What up, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me today.
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Three’s Company
(Photo by Nelson Ndongala on Unsplash)
Fam. Here we are, yet again, with another triple collaboration surfacing on the internet.
This time its Sacai x CLOT x Nike coming up with some sort of triple take on Sacai’s hit LDV Waffle — you know, 2019’s Sneaker of the Year. Yup. That one.
And it wasn’t until I laid eyes on these that I realized how much I absolutely hated the triple collab. I know I came on here and roasted the Travis x Fragment AJ1 and I stand by that.
But this right here? It's so much worse. This is an absolute travesty. There was absolutely no reason to do this. The LDV Waffle was already a hit. It was unique. A spin on an untouched silhouette.
This redo does it no justice.
The Waffle was so special because it teetered on the edge of “doing too much.” It was extra, but it was good. We hadn’t seen it before.
This is just basically another new colorway of that with a bit of extra branding. And that takes away from what the original silhouette was.
And that’s the problem with the triple collab. This has added nothing to the shoe. It’s only made it a mess and sullied what was, otherwise, perfection. It’s unoriginal. And if we’re not going to get something original out of this new combination of three names, what is the actual point of doing it?
This just looks like an effort to make more money and grab more headlines off of an old hit. And that’s a shame because we’ve seen all parties involved do better.
The big picture: This shows us exactly what is wrong with the collab today. The market is oversaturated.
A collab used to be a moment when two like-minded entities came together to make a special version of a thing. It was rare.
Now we get new collabs every weekend from all sorts of brands that don’t really have any mesh points or any overlapping audiences.
And that’s how we end up here with three brands at one time putting their stamp on one product. It’s wild.
We can’t be naive. There’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube here. These collabs are here to stay and it’s pretty clear that the triple collab is going to be a thing — at least in 2021.
And it could be good! Somebody might figure out a way to make it work. But these first two attempts? Nah, these are definitely not it.
CONFIRMED L
(Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash)
Last week I told y’all that the Bad Bunny Forum was going to be the next big test for CONFIRMED and it definitely was. This thing had legit hype.
Too bad it was a total fail. This drop was just an all-around mess. The issues were abundant.
The time: People missed the drop because the app never reset for daylight savings time. Instead of it saying to enter at 10 a.m. when the raffle opened, they were directed to enter at 11 when it closed.
The timing: Even after entering the raffle at 10, you had to wait an entire hour for the drawing to start. Which, whatever. OK. Fine. I’ll just resume my day.
The drawing: This was the backbreaker. I entered at 10 a.m. I wasn’t notified of my L until 11:50 a.m. The drawing at 11:05 took nearly an extra hour.
So, yeah. CONFIRMED definitely has a long way. It’s a shame because this app has so much potential. And it still does! These things are correctable. But this was bad.
Hopefully, we see better soon.
The 20?????
Virgil Abloh’s “The Twenty” collection is probably going to go down as 2021’s most highly anticipated drops. Following the success of “The Ten.”
Here’s something to make you less excited about it. According to Py_Rates, Abloh is dropping 20 different colorways of Dunk Lows.
Year of the Dunk, indeed, I guess. If the silhouette isn’t tired now, clearly it will be by the end of the year if this happens. It would be incredibly disappointing.
Abloh is disputing this. In the comments, he said he “couldn’t pick this many bad colorways if I tried. So maybe it isn’t a thing? Maybe he’s deflecting? Who knows. We’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, though, Sockjig has this pretty fun Off-White Dunk color generator. This is hilariously fun and, somehow, feels pretty spot on.
Yeezy x GAP is already a billy
Ain’t nobody worn no Yeezy Gap gear yet in 2021. It doesn’t even drop until the summer. All we’ve seen is hoodies with no pockets and drawstrings.
Yet, somehow, this thing is worth a billy already. $970 million, to be exact Allegedly, per Bloomberg.
“Yeezy, West’s sneaker and apparel business with Adidas AG and Gap Inc., is valued at $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion by UBS Group AG, according to a private document reviewed by Bloomberg. The value of the new Gap tie-up, which will hit stores this summer, could be worth as much as $970 million of that total, the bank estimated.”
Money isn’t real. I’m sorry.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBES. LETS GOOOOOOO.
First, the homie Brad got us on and poppin with the Carmines. Joints are lovely.
Then the homie Sean popped out in some Chucks. Classic joints man.
My guy Jake popped out in the Campus looking as fly as ever.
The homie Jon came through with the AJ1 vibes. So clean. So pure.
The better Mike popped out in the Zoom Types. Such a sleeper yo.
The homie Yosh popped out with the St. Patty’s day vibes in the Air Max 90. So good.
Then the homie Storm popped out in the Air Max 90 Duck Camo joints to keep the Air Max vibes going.
The homie Greer popped out in these Carharrt Air Max 95’s and they’re soooo good.
My dude Cesar hit us with the University Blues. I don’t even need to say anything else.
Then my dude David came through with the Neutral Greys.
The homie Linebacker Barbie came through in the MA2 to keep the Jordan vibes going.
And then homie Norman and the homie JMike both sent us home with the two sides of Chaos. Norm gave us the dark.
And JMike gave us the light.
SO SICK man. Y’all SMOKED this. Once again. Sheesh.
Thank y’all so much for rocking with me! Appreciate you, as always. Don’t forget to tune in to Special Delivery! We got some good stuff coming your way.
Talk to you on Monday, fam. Until then. Be safe. Be kind.
Signing off.
-Sykes 💯