The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 122 — Fear of the Three Stripes
Another shot at basketball for Jerry Lorenzo.
Goooood morning, family! WE HERE! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. It’s been a minute. I’ve definitely missed y’all over these last couple of weeks.
Told y’all we had some good stuff coming over the break, though, didn’t I? We’ll get into that a bit later. Anyway, hope you had a happy holiday season and a fantastic new year!
Let’s jump in.
Adidas’ big bet on Fear of God
(Photo by Tobias Stonjeck on Unsplash)
Welp. Now we know why we haven’t gotten any Fear of God kicks from Nike since 2018’s drop. Jerry Lorenzo and FOG have been flirting with Adidas basketball.
Lorenzo is bringing Fear of God to the 3 stripes. The two sides announced a new deal to finish up 2020. The details are certainly interesting.
The deal makes Lorenzo the driving force for both the creative and business sides of Adidas’ basketball category moving forward in 2021.
Lorenzo is also launching a new “Fear of God Athletics” label alongside Adidas as the third pillar for the Fear of God house to go along with the Essentials line and the main arm.
Lorenzo announced the new deal in a quick video via Twitter.
This is a power move for both Jerry and Adidas. The three stripes can finally close the growing gap between basketball and the rest of its categories. Lorenzo can finally get a real crack at stepping into athletics — something he wanted to do at Nike, but never truly had room to with how deep the basketball line runs. It’s a win-win for all parties.
At the same time though, I gotta admit, this feels like a huge gamble for both sides. And one that isn’t guaranteed to work.
In theory, Jerry Lorenzo could bring new life to Adidas’ basketball line. But that would completely defy current market trends. Some numbers from Matt Powell of the NPD group.
In 2020, non-retro performance hoops shoes are only expected to represent just 3% of the U.S. sneaker market in sales.
The performance footwear market is expected to grow overall in 2021, but it still isn’t expected to reach 2019 levels where it generated about $800 million in revenue.
Performance just isn’t en vogue. This isn’t the golden age of the 80’s and 90’s anymore where the advent of Jordan sparked a marriage between signature basketball shoes and fashion. That period is dead. By the way, that’s not a bad thing. It’s dead in part because we have so many options now, which is a good thing.
Adidas and FOG are betting that they can play both sides of the fence here, and that’s a dangerous game. We’ve seen it before. Kanye West wanted Yeezy in basketball with the Yeezy QNTM, but it’s only been worn on the court twice in a year. And once was in an All-Star game.
This is chasing a North Star. That’s always a difficult thing. But the good thing for Adidas here is that, as tough as this is, Lorenzo actually wants to do it. He has a passion for it.
And that matters. That’s important. Because there’s a lot of work ahead in bridging that gap.
Nike Dunks By…well…not you
(Photo by Thanin Chaiyawan on Unsplash)
Welp. This isn’t quite how I expected Nike’s “Dunks for everybody” strategy of 2021 to kick off.
The Dunk returned to Nike By You on Monday. People were allowed to go create their own custom colorways while waiting for the link to finally drop. This seemed like a prelude to 2021’s egalitarian shift in strategy for the Dunk.
Narrator: It was not.
Joke was on us. The link dropped at noon on Thursday. By 12:01 ET, the app was broken. Loading times were trash. Custom designs made through the week were deleted. The whole thing was just nightmare fuel.
By 12:15, the custom dunk was sold out. Just like that, people’s hopes of getting a custom Dunk for them were crushed in a matter of minutes.
The question in everyone’s mind was how could this happen? This was a preorder. How do you sell out of a preorder?
And the answer is really simple. Just because it’s a preorder doesn’t mean that it isn’t limited. This wasn’t like those Air Force 1 or Air Max customs we’re used to. Nike limited the materials they were using to make the shoes, which meant a limited number of pairs were always going to be available.
So that leads us to the next question of what the hell is the point of limiting a customized release? It’s not like these are going to kill it on the resale market (although, some custom joints are hitting eBay now. Yikes.)
Here’s a pretty good theory from Sneakonomic Growth author Dylan Dittrich. It was all a data mining trick.
No idea if that’s what actually went down, but that’s more than feasible. Especially considering the big plans for the Dunk over the next year and change to come. They’re clearly setting it up to be the next Jordan 1.
Still, Thursday was a shame. Can’t win for losing here. It’s almost like they don’t care about the consumer experience anymore because they know you’ll come right back regardless of how they treat you. I’m just saying.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Special Delivery!
Told y’all we were turning up over the break! Over the last couple weeks, we did some really cool stuff over at For The Win.
Say hello to Special Delivery: Our very own sneaker unboxing show!
It’s not the regular, degular unboxing though. We’re not telling you whether shoes are fire or not — you decide that for yourself. Instead, we’re telling you their stories.
For episode 1 we did the piece of art that is Nike’s ISPA Road Warrior.
For episode 2 we hit on Russell Westbrook’s new Why Not Zer0.4!
Plenty more to come of that, family! If y’all are rocking with it, make sure you hit that subscribe button. I hope you’ll tune in for more!
Next week we’re coming with another heater. It’ll be fun.
VERZUZ but for sneakers!
Big shouts to Arial Robinson for making this sneakerhead filter for Instagram. FINALLY. Some IG Content that speaks to me.
Verzuz has been the move for quarantine so why not use it for sneakers? Makes too much sense.
Should’ve used this to vote for KYW’s sneaker of the year. Then maybe the Dark Mocha wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did.
Kidding. Sort of.
What’s droppin, bruh
Just a heads up, fam. There’s a HUGE run of Dunks coming on the 14th, but all of them are not necessarily reflected on this list.
Nike Dunk SP Low ‘UCLA’ — Thursday, January 14
Nike Dunk SP Low ‘UNLV’ — Thursday, January 14
Adidas UltraBoost 4.0 “Hearts” — Friday, January 15
Yeezy 700 V3 “Safflower” — Saturday, January 16
Yeezy Boost 380 “Yecoraite” — Saturday, January 16
That’s a wrap for us today, family! Thanks so much for chopping it up with me this morning. Appreciate you!
Have a safe and fun week, yo! Til next time. Be on the lookout for more Special Delivery soon!
Holla at y’all. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. Peace and love.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯
That Nike By You dunk release was an absolute shit show