The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 175 — The Yin and Yang of the drop
We never stood a chance on the JFG drop
Good morning, family! Happy Monday! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me this morning.
Want to give a big shoutout to my guy, Special Delivery super-producer Evan Thorpe, who got married over the weekend. Love is in the air, y’all.
Y’all bout ready?
The JFG drop was supposed to be for the people, but…
As much as I can appreciate what JoeFreshGoods was trying to do with this, the Outside Clothes 990v3 drop was a disaster.
Outside of the DC pop-up there just weren’t many people who were able to get access to these shoes.
The Chicago pop-up was a disaster. People waited for double-digit hours for shoes they weren’t going to get.
Did anyone hit on the actual JFG raffle? I didn’t see a single nationwide raffle winner on the timeline. Not one! That shouldn’t happen.
And though stock seemed reasonable on these for such a hyped collab, it was spread thin to so many retailers who were raffling pairs off, it felt almost impossible to break through.
This was so disappointing. It’s fine not to cop. Is what it is. But coming into this, JFG explicitly said the shoes would be “attainable,” as the homie Cesar points out here.
And, I guess, technically they were? Through the pop-up shops in DC and Chicago as well as the numerous raffles we could enter, there were plenty of options. But none of them were good. And it shouldn’t be this way.
It feels like JFG tried to make this work for the people. But the attempts just weren’t thorough enough. The Chicago pop-up was marred by secret backdoors. The original raffle may as well not even have happened. It was just madness.
It didn’t have to be this way. It’s not impossible to create accessibility for everyday consumers.
We’ve seen that over and over again with drops this year, from Bodega to CNCPTs to everything James Whitner (who we’ll talk about in a sec) has done this year.
You just hope that, as we move forward, that becomes the norm instead of the exception. Speaking of Whitner…
The Social Status drop is the blueprint
(Photo by Dimitry B on Unsplash)
All year long, James Whitner and the Whitaker Group have shown us exactly how sneaker drops are supposed to be.
They’ve done everything with the people in mind. Accessibility matters most. And Social Status did everything in its power to make sure the Free Lunch “Chocolate Milk” Dunk was accessible to everyone.
They took steps in doing it.
First, they created a moment and drew people in. They took the Social Status “Free Lunch” video and shared it in their stores. If you signed up to see it, you automatically entered the Free Lunch raffle. And you probably won.
Second, they took care of home. They held in-store raffles for the shoes and, if you signed up, again, you probably copped.
Finally, they held their drop. It came with heavy bot protection. They built a different site with a new domain exclusively for it. Big W’s everywhere.
They’ll probably do it the same way next week for the Strawberry Milk drop. It’s what they’ve been doing all year. And that’s so refreshing as a consumer.
Retailers always talk about wanting to do what’s best for the consumer but very few of them actually do it when limited drops like these come along.
Bot protection can get complex and expensive. And, often, doing the bare minimum works for these folks.
The way they see it, the product is selling out regardless of who gets it. And that’s all that really matters.
So don’t take this for granted. Appreciate it. Because, as we saw with JFG, things don’t normally work like this.
Speaking of Blueprints…
The 20th anniversary for Hov aka The God MC aka S. Dot aka JAY-Z’s best album, The Blueprint, fell over the weekend. Justin Tinsley at The Undefeated wrote some incredible words about it over the weekend.
This is a sneaker newsletter, though, so let’s talk sneakers. We don’t talk about Hov’s impact on this industry enough.
No, I’m not talking about him being…well…whatever his title is with Puma. I’m talking Reebok. Remember that JAY-Z deal?
In 2003, Hov joined Reebok’s RBK line and dropped the S Carter — a sneaker inspired by Gucci’s Tennis sneaker circa 1984.
The shoe dropped and sold 10,000 pairs out in a matter of hours.
This opened the flood gates for entertainers in the sneaker industry. Here we are almost 2 decades later and music industry titans are leaders in footwear. Kanye West. Travis Scott. Beyoncé. Pharrell. That doesn’t happen without JAY-Z’s Reebok experiment.
Reebok leaned in and picked up other notable entertainers such as 50 Cent, Nelly, Pharrell and Rick Ross over the next decade to try and replicate that success. They were never able to. Reebok’s RBK line eventually folded.
But its impact, obviously, left us with a lot. Included Yeezy. And that, folks, is what we call a blueprint.
RISE NIKE GUNDAM
I don’t ask the sneaker gods for much. But today, I am begging them for these Nike SB Gundam figurines. I NEED these in my life.
I grew up an anime kid. And as an anime kid, I watched every episode of Gundam I possibly could. Gundam, Gundam Wing, G Gundam, Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny. Hell, even SD Gundam.
I say all of that to say, basically, I deserve these. I have earned these.
Please. Take pity on me. I just want to sit these on my desk somewhere.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Sacai x CLOT x Nike LD Waffle — Tuesday, September 14
Sacai x Fragment x Nike LD Waffle — Wednesday, September 15
Nike Dunk Low University Red — Thursday, September 16
Air Jordan 11 Low IE “Bred” — Friday, September 17
Quartersnacks x Nike SB “Zebra” Dunk Low — Saturday, September 18
Thank you so much for rocking with me today! I appreciate y’all reading, man. Your time is so valuable to me.
Remember, the newsletter is out until next Friday. I’ll be at Sumeet’s wedding! Til then, family. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. Holla at you.
-Sykes 💯