The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 170 — Where'd that Ivy Park hype go?

Talk about a fumble

Aug 27, 2021

What’s good, family! Happy Friday! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thank you so much for chopping it up with your boy this morning. Always appreciate you here.

I’m barring myself from buying shoes until Oct. 1. Y’all think I can make it? Let’s hope so for my pocket’s sake.

Anyway, let’s dive in.

Losing Beyoncé’s buzz

(Photo by Emily Bauman on Unsplash)

Beyoncé might be the biggest name in the entertainment industry right now. When she drops something, people stop. They listen. That’s normally how it works.

That didn’t happen with her latest Ivy Park drop. Instead, her “Rodeo” collection came and went. Sizes are still sitting in apparel, sneakers, and accessories.

It’s taken time for Ivy Park to sell out before, but not like this. It’s been more than a week since the drop on Aug. 19.

There seem to be a few things at play here.

First, we should point out the fact that the rodeo collection is bigger than previous collections. There’s stuff in women’s, kids and gender-neutral sizing. The more you have, the harder it is to sell out.

But people have also been cooling on Ivy Park x Adidas. StockX’s resale prices over the last year on the first Super Sleek 72 dropped deeply then flattened. That was one of Beyoncé’s hottest items available with Adidas.

Why have people cooled on it so much? Reasons vary, but there’s a pretty obvious one here: We’ve seen all of this before. The collection just isn’t new. It isn't fresh. Creativity is lacking. I talked a bit about it in the Special Delivery Bad Bunny episode.

How many times can we see the Super Sleek before we’re tired of it? The Ultra Boost? Been there, done that. People have moved on to the next.
This apparel collection is also weird. There’s a bunch of denim stuff that just doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense.
The line isn’t moving forward in design. And the minor changes that are made don’t feel like they’re good changes i.e. splitting the Super Sleek’s midsole.

This teaches us a valuable lesson. It takes more than a big name to actually move merch. Beyoncé and Adidas are learning that. Nike will probably learn that with Drake in a few weeks when he drops his sneaker and accompanying collection.

Other brands can learn from it, too. Here’s the lesson: Give us something good. Something new. Or it won’t move no matter who is behind it.

Speaking of Adidas, let’s talk about Member’s Week

(Photo by Hannah Sibayan on Unsplash)

As you all now know, it is currently Member’s Week on Adidas’ CONFIRMED app. Still, it certainly doesn’t feel like it.

It’s been super quiet as we talked about in Wednesday’s thread. But on top of that, nothing exciting has dropped.

Here’s a quick list of everything we’ve gotten so far.

There were the three main things: Jeremy Scott’s Forum Wings, Kerwin Frost’s Supersized Superstars, Pharrell’s new Sichona silhouette.
Members also had access to a signed pair of Patrick Mahomes’ new IMPACT FLX joints.
There was also a 33% off everything promotion that was pretty cool.

And while those are all good, solid things, it’s not necessarily what any of us expected this to be. Or, really, what Adidas hyped it up to be.

This was a big opportunity to showcase big names. Beyoncé, Kanye, Bad Bunny, Pharrell. Instead, we just got one of those folks along with Kerwin Frost and Jeremy Scott. That should never ever ever have been the case.

I won’t call Members Week a gaffe — things seemed to go as planned and there were minimal gaffes in the CONFIRMED app, which is always great. But everything also seemed to lack the ambition we’re so used to from Adidas.

Hopefully, we see it on the next go round.

Kerby Jean-Raymond is finally getting started at Reebok

We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for so long to see Kerby Jean-Raymond’s first project as Reebok’s VP of Creative Direction.

We just got our first look at what it might look like and, well, it’s pretty cool. Jean-Raymond put together a short film called “Cratemaster” and it’s definitely not about people busting their asses trying to walk up crates if that’s what you’re thinking.

Instead, it’s about something way cooler.

The film centers around a group of kids in Brooklyn’s Brownsville who put together a pool of money to buy the Questions. They play in a basketball tournament for the kicks on — you guessed it — crates attached to a fence.
The film captures so many different themes. Comradery, perseverance, bravery, the importance of preparation and, most importantly, accessibility.

Here’s a look.

This thing is totally worth 10 minutes of your time. Hopefully, there’s more to come in the Kerby era of Reebok.

Spider-Man is not brand loyal

Listen, y’all. If your favorite web-slinger isn’t loyal to a single brand, why should you be? Be free, my nerdy, sneaker-loving family.

We’ve seen three different versions of Spidey wearing 3 different versions of kicks. From Jordan 1’s in Miles Morales’ multiversal classic to Adidas Superstars in Miles Morales’ PlayStation debut to, most recently, Peter Parker wearing J’s while chilling with his boo, MJ, in Spiderman: No Way Home.