The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 113 — Sneaker Culture isn't why you can't get a PS5
Don't blame us. It's capitalism.
Good morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thank y’all so much for rocking with your boy today!
I’m really glad y’all like the merch coming! It’ll be here before you know it. Big shouts to the homie Isaiah Leeper, who designed the new logo. If you rocking with it and you need a design done, hit this man. He’s got the goods.
One more thing! Got a really fun thing coming, yall! Monday! Eyes peeled, folks.
Iight. Let’s get down to business.
Resell culture isn’t sneaker culture
(Photo by Krzysztof Hepner on Unsplash)
Everyone has gotten a taste of what the sneaker community goes through every week with this PS5 drop. Copping it has been a struggle over the last few weeks, and that’s putting it mildly.
The system has been sold out at every turn for the last month. Every drop sells out in seconds.
You go to Gamestop and you get cart errors. You go to Walmart and you get a dog in reindeer antlers instead of a checkout screen. Its awful.
It’s all because people are competing against bots. These sites aren’t prepared so they overload and, eventually crash. When people get back, they’re sold out.
This keeps happening to people. It grows even more frustrating when you see stories like this one from Business Insider a group that botted 3,500 consoles.
Sounds mad familiar, right? This is what sneakerheads go through week in and week out. Naturally, people are conflating what’s happening with consoles with actual sneaker culture. This piece from IGN’s Matt Kim hits on that point particularly well. This is the passage that struck me.
Professor [Jemayne Lavar] King says the way customers are responding to the hard-to-find PlayStation 5 — creating a surge in demand and prices in second-hand retailers — is part of a consumerist trend that’s been building up over the years in no small part because of the rise of sneaker culture.
“The same individuals who would pay $500 for a pair of Nike Dunks, or maybe a pair of Air Jordans, or whatever shoe that happens to be in demand at the moment — these are the same individuals who are also playing the latest consoles,” says Professor King. He says that the same consumer culture for sneakers has conditioned buyers into paying more for something that they can potentially get cheaper down the line if they wait.
Yeah, that’s a fair point. And not necessarily a wrong one. The people who are shelling out thousands of dollars for a console are mostly the same people who can afford to spend thousands of dollars on a single shoe.
But that’s missing the forest for the trees. Spending $500 on a shoe is not sneaker culture in the same way that spending $1,000 mark up on a PS5 or an XBox Series X is not gamer culture. This is a common misconception about sneakerheads.
People see some of these insane resale prices and think everyone is paying, say, $600 for a College colorway Dunk. They’re not.
Instead, most sneaker consumers are constantly faced with the same choice gamers have right now. Either jump through these virtual hoops and hurdles for a PS5 or just pay $1,000 resale. Your choice.
When you love that thing enough — be it a console or a sneaker — you might shell that bread out if you have it. If you don’t? You either wait until it restocks or you just don’t get it. These systems will be mass produced. Many of these sneakers won’t.
This is all just a microcosm of the current state of capitalism. We’re living in a world where scalpers are incentivized to buy limited products people want and upcharge them for it on the back end. They’re making people’s lives miserable with corporations doing nothing to stop it and no real penalties on the back end.
These folks aren’t interested in the latest Dunk or seeing how Ghost of Tsushima might play on the Playstation 5. No, they’re just looking to make a profit. And they’ll charge whoever whatever to do it.
As we can see, that’s not a thing that’s limited to sneaker culture. It’s not limited to gaming, either. Hell, people were trying to sell hand sanitizer in March. That’s not gaming culture. That’s not sneaker culture. That’s just our culture.
And, yeah, it’s sad as hell.
More Dunks are OTW
(Photo by Thanin Chaiyawan on Unsplash)
Finally, some Nike Dunk news that might make both new fans and old fans of the classic silhouette happy.
There will be more Dunks in 2021. And I don’t mean just more colorways of the Dunk — we’ve gotten plenty of those in 2020. I mean, the Dunk won’t be as hard to get as it was this year.
There will be a lot more in production, the good folks over at SoleSavy report.
Our sources have confirmed Nike is ramping up production, styles and distribution of the Dunk model for Spring 2021. Expect to see a lot more colorways release and more stores involved than before. Just remember, SB is an entirely different beast, those releases will stay limited to skate shops.
So this is pretty good news, all things considered. Again, it means there will be more Dunks for those of us who continue to try and cop manually. And that’s always a good thing — especially when there are so many new fans of an old silhouette.
There is a caveat, though. There's always a caveat. It also means that if you think things are oversaturated with the Dunk now (and I do), they’re about to get a lot worse.
There are new colorways of the Dunk dropping every single week. The shoe went from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye.
Because of that, there’s a renewed interest in it. And Nike is about to feed that with more color palettes and more silhouettes — not just the college colored and OG joints we’ve gotten so far.
So we’ll probably get a lot more joints like this.
But hey, whatever. Take the good with the bad. If that kills the secondary market for some of these things? I'm here for it.
The best thing you’ll read on the Fire Red 4
The Fire Red AJ4 drops tomorrow and I’ve been ready for this joint to get here since, well, forever.
The 4 has become my favorite Jordan silhouette. To me, it is timeless. This silhouette lives in any era with any fit on whoever. It’s the perfect shoe. And the OG colorways are incredible.
I was reminded of this when reading the homie Russ Bengtson over at Complex on the Fire Red 4. He goes deep into the shoe’s origins and it’s immediate cultural impact at the time it dropped. This story puts us right back in that era. Here’s Russ taking us back in time.
The Air Jordan 1 was marketed and sold with the hopes it would become a status symbol. The Air Jordan 4, launched just four years later, was launched as a status symbol. LL paired his Jordans with a plain black tee, black jeans, and a prior status symbol: a Kangol. Ice T wore the “White/Black/Red” Jordan 4s on the cover of his "What Ya Wanna Do" 12" with a whole matching Bulls fit.
The Jordan 4 entered the cultural realm at the same time it entered the sporting world. On May 7 of '89, Michael Jordan hit The Shot over Craig Ehlo in Cleveland, dispatching the favored Cavaliers in five hard-fought games. On July 21, Spike Lee released Do the Right Thing, which featured a whole scene built around the Air Jordan 4 that really defined what a pair of sneakers meant to someone, especially when they were $100. $108 with tax.
The rest of the piece is well worth a read. The Fire Red 4’s are worth a quick cop. Let’s hope we get em, fam.
Ritz is canceled
Sorry. I love Ritz crackers, but there’s no way that they can put together an abomination like this and not see repercussions for it.
I mean, honestly. What the hell is that? It feels like an attempt to recreate the Pizza Hut shoe, but with no sort of functionality that comes with it like ordering a pizza. Instead, they’re just ugly as hell.
Come on, Ritz. If you're gonna piggy back on #TheCulture you can make a MUCH better attempt than that. This is just…well…bad.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBEZZZZ! Let’s get it!
First, the homie Prince got us started right with the Dark Concord 12’s. Torch.
Then the homie Eddie Factzz came through in these cool AM 97’s.
The homie Kendrew technically wasn’t wearing these, but they too fire not to post.
My guy JD popped out in the Packer x Adidas 4D joints. SICK.
The homie Monica held us down in the BHM Air Max 95’s. Shoutout to em.
My guy Phil flexed on us hard, as always. Not sure what was better — the kicks or the tree.
The homie Brody popped out in the New Balance 850 with a tropical flavor.
The homie Kirby pulled out the Timbos.
The homie Megan jumped out in the ultimate Dad joints. All hail the Monarchs.
The homie Marco finally pulled out the Dark Mocha 1’s for Thanksgiving. I’m thankful.
The homie Brett was rocking the Black Denim 4’s and, boy, are they fresh.
Then Cesar and Adrian sent us home with the Turdunken joints. What a flex, y’all. God damn.
Y’all smoked it! AGAIN. Bless, man. I love you all. I gotta keep up. Next week, I’ll come with a heater. I promise.
That’s a wrap for me this week, family! Hope you have a great weekend and get all the Black Friday deals you’ve been looking for.
Merch is on the way! And the bracket starts soon! I cannot WAIT to get y’all both of these. December is going to be fun.
Until next time, family! Peace and love. Be easy. Be well. Be kind.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯