The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 164 — To NIL or not to NIL, that is the question?
Should college athletes sign sponsorships with sneaker brands?
What’s poppin, family! The Kicks You Wear is back. Thank you so much for rocking with us.
KYW raffle e-mails will go out this afternoon! Be on the lookout! And if you participated in our SNKRHUD raffle be on the lookout for a DM in the app. Thank y’all for participating! Thank y’all for showing love. Thank y’all for following me. You are the best.
I really wish I could buy 3,000 pairs of shoes and send them all to you, but the way my bank account is set up…anyway, let’s jump in.
Not so fast on the NIL
(Photo by dan carlson on Unsplash)
Lots of folks have been asking how the NCAA’s new laissez-faire attitude on name, image, and likeness rules will impact the sneaker game.
Will NCAA athletes pop up with Jordan Brand deals? Signature shoes, anyone?
The truth is it probably won’t change much. If we’re being honest, NIL deals will probably be something most sneaker brands stray away from. There’s just not enough incentive for either side to make it happen.
I spoke with Matt Brown — the founder of the brilliant Extra Points newsletter —about whether it made sense for students to tap in with big footwear brands.
The answer was a hard no. For both sides.
“Think about it. If you’re an athlete, you’re already on a deal with the school, you’re guaranteed exposure and gear from that. For a brand, throwing another $500,000 at an athlete when you’re already sponsoring an entire program gets expensive. Especially for a brand like, say, Under Armour who is already cutting costs.”
That doesn’t mean we won’t see any footwear deals happening, though.
For example, there is great potential for a student-athlete to sign a deal with a secondary market platform like GOAT, StockX, or eBay considering how much access they’ll have to big brands.
We could also see students launching their own secondary marketplaces and selling off the kicks they’re supplied by brands.
We’re already beginning to see smaller deals with footwear companies.
Kellan Grady inked an “off-court” footwear deal with a company called ISlide that specializes in custom sandals.
The NIL waters are just really murky — too murky for big companies to dive in on now. That doesn’t mean they won’t. Maybe that changes. Maybe it doesn’t.
There’s going to be a lot more of the Kellan Grady deals as opposed to the big Nike deals that we’re dreaming of. And that’s A-OK. Because either way, these athletes are finally getting to the bag.
From retail to resale…?Why, Pacsun?
(Photo by Verena Yunita Yapi on Unsplash)
The resale market bubble just continues to grow larger and larger as more competitors try to cash in.
The latest one is Pacsun. Yes, Pacsun. Dead ass. That’s a real thing. The skate retailer launched its own secondary market this week called PS Reserve.
The details:
PS Reserve is supposed to be a curated experience with items that have gone through a “pre-screening” authentication process with The Mag Park — a sneaker spot in Cali.
It sells hype. The latest J’s, Dunks, Bape, Supreme, Anti Social Social Club. All of that. But most of it was already sold out.
This is just so strange to me. It’s a fast-fashion retailer that we see in every single mall diving into the secondary market sneaker experience. That’s just…weird.
But this is probably going to be the norm. These every day retailers see the resale bubble just like we do. They see how much money goes into it. And, well, capitalism gonna capitalism. Even if it doesn’t make perfect sense.
Be smart: This is how that bubble bursts if they’re not careful.
Retailers diving into this stuff online is one thing. But at some point, these resale shops are going to actually pop up in malls.
And the thing about that is that nobody is actually buying that stuff — not regular people. Only sneaker nuts and hype beasts. That’s why shops come and go all the time.
But those are little shops. Pacsun? That’s a franchise. If they lean in too heavily, it could get dangerous.
More on how SNKRS works from SNKRS
Every time SNKRS peels back the layers of its app and how it works, I feel like we learn things that we really already knew intuitively.
A new post on the app talked about SNKRS’ algorithm. It dove into how it works and how it doesn’t.
There were a few big points.
Only interact with things you truly want. Selecting everything with the “Notify me” button on the app overloads the algorithm. It wants to know your specific interests and will — IN THEORY — grant you EA on similar items. In theory.
Don’t use multiple accounts. Yeah, I’m not sure about this one, man. I’ve used burners before on SNKRS before and have performed much better than on my main. Granted, I’m generally batting pretty badly regardless. But still.
Move quickly on exclusive access when you get it. Because sizes still sell out. Duh.
It’s cool that Nike is telling us how the app works and how we should be doing it. As we said before, this is definitely a PR move to get the public’s trust back. But I still think this is a good thing.
You know what’d make it even better, though? If this stuff actually worked for us.
I hate to do this but…Sacai must be stopped
Sacai will forever be immortalized after its run in 2019. The LD Waffle was sneaker of the year! It deserved all of those flowers.
But my goodness these are bad. I mean, what really is this?
The VaporWaffle didn’t need this treatment. We didn’t need this treatment. My word. This thing looks like a baseball.
Enough is enough, man. No more triple collabs. No more waffle designs. Just reset. Please. I’m begging at this point. Give us something new — something different. That’s what made Sacai great in the first place.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW WHAT IT IS.
My guy Dandin got us popping with his first DED stock.
My dog Yosh popped in again in the Reebok NERF Omni Pump joints. And they say nostalgia is corny. TUH.
My guy Warren had the little one pop out in some AJ1’s. You really gotta get em started early, folks.
The homie Mitch popped out in the Sue Bird Kyrie’s and they are SICK.
Speaking of getting em started early, salute to my guy Patrick and the Griffeys.
And y’all already knowing how Storm giving it up in the weatherman Kyries. SICK.
The homie Ty popped out in the Venice Beach Kobe’s. I’m already knowing my son dropped 50 on em.
And, of course, Brittany popped out fly as hell in the Jubilee 11’s. Sheesh.
The OG Chalmers pulled out some OG SB’s that y’all gotta get hip to. Shouts to the De La’s, man.
And then the homie Tre popped out in the Guava Ice Jordan 4’s to send us home and MAN. Just look at em.
Y’all SMOKED this, family. Sheeeeesh. Good stuff.
The Kicks You Wear will be back on August 2. Thank you so much for rocking with me, family. Love you. Remember, check those e-mails and DM’s.
Be safe, be well, be kind. Have a fantastic July while I try to get my life together.
See you soon.
-Sykes💯
Agree with you on NIL -- makes no sense from a sneaker brand's perspective. Was talking about it with a friend, why would a brand give a top college athlete a sig (or even a normal deal) when they can't really forecast their future potential past college? Gonna be cool if we start to see PEs like the Duckmans out of Eugene hit resell markets, tho. Loved the newsletter!
Good luck with the move Mr Sykes and enjoy the holiday, sorry, vacation. Thanks for the 3000+