The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 166. — The long road ahead for Reebok
Adidas just sold Reebok. Here are the details and exactly what it means.
Goooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thanks for rocking with me.
A very dope episode of Special Delivery coming later on today! Bad Bunny joints are loading! Make sure you check in at 12 on USA TODAY Sports’ YouTube channel.
Iight. Let’s get it poppin.
We’ll see what’s about to happen next, OKAY?
(Photo by Mark Broadhead on Unsplash)
Reebok is finally on the move. Adidas sold the OG footwear brand to Authentic Brands Group for $2.5 billion on Thursday, the company announced.
It’s been a long ride. Adidas announced they were selling Reebok in February.
ABG was one of the initial bidders along with partner brand Wolverine World Wide.
They pulled their $1 billion bid in early July following a few conditions from Adidas.
A month later, here we are. The two sides struck a deal sans Wolverine.
The details: ABG purchased Reebok for $2.5 billion — a far cry above their initial $1 billion bid and a bit closer to their initial $3.8 billion purchase of Reebok in 2006. It’s not breaking even, but it’s as close as they were going to get.
So what’s next? It’s hard to say so soon, but we can get an idea by discussing exactly what it is that ABG does. Here’s how they work.
They identify old, legacy brands that are failing *cough* like Reebok *cough* and buy them for the low.
They squeeze any sort of profit out of them they can. They keep the profitable parts of the brand, cut the not-so-profitable parts and license off what they can.
ABG also keeps their properties with a brick and mortar presence (which is why having Simon — a retail landlord — as a partner is beneficial).
That’s a simplified version of it and there’s more detail in this Digiday piece but, long story short, this is Extreme Makeover: Brand edition with ABG as Ty Pennington.
Here’s what we’ll see from Reebok: It’ll mostly be the same. There’s going to be a ton of licensing. We’ll see lots of collabs. Some will make perfect sense (Shaq’s likeness is owned by ABG, btw). Many will absolutely make no sense — but they’ll turn a profit, even if we hate them.
My hope is the brand finally begins to tap into its rich retro archive. That costs money, though, and ABG is only in this to squeeze every ounce of profit possible out of this thing. They’ll use what works and what works isn’t always considered “cool.”
So this is it. This is what the future of Reebok looks like. This is what capitalism in 2021 looks like — billion dollar brands just swallowing each other whole. It’s wild.
It’s also kind of sad when you think of what Reebok was. They were once Nike’s stiffest competition. Now? They’re a reclamation project. One that nobody seemed to want.
And the harsh reality of it all is this: It’ll never be the same again.
Rest in peace, Jayren Bradford
(Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash)
Rest in peace to Jayren Bradford. He was the Shoe Palace employee who was shot and killed on Wednesday in Los Angeles as he was trying to break up an altercation between customers outside of the store, per ABC 7.
Apparently, this was all over a store raffle. A simple store raffle.
Witnesses and investigators said the incident started with a dispute over a raffle the store was holding over a pair of sneakers. The employee who was shot was just arriving to work and saw a crowd arguing outside the store and tried to intervene. A witness said the employee appeared to be trying to de-escalate the situation and was backing away when he was shot.
This is all too familiar. It’s been a talking point surrounding sneakers for decades now. It was in the ’90s. And here we are today. Same deal.
Look, it goes without saying, but there isn’t a sneaker in the world that is worth the value of anyone’s life. Ever. I don’t think I needed to tell anyone reading this that but, clearly, that’s a point that needs to be driven home.
There’s a conversation to be had about the role artificial scarcity from these corporations plays in all of this. That’s a real thing. But this is an extreme symptom of the problems it causes. It should never get to this.
Plain and simple, sneakers are not worth anyone’s life whether they’re hard to get or not. No matter how much they cost. No matter what they look like. It’s just not that serious.
That’s the bottom line.
Speaking of signature shoes, LaMelo’s shoe is here but where is Breanna Stewart’s?
We got our first look at LaMelo Ball’s first signature shoe with Puma and it looks pretty dope.
We expected this shoe to come at some point, certainly. It was clear that this was part of his deal when he signed with Puma.
Ball immediately becomes Puma’s first athlete with an actual signature shoe. Not their first signature name.
The timing is right. He just had an amazing rookie year and is ascending as a player. Puma got in early and that’s big.
What’s next: Puma is only going to continue to add to their signature roster. The obvious name to look for now is Breanna Stewart. Her kicks will be here before you know it.
Here’s some stuff to think about when it comes to her sneaker timeline.
It takes months to design a shoe and then even more time to design a rollout plan for that shoe.
Stewie just signed on in May, so asking for a shoe by the summer’s end might be rushed.
LaMelo joined in November of 2020 and, though he has debuted the shoe publicly, we still haven’t seen an official rollout of sorts.
A bit more patience here. We’re probably looking at a March-May debut sometime next year if all goes well. Let’s hope it does.
Imagine having the game figured out in Kindergarten
This baby boy is a legend already. First of all, carrying extra shoes around in a backpack is already swaggy as hell. But for my guy to have not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE extra pairs cooling in there? Come on.
Nah. He is the best of us. Mom asking why when she already know. Your son is just fly as hell. That’s all.
This made my day and I bet it’ll make yours, too.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW THE MF VIBES. LET’S GO. FIRST TKWW IN WEEKS!
The homie Brett popped out in the flyknit AF1’s and I’ve never seen these joints look this good. SHEESH.
The homie Devin popped out with the Court Purples getting ready to fresh right after a run.
You already know the homie Phil came through clean in the University Blue lows. Man these are cold.
Of course my girl Storm popped out in the Kyrie 4 Lows to bring back the WNBA. Shouts to Sue Bird.
The homie Cantrell popped out in these super clear AW Wangboy Runners. This shoe is so dope man.
The homie Izzy came out in the Safflower 700v3’s. Shouts to all of the Earth tones.
My guy Darius popped out in the DMP 6’s and MAN these joints ring the hell off still.
The homie Michael popped out in the J Pack SB Dunk Royal lows. Fam. CLASSICS.
My guy Kyle popped out fresh as hell in the Wave Runners. My goodness.
Then Sumeet and Tash sent us home with a whole ENGAGEMENT PICTURE featuring the Fear of God Shoot Arounds. WINNER.
I love love. Yes, I’m corny. Lmao
Thank y’all so much for rocking with me, family! I’ll holla at you on Monday! Until then, keep being excellent.
Peace. Love. Be cool. Be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯