The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 123 — Going retro in real time
Nike is already building LeBron James' retro line out and UOENO.
Gooood morning, family! Happy Friday! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks for giving me a bit of your time today.
Thank yall for showing so much love on SPECIAL DELIVERY ❤. My KYW fam is the very best. More to come. Very soon.
Anyway, let’s jump in!
Going retro in the present
(Photo by Daniela Araya on Unsplash)
So Nike is doing this pretty cool thing with LeBron James’ retro catalog. They’re opening up the OG Bron vault to the fans.
In honor of him winning his fourth championship and his first with the Lakers, they’re bringing back one retro Player Exclusive colorway and sticking it on shelves.
They’re letting fans vote bracket style via the SNKRS app to figure out which one they’re going to sell.
This is pretty cool. The vote is already on round two and all everyone is talking about is how all of the wrong PE’s from back in the day are moving forward and how we have no idea how Nike is doing this vote.
And it’s like, yeah. Alright. I get it. Gen Z don’t know nothing bout OG Brons. These contests have been incredibly bad and the polls don’t make sense. Like, how is the Stewie Griffin 6 ever losing anything that’s not a 7 or an 8? That is just…incorrect.
That’s missing the forest for the trees, though, as much as I’d love to complain. This isn’t just a contest. We’re one big focus group right now.
LeBron James is a cyborg, yes. But he isn’t going to play basketball forever (probably?). Like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, though, he has become one of the brand’s legacy athletes. And while his signature sneaker line will remain after he retires, the brand is also likely to lean in on retros.
So this is them figuring out which joints they’re going to go with.
They’ll wind up with one signature PE to sell us, but they’ll also have a whole bunch of data on which LeBron’s we love. They’ll see what we voted for the most.
They’ll take that data and, as they begin to plan for James’ retirement, they’ll use that to determine what silhouettes and colorways they should focus on retroing from his collection first.
It’s a classic bait and switch concept. As an exec from the tech world, this is right up there in John Donahoe’s wheelhouse.They’ll take a bunch of data and notes from this while rewarding voters with a PE that they probably won’t get anyway with a shoe they won’t get anyway. Same way we talked about that being a possibility with last week’s Dunk By You launch.
Keep that in mind as you vote. You’re not just picking what PE’s you want to see — you’re also shaping the future of what LeBron’s signature line is going to look like.
Oh, and stop voting for garbage kicks.
What to look forward to in 2021
(Photo by Behnam Norouzi on Unsplash)
So, 2020 was a pretty awful year hands down industry wide for a number of reasons, but mostly because of the pandemic. 2021 probably will be more of the same.
Still, there are some trends we can look forward to. And, of course, we'll cover it all right here.
These are my top 8 stories in culture and business for 2021.
Culture:
The year of the Dunk - Is this real or not? The Dunk by You drop was awful. The January drops have been delayed. The year of the dunk has been bad so far. It seems that there will be more Dunks, but they'll be just as limited. And that’s a bit disappointing.
More space for women - This closing quote High Snobiety’s Lucy Thorpe pretty much captures it: “ Gender shouldn’t affect the legitimacy of a person’s love of sneakers. Women are banding together and holding brands to a higher standard. All we need now is for them to listen.” Will they listen? We’ll see.
Collabs are here to stay - 2020 was certainly the year of the collab. From McDonalds to Slack, it felt like everyone had one. And most of them worked. So you were sick of them? Got some bad news for you, slim. They aren't going anywhere.
Virgil is back - He’s coming with “The 20.” Let’s see if it hits like The Ten. Some of the rumored silhouettes have a lot of potential. We'll see how they hit now that that Off-White luster has faded a bit.
Business:
Adidas’ big moves - Adidas is building and retooling some huge franchises. Yeezy has GAP coming, Beyoncé’s Ivy Park is in year 2 and Jerry Lorenzo is bringing Fear of God to the table. It could be a big year for Adidas.
Does performance bounce back big? Performance running was on the uptick last year in the midst of the pandemic. People were still getting active. Does that continue? And can that expand to other categories? We’ll see.
The race for sustainable product - Nike’s Space Hippie was a huge statement in sustainability in sneakers last year. Adidas seems to be ready to hit back in 2021 with 60% of their product reportedly being made from sustainable materials. Does anyone else join the race? Hopefully so.
To Reebok or not to Reebok? - Alright, Adidas is going to sell Reebok. So who wants it? Master P and Baron Davis are suitors, apparently. That would be pretty damn dope.
Buckle up, y’all! This is going to be an interesting year.
Everything is not as it seems
For those of you like me who passed on the Nike Overbreak College Grey joints because you’re waiting the Mars Yard colorway to drop soon, prepare to be disappointed.
The College Grey joints turn into the Mars yard joints, apparently. Looks like they were just painted over. Shouts to the homie Shawn P for getting me hip. He looked closely and realized the Swoosh peels to that Mars Yard colorway.
Quick YouTube search reveals that, yo, these joints actually peel all the way.
Just wild. I, for one, am SICK that I did not cop these. Hopefully, the Mars Yard joints still come through. If not? Whew, buddy. Big L.
These kicks won’t pay for themselves
Big shouts to the sneaker community for earning that stimmy. Hopefully, they catch whoever placed those pipe bombs at the Capitol.
HILARIOUS. Get that $50k, Cole. You deserve it.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBRATIONS!!! LEGGOOOOOO.
First, the homie storm kicked us off with these KD 13 NBA 2k edition joints. SICK.
Then the homie Motorboat Jones popped out with the classic Chuck lows on in that good ass LA weather.
Then my guy Devin came through with some 4D heaters from Adidas.
The homie Phil popped out with more 4D love in Sneakers N Stuff flavors.
My guy Will busted out some AM 270’s in this SICK colorway. Need dat.
Then the homie Amanda showed OUT in these Diamond Bolt joints. Big shouts to Dee-Low on designing these. From producer to sneaker designer — pretty sick transition, if you ask me.
The homie Dandin held it DOWN with the Tiffanys. My GOD.
My guy Brett popped out with his first pair of SB’s in some crater vibes. We absolutely love to see it.
The homie J Block smoked it with the Dunk Hi joints in Iowa flavors. Joints is SO cold man.
Then the homie Kev sent us home in the Friends and Family Travis 4’s in Olive flavors. My GOD. I guess he don’t call him the sneaker plug for nothin, huh?
SMOKED IT. My Goodness man.
That’s a wrap for us today, family! Thank you again for rocking with me. Truly, truly appreciate your time.
Special Delivery today at 12 noon! Be on the lookout, fam. 🙏🏾
Til next time folks. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. Peace and love.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯