Goooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rolling with your boy this morning.
Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Mine was…not that great lol. I’ll explain why in a sec.
In the meantime, let’s get it.
What a loser
Remember that ruined weekend I talked about earlier? This is that part of the newsletter. Fun times!
So JoeFreshGoods came to Washington, D.C. over the weekend with a surprise pop-up drop at Somewhere D.C. for the “Outside Clothes” 990v3 — though, it wasn’t really a surprise to some of us. Shouts to Christina.
She literally predicted this drop detail for detail two weeks ago.
I had to pop out. Took a quick 20-minute ride down to First Street. I was late, so I didn't have a ton of hope, but I knew I would hate myself if I didn’t try. I parked after driving in circles for 15 minutes looking for a space and got in line.
That's a big detail. If you’ve ever been to D.C. you know how the parking goes — it basically doesn’t. There’s nowhere to park but so much road to drive on.
I didn’t pay the meter, either. Yup. Went rogue. The ticket would be worth the W.
I waited and waited and waited. There were about 30 people ahead of me at noon when I got there. We’re all chatting. There were some folks who’d already copped sitting at a table that I think they took from the Chipotle on the same street? El oh el.
Anyway, they’re giving me detail on what I’ve missed so far.
Apparently, the line early was chaos. Lots of people showed up and lots tried to cut in line and bumrush security.
It didn’t work, though. JFG’s team handed out wristbands to folks who showed up early when the line opened and if you had a band you had a guaranteed spot in line. You were copping. If not? You had to wait. It wasn’t a perfect strategy but it was organization.
JFG was also there on the front lines throughout touching the people and making sure things went smoothly.
I was without a wristband, obviously, so I had to wait. And that’s what I did. All of a sudden, the line whittled down to three.
I was ecstatic. I'd been waiting for my chance to cop and it was finally here. And you KNOW they were going straight to toe.
Then it happened.
“The line is closed, ladies and gentlemen. The product is sold out and the line is closed. No entry from here.”
That's what the security guard belted from the deepest regions of his gut while looking directly at me as my soul left my body.
All I could do was cackle. Wow. I was right there. Then it just didn’t happen for me. WHEW was I upset. I didn’t show it. But I was definitely upset. I really want these shoes, y’all.
I’m not mad, though. This was a good pop-up. It seemed wildly different from what went down in Chicago.
There weren’t as many of us, of course. But they got folks in and out in about 2.5 hours. They had a priority system that worked through the wristbands. And it also gave someone like me, who showed up almost two hours late, a real chance to cop. And that’s all I ever ask for — a real chance.
And, best of all, JFG showed some real love to my city and touched the people of D.C. That’s love, man. I can’t complain about that.
It's always better when we make the stories
(Photo by Jeka Demidov on Unsplash)
New Balance’s 2002r “Protection Pack” drop came and went this weekend. It’s going to go down as one of New Balance’s most hyped drops all year.
It doesn’t necessarily fit that bill though. This shoe wasn’t supposed to carry that much hype.
It wasn’t a collab of some sort. It didn’t have a big name attached to it. It was really just a good silhouette and a very good design.
The designer, Yue Wu, seems like a pretty regular dude.
But these shoes blew up. People love these. This is was a New Balance general release with no huge promo run, no baked-in brand story, no major superstar backing. Yet it was still botted to hell. And the resale market on them is going crazy.
Almost everything we see in sneakers is prepackaged and curated to generate hype. Pairs seeded to big named influencers and celebrities. Those big names bring it to their social platforms and hype it.
This drop was that process literally in reverse. The public saw images of the 2002r, fell in love, and then the brands caught on. But the hype was already there.
We don’t really see that anymore. People don’t treat GR’s this way. This was a complete and total reversal of the industry's power structure. It shows exactly how much power the regular consumer has.
We are the true influencers. And I think that’s pretty cool.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: Adidas and Lego have one extremely fun collab
Look, collab fatigue is certainly a real thing. And it should be. Every week we there are multiple new collabs between multiple brands and many of them stink. I thought that was what Adidas x Lego was, honestly. A random collab between two brands that had nothing to do with each other.
But, after experiencing these, I can confidently say this is much better than that. This is actually fun.
We unboxed the Adidas x Lego Superstar on this week’s episode of Special Delivery. I explain why I thought this was going to be weak, initially, and why I was wrong. This is an incredible shoe.
Tap in.
This is disrespectful to the Air Max 1
It’s official. Travis Scott can definitely do whatever he wants at Nike at this point. And that, apparently, includes taking the air bubble out of the Air Max 1. THE AIR MAX 1.
Look at this Travisty. Get it? Travist…nvm. Just look.
Sigh. Y’all gonna go crazy over these things, too. This is so wild to me. Looks like Holiday 2021 is gonna be a whole mess.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Jeremy Scott x Adidas Forum Wings “Money” — Tuesday, August 24
Kerwin Frost x Adidas Superstar “Superstuffed” — Thursday, August 26
Sacai x Fragment x Nike LDV Waffle — Friday, August 27
Nike “What The” Air Presto — Friday, August 27
AJ4 “Lightning” — Saturday, August 28
Thanks so much for rocking with your boy, y’all! Appreciate you! Have a fantastic week, family.
I’ll holla at you on Wedenesday. Love. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind.
-Sykes 💯