The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 160 — Doing her own thing
Allyson Felix is a damn boss.
Good morning, family! The Kicks You Wear is back! Thank you so much for rocking out with me today!
WE HIT 3,000!!! Thank you so much for being part of this family, man. I love y’all so much. Never thought KYW would be this, but it is. And it’s dope. Y’all are dope. And I’m buying two of you pairs of shoes. More details below, fam.
Alrighty, let’s dive in.
She’s a runner, she’s a track star
(Photo by Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash)
Allyson Felix has dominated the track for a long, long time. But now she has her sights set on another arena: Sneakers.
She just launched Saysh — her own footwear brand built for women by a woman. She raised $3 million in seed funding over the last few months to launch the brand and is already wearing Saysh spikes at the Olympic trials. She’ll wear them at the Games, too.
That, alone, is pretty incredible. But it’s even more so when you realize what Felix has had to overcome.
In 2019, Felix left Nike after the brand refused her maternity protections despite her life being threatened by her pregnancy. They also used that against her in contract negotiations.
A few months later, Felix joined Athleta — an athletic brand focused on women.
Now, here we are in 2021 and Felix just launched her own footwear brand after no big wig would strike a deal with her.
This is a big deal. Independence is hard. Maintaining it is one thing, but actually breaking away from the machine and going for it on your own is even harder. Especially considering what she’s going against.
Saysh is a startup footwear brand that raised $3 million. Nike, alone, has a market cap of over $200 billion.
That’s the industry leader and her former employer. And, clearly, she’s made that transition beautifully.
But aside from that, this is just inspiring. Not just in a David vs. Goliath sort of way.
At its core, this is Allyson Felix solving problems she sees in women’s footwear. It’s her filling a void — creating options for every woman where she saw there were none. She talked about it with TIME Magazine.
It’s really about meeting women where they are…It’s for that woman who has been overlooked, or feels like their voice hasn’t been heard. That was the biggest thing when I spoke out, was hearing from other women across industries. And having such a connection there, feeling like it’s so much bigger. There’s just that power in the collective.
This isn’t just a footwear company. It’s a solution. Will it ever be Nike? No. But it doesn’t need to be. Saysh will serve its purpose right there on the ground, exactly where it should be.
And that’s just really damn dope.
I’m so over high fashion in sneakers
(Photo by cody gallo on Unsplash)
Some high profile high fashion sneaker pieces are coming down the pipeline in 2022.
Virgil Abloh and Louis Vuitton are coming with 21 pairs of Off-White Air Force 1’s that are, at the very least, different colors. That’s a step forward for Virgil in 2021. Yes, the bar is in hell right now.
Anyway, here’s a look.
There’s also apparently a Travis Scott x DIOR collab coming next Spring, too. That will almost certainly destroy sneaker Twitter.
This is my worst nightmare. If you couldn’t tell from the headline here, I’m pretty anti-high fashion — especially when it comes to sneaker culture.
OG KYW readers know I absolutely despise designer sneakers. Why? It’s simple. The industry has been pretty toxic and racist for a long, long time. It still persists today.
The Atlantic captures that perfectly here.
For the most part, the tales of toxicity in fashion aren’t new. Many of them are based on things done brazenly and in public—a Vogue cover that positioned LeBron James as the brute King Kong to Gisele Bündchen’s blond damsel, Prada lining its boutique windows with figures that evoked Sambo stereotypes. Prominent fashion people are regularly and credibly accused of racism, sexual harassment, labor abuses, and beyond. If fashion as an industry is about the audacious celebration of social dominance, the thinking went, then how could anyone be shocked that it’s a terrible business to work in?
Sneaker culture is Black culture. It’s the same Black culture these fashion houses have shunned and rejected for years. It’s just that now, this is a multi-billion dollar industry. So it pays to embrace it even if it’s at arm’s length.
And that’s what all of this is to me — Louis V hiring Virgil, Travis working with Dior. It’s an embrace at arm’s length. And until the industry changes and we get the full thing, I don’t want any of this.
The Adidas Forum built by a legend
It’s always dope to see brands not just tapping into their history to get you to spend money, but really acknowledging it in a creative and cool way.
Adidas did that with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. They tapped KAJ — their very first signature basketball athlete — for an exclusive version of the Forum.
We got a sneak peek at the joints in this video narrated by Kareem, who should very clearly be doing lots of voiceover work somewhere.
So dope. The details:
Adidas LA created a customized version of the Forum handmade from his home jersey. Like, from his actual jersey. A real live jersey, y’all.
There are only 33 pairs in existence (like his number) and will be sold at $1,000 a pop. Each is signed by KAJ.
All proceeds are going to his Skyhook Foundation and they’ll sell on June 26 at Sneaker Con.
Doubt I’ll be so lucky to actually be able to get a pair, but these are insanely good. More of this, plz.
Let’s have some fun for 3k
Man, I know I keep thanking y’all and I know it’s probably annoying at this point. But I’m so appreciative of you all for giving me any of your time at all.
So I’ll pay it forward. I’m copping two pairs of kicks for a couple of lucky subscribers next Friday. Here’s how it’ll work.
I’ll drop all of your e-mails into a virtual pool and draw two addresses out of it at random. Those two will be the winners of the KYW raffle.
They’ll be able to choose any pair of shoes they want up to $150 and I’ll cop it for them. I can also donate that $150 to a charity of their choice if they’re not eyeing a specific pair at the moment.
And that’s that! Simple, right. All you have to do is stay subscribed and you’ll remain eligible.
If you don’t win, don’t trip. More giveaways are coming. Really soon — seriously. I’m in talks with some friends about doing something really special and fun for 3k really soon. So stay tuned, fam.
And thank you. Again. For the 3,000th time! ❤️
There’s an Avengers “I love you 3,000” joke in there somewhere, but I’ll keep it in my back pocket and save you a few tears.
#TheKicksWeWear
YOU KNOW THE VIBRATIONS.
My guy Dandin got us popping with a throwback in the Nike Air Up joints. Sheesh, fam.
My guy Jake was at the College World Series in the Lunar Safari joints which is easily the best double flex you’ll see today.
The homie Daniel popped out in the Yellowstone ZX 8000 and these are SO sick dude.
The homie Max popped out in the ACG Mocs which, I don’t own a pair, but I feel like these have to be the comfiest kicks ever.
The homie Danny pulled out the 4’s to do a bit of golfing today. Casual stunt.
The homie Kyle pulled out the Mint Air Max 90’s that I’m now calling the Mint Steppers.
My guy Shamar popped out in the Bruce Lee Kobe 11’s and look at how clean these joints are.
Then the homie Barrett popped out stunting in the Denim 3’s. These joints are so good, man.
Speaking of 3’s, the homie Marcos pulled out the KNICKS 3’s and I ain’t seen these in forever.
And the homie Julian pulled out the Nyjah x Samborghini Free 2.0’s. These are DOPE man. What the hell.
Then the homie Greer sent us home with the biggest stunt of the day — the Chicago 1’s. The OG of OG’s. It don’t get no more OG'er than this. MAN.
SHEEEEEESH.
Thank you so much for rocking with me today, family! Love you. Thanks again for 3k. More to come with that real soon!
Let’s wrap on Monday. Be easy, be safe, be kind. I’ll holla at y’all.
-Sykes 💯
From my book Now and Then Again, The Way We Were and the Way We Are Second Edition
Joe Mirsky
Gumshoes
3.3 million pounds of chewing gum a year are spit out on the streets of Amsterdam. That would be about 574 million sticks of gum. With a population of 850,000 plus 3.5 million visitors a year that works out to 131 sticks of gum per person.
A city marketing organization, a Dutch clothing company and a U.K. recycling company called Gumdrop have partnered to create a sneaker sole made from recycled chewing gum.
Those Chiclets you love to chew aren’t made from chicle, natural latex from a central American tree, any more. Chicle went out in the 1940’s. Now chewing gum is made from “gum base,” probably polyisobutylene (which is also used to make inner tubes), in other words synthetic rubber.
Gumdrop makes pink gum recycling bins which are hung on poles and walls in Amsterdam and the U.K. Gumdrop was able to make a new type of rubber from from the chewing gum and make sneaker soles from it. 2.2 pounds of gum make four pairs of Gumshoes. The gum recycling bins are also made from recycled gum.
The sneaker soles are bubblegum pink, of course, and they even smell like gum. A map of Amsterdam is molded into the soles of the sneakers. The uppers are leather and come in bubblegum pink, black and red. Cost is $232 a pair.
Now everyone can be a private eye. The word “gumshoe” for private detective comes from late 19th century shoes with gum rubber soles, stealth shoes for sneaking around. Originally “gumshoe” meant a thief but by about 1908 came to mean the catcher of the thief.
“Sneaker” comes from Female Life in Prison, By a Prison Matron, pseudonym of the British novelist Frederick William Robinson in 1862: “The night-officer is generally accustomed to wear a species of India-rubber shoes or goloshes. These are termed ‘sneaks’ by the women.”