The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 167 — Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me…Ah, I lost count
Lol let's talk about the Dear Summer drop
Goooood morning, family! The Kicks You Wear is back! Thanks so much for rocking with me this morning. Hope your week is off to a fantastic start.
Prayers up for all of the folks in the Caribean — particularly Haiti — who were impacted by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake this weekend. Donate if you can.
Y’all bout ready?
We all knew how this was going to go, didn't we?
Last week was unequivocally one of the most frustrating weeks from a SNKRS standpoint that I can remember — and that’s saying a lot. There have been a lot of frustrating weeks.
The Off-White Exclusive Access drops for the “Dear Summer” collection were at the root of a lot of it. Nike built up all of this consumer confidence ahead of the drop.
The shoes were only available through EA and the app told you exactly what to do to unlock it. The everyday consumer finally knew how to catch a dub.
If you consumed the content surrounding the shoe, you’d have a better chance of unlocking access.
That did work for some. There were plenty of people who engaged with it and successfully secured access. For others, though? It was five straight days of L’s despite the engagement. And that’s super frustrating.
As I said before, there were always going to be people who were upset by this drop. Somebody has to take the L — otherwise, the access isn’t “exclusive.”
But people were still rightfully furious. And it was because of a huge flaw this exclusive access strategy presented.
Nike had people watching SNKRS content in anticipation of some reward waiting for them on the other end of that. MOST of them never got that.
It’s one thing to leave people with a regular L — they expect to lose. But when you tell them how to get the W and they still lose? What’s left to do but give up? That’s when you lose people.
And Nike did seem to lose some folks — at least for a moment. There were plenty of “I’m deleting this app” tweets out there. The numbers on their next SNKRS Live stream were uncharacteristically low, as documented by the homie Kari.
That frustration only gets accentuated when you see folks online posting about not having watched the content but still copped. There were also folks who made entirely new accounts who were also granted access.
There’s no perfect way to drop an exclusive shoe that will leave everyone happy — that’s why it’s exclusive.
But it’s pretty clear to anyone paying attention that this just was not the best way to do it. There may be some wins to take from this, but Nike shouldn’t do this again.
End of an era at Jordan Brand
(Photo by Taylor Smith on Unsplash)
Gentry Humphrey, Jordan Brand’s Vice President of footwear, is reportedly retiring after 30 years of working at Nike, per Complex.
This is a big deal. Humphrey is one of the most influential voices the Swoosh has. He’s credited with helping build out Jordan Brand’s fantastic longtail retro strategy that has made it billions.
Humphrey pushed Jordan Brand to not only bring back retro models but also create new colorways for them.
It seems like a layup today, but back then that strat wasn’t conventional wisdom. It was out of the box for Jordan Brand as its focus was on team models and continuing Mike’s original line.
Why this matters: Without Humphrey’s strategy, the fantastic collabs and new colorways we see on retro Jordans don’t happen.
Nick DePaula has an excellent thread with content you should read and listen to on his impact.
What’s next: Kris Wright will reportedly succeed Humphrey in his role at Jordan Brand. He’s been with the swoosh for a little over a decade and worked on strategy for Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten” collection, which is still widely considered Abloh’s best work.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: The Bad Bunny Forum is so special
Bad Bunny’s Forum is so good, man. It’s just an incredibly detailed shoe — one so good that even a triple-black colorway is interesting.
We got a chance to unbox them on Special Delivery and it was an absolute delight. They just remind me so much of what Adidas used to be. Pharrell’s NMD. Kanye’s experimentation with Boost. They knew how to turn something good into something great. And that’s what happened here with Bad Bunny’s touch on the Forum.
Hot take: That’s why I’m calling Bad Bunny the most interesting non-Kanye collaborator on Adidas’ roster. I go deeper in this week’s episode. Tap in.
Kerwin Frost must be stopped
That’s it. That’s the tweet. These things are…I don’t even know what to say or how to describe them. They’re just…horse sneakers.
I guess if you’re going to follow up those ridiculously long sneakers with anything, it would be this. But, uh, this is nightmare fuel. Plain and simple.
With that being said, please send these for an episode of Special Delivery. Thanks.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Adidas x Bad Bunny “Back to School” Forum — Tuesday, August 17
Nike Dunk High ‘85 “Red Acid Wash” — Thursday, August 19
Aleali May x Jordan 14 “Fortune” — Thursday, August 19
Nike Dunk High “First Use” — Friday, August 20
Nike x Undftd “5 On It” Dunk vs. AF1 pack (SNKRS) — Friday, August 20
Thank you so much for rocking with your boy! Holla at you on Wednesday, family. Have a fantastic rest of your week.
Peace. Love. Be cool. Be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
only thing uglier than the way Nike handled "The 50" drop was the shoes themselves
Did Nike ever say what happened with the size 14 of the TS Fragment raffle? It went from size 13 to 15, with no option for 14. Didn't even give me the chance to get an L.