What’s up, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Love y’all.
Housekeeping note: After Friday’s newsletter, we’ll be away until May 3. I’m getting my second vaccine shot, taking engagement pictures (!!!!!) and have some family stuff to take care of throughout the week.
Y’all bout ready?
May the luck of the draw be with you
(Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash)
Check your SNKRS calendar, fam. There are a bunch of drawings coming up over the next couple weeks.
Here’s what’s coming:
This week the OG Air Huarache, the LeBron Air Max 95, Aleali May’s AJ1 CMFT Zoom and the Jackie Robinson Griffeys are all coming via draw.
Then the following week we have the HWC LeBron 8, Shamrock Air Force 1’s and Powder Blue AJ4’s. All drawings.
You get the point by now. Nike seems to be leaning into randomized drawings for their drops on SNKRS.
Normally these drops are first come first serve. That doesn’t work, though. Primarily because supply never meets demand and the traffic breaks the app. On top of that, you’ve got botting issues.
This is where the drawings help. Speed is out of the equation. Everyone gets the same opportunity to enter. There’s no virtual line — you’re picked at random. And that’s a big W for those of us who cop manually. If this is a sign of things to come from SNKRS, we should be encouraged.
This is just me speculating, but maybe this is part of the company’s overture to win back the trust of the people? The timing of all of this feels too convenient after back to back to back public relations disasters to start 2021. Who knows? Either way, this is a W for the people.
Does this solve everything? Absolutely not. L’s will still be in abundance. Only matching supply and demand fixes that. Otherwise, things will largely remain the same.
Another option? A good pre-order strategy. That also cuts down on waste, as Daniel Navetta (aka the Air Vegan) brilliantly writes here.
This is certainly the next best thing, though. We’ll take it.
New Balance is heading to campus. Again.
(Photo by Henry & Co. on Unsplash)
New Balance is really starting to develop some roots in college sports, slowly but surely.
The company inked a 10-year, $45 million deal with Boston College to be its apparel partner just less than a year after Under Armour dropped them amid their college sports purge.
The details:
The deal kicks in on June 1. New Balance is the official outfitter of BC in 30 of their 31 sports without football, which they’ll have a separate deal for.
It also grants BC access to New Balance’s Boston campus and training facilities.
The partnership makes sense on proximity alone with New Balance being based in Boston. That’ll lead to a lot of integration between the two entities and they may be able to do some Nike x Oregon style collaborations.
In the big picture, this continues New Balance’s progression into college sports.
It started with Maine last year and continues with Boston College here.
This is a win for New Balance. Boston College is a name, it’s an ACC school with a ton of history. Sports are the biggest marketer for footwear. New Balance just gave itself a new, bigger stage.
BTW…I’m not over the football thing. I’ve reached out to New Balance and am awaiting a response. As soon as I get it, I’ll bring it back here.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: Laugh at my pain edition
This week on Special Delivery we went over Nike’s brand new G.T. Cut and, I’ve got to say, this is an incredible basketball shoe. I’m legitimately excited about it and cannot wait to get run in it.
Also…I took a SNKRS L on camera.
Pain.
Virgil must be stopped, part…idk I’ve lost count
Fam. I love Virgil. I love what he brings to the table. And I’m glad he’s a Black designer who is able to do what he does.
But, dog. LMAO.
Somebody get this man.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Adidas Campus 80 “Towelie” — Tuesday, April 20
A Ma Maniere x Jordan Brand AJ3 — Wednesday, April 21
Aleali May AJ1 Zoom CMFT — Thursday, April 22
Nike Dunk SB High “Hawaii” — Friday, April 23
Air Jordan 11 Low “Legend Blue” — Saturday, April 24
Thank you for rocking with me today. Have an amazing week. We’ll chat on Wednesday.
Giveaway details coming on Friday before I take off! Let’s get it, fam.
Until next time, family. Holla at y’all. Be safe. Be kind.
-Sykes 💯
We better get an engagement pic in the Stack!
my hunch on drawing vs. drop on SNKRS is that, because it seems to align with stuff that we’ve had inventory delivery issues with at [big box retailer], it’s an inventory concern there too. I’m sure it’s also about restoring customer faith in Nike’s process but it’s too much of a coincidence that the Hyper Royal 1s were a draw and we barely got units for release day but the AJ11 Low Legend Blues aren’t a draw and we’ll have those ready to go for Saturday. obviously ones much hotter than the other, but we know both of these shoes are going to sell out, so there’s gotta be some other point of difference there