issue but as John mentioned it could be related to Covid 19.

Expand full comment
author

It's been a thing for a few years now, though. The quality of Jordans has steadily gotten worse as demand has increased. It's really weird. It's also not just J's

Expand full comment