The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 124 — The Yeezy drops are dropping
That Yeezy 700 price is going 📉
Good morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with your boy again today. Really appreciate you.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day! Celebrate one of our greatest civil leaders by listening to Dr. King on America’s three chief moral dilemmas. What's really sad is how much of this still applies. This man was so far ahead of his time.
Sigh. On a lighter note, let’s jump in.
Your Yeezys are a bit cheaper now
(Photo by Blake Carpenter on Unsplash)
Well, uh, at least one of them is, anyway. The Yeezy 700 “Sun” colorway that drops this week is down to $240 instead of $300.
That’s a pretty huge change. The Sun colorway will be the first 700 with this price drop. No, $240 isn’t anything to sneeze at. But it’s also not $300, which was a completely ridiculous retail price for a shoe of this kind in the first place.
Why did it cost so much? There were a few reasons.
First, the materials. They use premium leather and suede to make the shoe pop. Those materials drive prices up.
Second, the hype. It’s a shoe with the Yeezy name. Even the $300 price tag didn’t do much to dissuade people from getting the initial 700s. People are still clamoring for the Wave Runners.
For what it’s worth, this Sun colorway doesn’t slack on either of those two factors. This is basically just a brighter version of the Wave Runners. Those premium materials are still there. This is going to be a hit.
The price is the only thing that has changed. There’s not just one singular reason as to why.
Personally, I think this could be a play in shifting attention away from the 350 v2 as the brand’s most popular, and most accessible, silhouette.
We’ve talked about how oversaturated the silhouette is and how it’s led to a sort of staleness of the Yeezy Brand over the last few years.
This also plays well into the whole “Yeezy for everybody” strategy Kanye West has seemingly always coveted but has rarely actually come through on (as of yet).
Our friends over at Sole Savy have some other theories that I thought were pretty interesting.
Is adidas scared that $300 is just too much in a time when unemployment is so high? Or is it simply course correcting its business after starting high and seeing how the market reacted? Maybe it’s looking to create a more distinct price tiering system amongst Yeezy models. Will the 750 return and represent the premium or do they have new high priced silhouettes on the way? Too early to tell but regardless of the reason, price decreases without an apparent quality compromise is a big win for consumers.
That last line there says it all. Regardless of whatever business strategy may be involved here, this is a huge win for consumers. The sneaker industry has a pricing problem and it’s had one for quite a long time. Sneaker prices have only risen as the industry has grown.
Perfect example: The 2012 Fire Red Jordan 4 dropped at $160 retail. This year, that same shoe was $200 and the quality is only slightly better.
The worst part about these hikes is they often come with no explanation as to why. Brands don’t explicitly share information on these shoes with the customer. Quality changes are rarely transparent. They just put it out for us to buy. And that’s unacceptable. We deserve better.
So, yeah, a drop in price of this nature is a huge win. Hopefully, this happens with other silhouettes from other brands soon.
Nike’s big crackdown
(Photo by Will Breen on Unsplash)
If it wasn’t clear after the Warren Lotas stuff, it’s pretty clear now. Nike is not out here to play with anyone making counterfeit gear behind their name.
The Swoosh filed a lawsuit against nearly 600 websites last week in the New York District Court alleging they were selling counterfeit versions of Nike and Converse gear on their websites.
In the complaint, they’re claiming that the websites are operating a counterfeit scheme via 42 separate networks based in China, per SGB Media.
“‘Each of the defendants 589 infringing websites … is currently, or was within the past twelve months, advertising, offering to sell, and/or selling counterfeit Nike or Converse products to United States consumers,’ the complaint charges. Nike added that the defendants are operating ‘a counterfeit scheme’ via 42 separate networks based in China, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and other foreign jurisdictions.”
Nike has always been hawkish on these kinds of operations and rightfully so. With that being said, this feels like an especially big push.
Counterfeiting is big business. It stretches far and wide and, to the untrained eye, can go unnoticed. This sort of oversight prevents Nike’s customers from being duped while establishing the swoosh as a brand they can trust. That’s especially important with Nike leaning in on its direct-to-consumer strategy.
So this isn’t’ surprising at all. In fact, we should probably expect a lot more of this. And a lot bigger. Buckle in, folks.
Travis is back
We have the first Travis Scott silhouette of the year and it’s a Blazer. Who had that being a thing in the “Year of the Dunk?” I certainly did not.
Travis was spotted in the READYMADE x Nike Blazer over the weekend and its pretty impressive.
That swoosh is sort of weird, yeah. But, overall, this joint is pretty dope. And it’s always good to see the Blazer getting a bit of love.
This shoe is made from sustainable material, which is the best part of all of this. Travis Scott is a big name. Having him wearing sustainable gear makes a big difference. If we can get him in on the sustainability game like he's in on Happy Meals, that’s a huge win for the sneaker community.
No dates on this thing yet but, as always, when I hear something you’ll hear something.
SPECIAL DELIVERY BYKE
WE BACK with another episode of Special Delivery! We dropped on Friday at noon via USAT Sports.
This time we tackled the origins of basketball and the history of Converse’s Chuck Taylor through their latest collab with Concepts. Check us out!
Won’t lie to y’all — this is probably my favorite episode so far. I feel like that was pretty obvious, though. Don’t forget to subscribe, like and comment if you feel so inclined.
By the way, I’ve officially hit meme territory with this thing. Shouts to my #KicksFam group chat. Love y’all.
Figured y’all would enjoy that at my expense.
What’s droppin, bruh
LOTS OF HEAT this week.
Notre x Nike Dunk High - Thursday, January 21 (Saturday, January 23 on SNKRS)
Air Jordan 4 “Starfish” — Thursday, January 21
Nike SB Dunk Low “Street Hawker” — Friday, January 22
Air Jordan 5 low “Chinese New Year” — Saturday, January 23
Yeezy Boost 700 “Sun” — Saturday, January 23
That’s a wrap for Monday, family! Hope you enjoy your week! Thank you so much, once again, for your time. I really appreciate it.
Be safe out there. Especially my DMV folks. Love y’all.
See you Wednesday. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. Peace and love.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯
Good stuff as always 👍
I really want to believe that Kanye’s goal of everyone having access to Yeezys plays into the price drop. If that’s really still his goal, raising quantities and lowering prices is the only way to do it. He’s been making a killing on all these, maybe it’s time for a new entry level release again like the Calabasas a few years ago.