Good morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thanks so much for rocking with your boy on this glorious Friday morning.
Hope you all had an absolutely fantastic week. Did any of you participate in the STONKS? I didn’t. But it was absolutely fantastic to see Wall Street tears on the TL. As a #TeamBrokeBoi vet, it made my entire week.
Let’s jump in.
This Puma thing really works y’all
(Photo by June Wong on Unsplash)
Last year, I talked a lot about how strange I thought Puma’s basketball strategy was. J Cole having his own signature basketball sneaker as a rapper was ridiculous me.
Now they’re doubling down on that concept. Puma and Cole are already back again with the Dreamer 2. They dropped on January 28 — Cole’s birthday.
This shoe is a bit different in that it isn’t being marketed explicitly as an athletic shoe as the initial launch of the OG Dreamer would’ve had people believe.
Cole isn’t running around trying to get a Pistons tryout as a marketing tentpole. Instead, he’s recreating the cover of his hit album 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
That’s more of a nod to the lifestyle stuff that Puma has leaned into so well over the last few years and more of the lane Cole fits in.
This is still strange. Cole is the “signature athlete” of an athletic brand as a rapper and he even has a pair of athletic shoes. Meanwhile, they still don’t have a big name on the basketball court outside of LaMelo Ball.
But facts are facts. And the facts say this is working. Really well at that.
Puma had a big year with sales jumping by 20% as the rest of the industry declined, as mentioned on Monday.
Puma is being smart. They’ve found a niche and are perfecting it. They’re doing what they do best, and that’s why they’ve had such a successful return into the footwear space both in and outside of athletics.
Signature shoes and performance footwear aren’t market movers — they haven’t been for years. Because of that, the role of the “signature athlete” has changed. Part of the new role for signature athletes is to showcase lifestyle gear from the brand off the court. They're models, basically. It's why you see LeBron taking pictures in so many Dunks or Kawhi Leonard in the latest New Balance collabs.
Puma is leaning all the way in on that. Performance is secondary for them. They focus on how their people and their brand are presented outside of sports first. That ethos applies to everything, including whatever influencers — athletes or otherwise — they sign to their roster.
They can take that in so many different directions. Want to give J Cole a signature shoe? Fine. Want to have Kyle Kuzma co-design a shoe with Rhude? Dope.
It’s working. The proof is in the pudding. They’ve had just as much impact on the court as an Adidas has without nearly putting out as much on-court product. And they've arguably been just as big off of it.
No, they’ll never be Nike. But they don’t need to be. They’ve found their lane and they’re sticking to it. That’ll do just fine.
Enough is enough
(Photo by Josh Redd on Unsplash)
Man, accessibility is so key in everything that revolves around sneaker culture. It seems like every week, though, it gets more and more scarce.
Nike is dropping the Neutral Grey AJ1’s on February 10. Hate to tell you this but you’re probably not going to cop these. They’re only selling 23,000 pairs of these shoes.
That’s a brutal number. Just absolutely brutal.
Nike included that in their description on SNKRS initially, but actually removed it shortly after.
This is the state of play that we so often talk — and complain — about, unfortunately. One half of this is Nike limited its high heat product so it can fall in line with its direct-to-consumer initiative.
The other half is something we talked about earlier this week. It’s all part of a strategy to make sure shoes aren’t sitting on shelves.
That was a problem back in 2016. J’s were collecting dust at retailers because Nike made too many pairs.
The demand in 2016 simply wasn’t the same as the demand in 2021. That fear from brands partly built the system we have today.
But the hype is already there. Footwear is big business now. Sneakers are treated as commodities. There’s no need to built this anymore. Why not drop 40,000? 60,000? Would they really sit? That’s doubtful. Especially with the 1 being as highly coveted as it is now. Especially not this colorway.
This is an OG AJ1 colorway. This is the first time these joints have been retro’d since its debut. There is more than enough demand to go around here.
Something has to give. This doesn’t serve anyone who actually cares about this stuff on the brand side nor the consumer side. This has to stop.
It probably won’t, though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A dope Doernbecher thing is coming!
Nike’s Doernbecher event alongside Oregon Health and Science University is coming soon, but it’ll be a bit different. Because of COVID-19, they’re hosting it virtually. But it sounds like it could be pretty dope.
They’re hosting a live stream on February 25 where some of the alumni from years past will pop in to hang out. Attendees will also have a chance to donate in support of the program. On top of that, there’s a new “special-edition” shoe coming that viewers will be able to bid on, per Sneaker News.
Come February 25th, an hour-long livestream will kick off with word from the alumni patient-designers…[E]veryone in attendance will be among the very first to see and bid on the limited, special-edition offering — a singular shoe that commemorates 17 years of Doernbecher Freestyle by combining 14 different designs.
If this is anything like drops in the past, it’s going to be incredible. So, yeah. All the eye emojis. And make sure you donate.
STONKZZZZZ
I don’t know if I’m dumb or if I’ve just been conditioned too well, but y’all. I really thought that StockX was selling GameStop stock for a legitimate five seconds after seeing this tweet.
That’s five seconds I’m not too proud of. Also, related, y’all should not be so damn good at photoshop.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBESSSS. LEGGO. We actually had a theme today! In light of all of the sneakerheads at the Inauguration, I asked people to show off kicks from their collection they’d wear to the event. And, of course, everyone showed the hell out.
The homie Storm kicked us off with these sick AJ1 lows!
The homie Adrian popped out in the Space Hippie’s cleanest colorway yet.
My dog Eddie came through with the Kentucky Dunks.
The homie Greer showed out with the Safari Air Max 95’s. KILLER.
The better Mike came through with the Concords, which is the classiest shoe ever.
My guy Parker popped out in the Bruce Lee Kobe 5 joints. My dude keeps heat man.
The homie Josh brought out the Yeezy 750’s. What a damn flex.
My dude Marco said he’d bring out these Off-White forces that he’s keeping on ice.
And the homie Yosh, who inspired it all, sent us home with these USPS (!!!!!!!!) AJ1’s. These are SICK yo.
Man. Y’all smoked it ONCE AGAIN. Good Lord I can’t keep up anymore.
That’s a wrap for us today! Thanks so much for giving me a bit of your time.
Have an absolutely fantastic weekend, family. We’ll talk more on Monday! Already can’t wait.
Holla at y’all. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. Peace and love.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯