The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 103 — Better late than never, right?
Welcome to 2020, eBay. It's not that fun, but yeah!
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thanks so much for rocking with me this Friday. Y’all are the best.
Don’t forget — I’m out for the next week. Our next newsletter will be on Monday, October 26. Hopefully, y’all don’t miss me too much! In the meantime, makes sure you and your folks are subscribed!
Alright, family. Let’s do it.
Welcome to the party, eBay
(Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash)
In the early 2000’s and even moving into the 2010’s, eBay was the aftermarket leader for sneakers. But over the last five years or so, they’ve only been playing catch up.
Now, it seems, they’re ready to join the party. The company announced this week that it’d finally going to start authenticating sneakers on purchases $100 and up. You know, what StockX, GOAT, and every other resale platform has been on for years.
Yup, eBay is just getting here despite being around since 1995.
They’re launching their authentication service on October 25 to verify sneakers from big brands, per CNN, and that’ll expand by the year’s end.
They’re partnering with SneakerCon to do it, just as they do with watches sold on eBay.
Nah, you’re not tripping. It’s pretty ridiculous that this is just happening. People have been buying and selling with eBay for literal decades now.
Authentication is especially important — particularly in the luxury goods space eBay specializes in — because fakes are so good and detailed these days. They’re also being pedaled more than ever. So, why are they five years late to this? No idea.
But it’s downright irresponsible that it took this long. Especially considering that this is a platform with a global gross merchandise value of $27 billion.
They’ve paid for it — especially in the sneaker community. People have migrated to those other aforementioned platforms over the last five years to avoid boxes of rocks being shipped to their homes. As StockX, GOAT and other platforms have grown, eBay has slowed.
But that’s exactly why they’re making this move. This is an effort to win those folks back, and they can do it. Especially considering how fee-heavy StockX and GOAT have gotten over the last year or so. There’s opportunity to claim some real space here.
But they’ve got to be good at this. And they need to be transparent. An authentication service is only as good as those authenticating for you. And we have no idea how good those folks actually are.
There are small differences in the details they have to know. Things like how a shoe smells, how it’s stitched, logo placement. They have to be A1 on those details.
Their authenticators must reach this standard. If they don’t? There’s absolutely no point in this. The best way to make sure they do is if they share them with the consumer.
All in all, this is good. The more aftermarket platforms, the better. There are some things they’re going to need to do to earn people’s trust, but this is a start.
And it’s needed. A competitive space is the best thing for the consumer. That competition has been missing for years now. It makes cornering the market difficult for resellers. eBay rising up again gets us a little bit closer to that.
And let’s be real. They might be late, but with the way prices currently look? They’re right on time. Let me figure out what’s good with these PSG 4’s.
Lawyer up, Warren Lotas
(Photo by Justin Campbell on Unsplash)
We all knew this was coming, right?
Nike is suing streetwear designer Warren Lotas for his replica Dunks, per the Los Angeles Daily News, after he reportedly had 25,000 preorders of the Staple Pigeon design.
They’re coming for him hard, too. They say he’s using a logo that is “confusingly similar” to their signature swoosh, per details from the complaint released by Complex.
"Nike protects its iconic sneaker designs, and its intellectual property in those designs, by rooting out bad actors that undermine the DNA of sneaker culture by promoting and selling fakes," reads the suit. "Warren Lotas is one those bad actors."
They also presented lots of evidence to prove their point.
Here’s the kicker. They’re asking for three times the damages incurred, profits from his sales, reimbursement of lawsuit and attorney fees as well as any material related to the design. Sheesh. That’s a lot.
We’ve seen this before. Nike does this dance with Skechers all the time. They’ve had four suits over the last few years similar to this where they’ve dinged Skechers for stealing designs. They all play out similarly. Nike essentially demands they stop, asks for damages, Skechers attempts to invalidate their patents. Rinse, wash, repeat.
There’s a big difference between Warren Lotas and Skechers, though. They’ve been doing this for years. They have the legal team for it. Does Lotas? We’ll have to see.
One argument they could make? This has been done before without being a problem. Bape has done it. Ari Saal Forman has done it. What’s the difference here? If he does that, Lotas might have a legit gripe.
Otherwise? This is pretty open and shut. Nike should win this fairly easily. But I doubt Lotas did all this without contingencies in place. So we’ll see how it plays out.
LaMelo x Puma is officially official
LaMelo Ball is officially with Puma and officially not with Big Baller Brand anymore. This is the end of an era, but a new beginning for Ball.
He’s the closest thing they have to a star on the basketball court pretty much immediately. The next biggest hooper might be Kyle Kuzma, which…OK? Sure.
Ball announced the move with this dope social spot.
That’s a dope video and a dope tag line. “Not from here” is simple. Straight to the point. I’m a fan. This feels like the right way to present a big rookie signing.
There’s no signature shoe yet. It seems like that’s something he’ll have to play his way into, which is a smart way to play it. If he’s good, that’ll take care of itself.
Either way, Puma has their guy now. If he’s special, this will make waves.
SOUTH BEACH, BAYBEE
It has been a LONG time coming, folks. But the South Beach 8’s are coming back. Thank you to whoever at Nike heard us crying about LeBron’s shoes for years.
The shoes are slated to retro in 2021, per Sole Heat on Feet.
Listen. I don’t know if the Miami Heat had to be sacrificed in the NBA Finals to the sneaker Gods for us to get us this. But I also don’t care. Sorry, Heat fans. Love y’all. But yeah. Bring these Space Boots back at all costs.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBRATIONS! LET’S GET IT!
First, the homie Max came through in these slick Union Mocs. SO good.
The homie Will popped out in these Omega LQD Cell Pumas. My word these are dope.
The homie Storm popped out in these INCREDIBLE AJ1’s. Fall vibes heavy.
Phil came through in the 247 Mids in this brilliant fall tone. Man.
The homie Charles came through with the Penny V’s and I swear to you Penny has the second best Nike line ever.
The homie Noetic came through in some sweet Adidas Streetball joints. LOVE these.
The homie Adrian came through with the OG of OG Gel Lyte III’s.
The good homie Nico popped out in the Overreact sandals but couldn’t tweet so I did it for him LOL.
The homie Cesar popped out with these INCREDIBLE Kobe PE’s. My word.
The homie JBlock popped out in the Undercover React Prestos. SO clean.
Then the better Mike sent us packing with the Paranorman vibes on the 720’s just in time for Halloween.
Twitter was broken yesterday. WE WERE NOT. Good shit, y’all.
Thank y’all so much, again, for rocking with me! Enjoy your week, family. I hope you have an absolute blast. I’ll see y’all on the flip side. I’ll miss the hell out of y’all.
Don’t forget — subscribe! We’re getting so close to 2,000. It’ll be here before you know it.
Peace and love. Be easy. Be well. Be kind.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯
Great fuckin' newsletter, Sykes! Just found KYW, though perhaps a moment too late as I just ordered some Ferrari Pumas off Ebay for less than $40. Wondering now if I threw my money at a counterfeit on accident. Consider me subscribed af to KYW