The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 129 — Keep the back doors locked
Yup. We're talking about the Trophy Room's here, too.
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thank you for giving me a bit of your time on this glorious Monday morning.
Super Bowl Hangover Monday, amirite? Man. Congrats to the Bucs — still hate Brady, though. When are they gonna finally make today a national holiday? I mean, might as well.
Alright, let’s do it.
The Trophy Room drop is already a mess
(Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash)
The Trophy Room Jordan 1 drop that so many people have been looking forward to is coming soon — on Wednesday, in fact. Buuuuut I wouldn’t get my hopes up on getting them. Chances are unless you have a plug, you’re probably not going to.
Here’s why.
There are only 12,000 pairs of this thing going out. It’s a special drop for Marcus Jordan — Michael Jordan’s son — and his Trophy Room sneaker boutique.
The other thing, though? And, the bigger issue by far, is that there are clearly already pairs floating around the internet.
That’s right. One of Nike’s most anticipated drops of 2021 has already been floating around the web since…November? If you check its StockX page, there are already multiple authenticated sales of this thing dating back to late 2020.
There are images like this one floating around the internet with boxes of these things just chilling.
You’re probably asking how this happened. We don’t really know exactly how. But, somehow, someway, it seems that they were backdoored. At least that’s what’s being alleged.
For those of you who don’t know, a back door sale is basically when someone is sold the pair from a retailer before it’s actually available to the public. Basically, the plug came through.
That appears to be the case here, but we don’t actually know how it happened.
It could’ve happened through the retailer, which would be Trophy Room in this case. It also could’ve happened at the factory, as Marcus Jordan alleged back in December. We can’t say definitively.
It takes a thorough comb-thru of Nike’s and the Trophy Room’s process to figure out where the ball dropped. That’s something only they can do. And, honestly? They need to. It’s not unique to these Trophy Room J’s. It happened with the Dior 1’s. It happened with the Travis Dunks. It’ll happen again.
The big picture — these back door sales breed all sorts of problems.
First, it shorts an already shortened stock which makes these things harder to get.
Second, it also breaks the door wide open for counterfeit replicas to flood the market. No one knows what’s real and what’s not.
Third, it inflates the resale market because before the limited release hits, there’s a secondary market already created on a more limited and backdoored supply.
None of those things are good for consumers. None of those things are good for business. It all needs to be cleaned up.
Basketball is back…but not how you think
(Photo by Peter Berko on Unsplash)
We always talk about how signature basketball shoes don’t sell anymore, and it’s true. They don’t.
Basketball shoes are back, though. Just…not quite in the way anyone expected. We’re not talking about the newest LeBron’s. Instead, it’s vintage hoops, baby. Quite a few 80’s basketball silhouettes are poised to have big years in 2021.
Outside of the Dunk SP’s (which, duh), you’ve got joints like New Balance 550 and the Adidas Forum selling out and doing well on the resale market.
It’s not surprising that this is happening. The writing has been on the wall for a minute.
Aimé Leon Dore’s NB 550 collaboration goes crazy on the secondary market. The Forum was one of the silhouette’s used in Beyoncé’s last Ivy Park drop. The Dunk SP Nike’s biggest project of the year.
It makes you wonder what might be up next for a revival. Could we see some old Converse models come back to the forefront? What about the old Avia joints Scottie Pippen used to rock? Will Adidas bring back the Top Ten?
Only time will tell. I’ll tell you one thing, though. This is definitely a trend I’m excited about.
The DVN ALLN Collection
Under Armour has my favorite Black History Month collection this year by far. It has nothing to do with the silhouettes involved. It’s the fact that they actually tapped someone on the ground level to develop their capsule.
Devin Allen, a Baltimore native, photographer and activist, put together UA’s BHM collection.
He’s incredibly dope.
Allen was essential in documenting the riots in West Baltimore after Freddie Gray was killed by Baltimore police officers in 2015.
Remember that iconic Time Magazine cover with a man running from an army of police officers in riot gear? Allen shot that.
Here he is talking about why he does what he does and showcasing the collection.
This is incredibly dope. It’s amazing to see someone who has really done work on the ground level get an opportunity like this. And he smoked it.
Shouts to UA, shouts to Allen and shouts to Baltimore.
Beyoncé is really sending out Ivy Park Ice Boxes
That new Icy Park collection is coming soon so, of course, Beyoncé and Adidas are going to send around samples to her celebrity friends.
Apparently, she’s sending kicks in a literal block of ice. Literally.
Yo, first of all, that’s WILD. I’ve never seen a package like this before. Second, Yachty need to be more careful with those, man. Somebody tell Bey to send me something next time. I’ll be WAY more delicate than that.
What’s droppin, bruh?
I’d include the Trophy Room drop here but…honestly, I think it’s a waste of time.
Ambush x Converse Chuck 70 “Fuzzy” — Monday, February 8
Jordan 1 High “Neutral Grey” — Wednesday, February 10
Clot x Jordan 14 Low — Thursday, February 11
Nike Foamposite Pro “Volt” — Friday, February 12
Adidas T-Mac Evo “All-Star” — Friday, February 12
Thank y’all so much for rocking with your boy! I so appreciate your time. I hope you enjoyed reading today!
See y’all on Wednesday! Be safe out here, family.
Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. Peace and love.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯