The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 184 — Virgil gave us a story worth telling on the AJ2

I could watch this all day.

Oct 22, 2021

Goooood morning, family! Happy Friday! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thanks so much for rocking with yerboi.

Some housekeeping: KYW will be out from October 25 to November 12. We’re doing some really cool Special Delivery stuff I need to buckle down for and then I’m taking a little vacay. I’ll miss y’all. (EDIT: I mistakenly said Nov. 12. The correct return date is the 15th. My bad, family.)

Let’s jump in.

Maybe Virgil is more thoughtful than we think he is?

When most people (including myself) first saw Virgil Abloh’s take on the Jordan 2, our first instinct was to roast. And, I mean, I still feel right about it.

Let’s be honest. Most people just don’t really like the Jordan 2, which is OK.
Where my jokes came in was on the cracked sole. Why am I paying $250 for that? The sole looks like it’s about to fall apart.

To be honest I’m still not trying to pay $250 for these shoes. But there’s been some pretty useful context added to these shoes that actually make them…kind of cool?

Nike dug into some of it on Behind the Design via the SNKRS app last week.

The details:

Virgil’s AJ2 was actually crafted from a version of the sneaker that was pulled from Jordan’s archives. Michael Jordan actually signed it himself and that’s why the signature is included on the shoe and in different spaces on the shoe.
And the crumbly midsole I hate so much? They took a skeleton of the pair they pulled from the archives and molded this midsole around it. That’s kinda tight.
Abloh said himself via Instagram that he intended to use this shoe to tell a story about a different Jordan retro and I can appreciate that.

This was an extremely thoughtful and careful approach to a sneaker and one I can definitely appreciate. Especially coming off of those Dunks.

I must say…this is probably not enough to make me consider paying $250 for this shoe. But y’all know I’m a sucker for a good story and cool design concepts. I’m at the point where I’d at least think about it.

And that, folks, is what good content on the SNKRS app should do. Make you think about it.

This is a golden era for signature shoes

The NBA season is back and that’s extremely exciting for me. After all, that’s really what got me diving headfirst into sneakers in the first place. The signature shoe sector of the industry is extremely fascinating to me.

Here’s why: There’s a signature shoe boom right now. So many athletes in basketball have one. There are 20 in the NBA and 1 (smfh) in the WNBA.

We’re entering an unprecedented space where we’ve got players reaching heights never before seen with their lines while also adding so much new talent to the crop from all around the game. It’s awesome.

The established: LeBron James is on his 19th signature shoe. Kevin Durant is on his 14th. Only Michael Jordan is the only athlete to reach that signature territory.
The next tier: Behind them, you’ve got Steph Curry on number 9. Kyrie Irving and Damian Lillard are coming up on 8. James Harden and Paul George are approaching 6. Giannis Antetokounmpo is on number 3 of who knows how many?
The future: And then you’ve got the crop of young guys like Zion Williamson, Trae Young and LaMelo Ball on their first. Donovan Mitchell also on his third.
And it’s about damn time with Breanna Stewart getting a signature shoe in the WNBA again after a 10-year hiatus.

That’s a list filled with plenty of big names and it’s only growing by the year.

Times have certainly changed. Signature shoes aren’t the same thing they used to be during the days of Jordan and Penny Hardaway.

But I think the big names we still have today clearly show us one thing: Brands still see value in endorsing athletes. Plenty of it. This list isn’t shrinking anytime soon.

What’d I tell y’all about Supreme collabs?

It was almost a year ago now that Supreme was purchased by VF Corp. And when that happened I told y’all Supreme wasn’t going to be the Supreme you loved anymore.

It’s something different now. Something far more corporate than we’d ever imagined. We’ve seen it through a number of the collabs they’ve done this year, but none of them quite pointed it out like this latest North Face x Supreme collection.

DropsByJay @DropsByJay

Supreme/The North Face Steep Tech collection set to release this Thursday, October 21st. What are your thoughts on this collection?

This is just God awful. As my guy Sockjig points out here, this is a layup and they totally throw it over the backboard Nick Young style. And that’s really hard to do.

Let me explain why this is bad. Or, rather, at least why I think it is, anyway.

Everything Supreme does is so simple and straight to the point. Their best work is with simplicity. A box logo.
None of this is simple. There are logos printed all over everywhere. It’s messy. It does way too much.
And this is a brand in North Face they’ve crushed things with before so my expectations are always high.

Don’t get me wrong. If you like this, that’s totally fine. But in the context of the work Supreme has done before? This just isn’t it.

The bottom line: There’s only more of this coming down the road. Brace for impact, Supreme fans.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?

Dog. I know SB’s are hard to get. And then when you throw on the fact that 2020’s 4/20 Dunk — the Strawberry Cough joints — were initially canceled, demand for these joints goes up even more.

But how is it possible for a shop to have one pair in each size?!? ONE. PAIR. Bruh. This just ain’t right.

Ovrnundr @Ovrnundr

Island Water Sports skate shop based out of Florida shares the stock Nike sent them for the release of the upcoming Nike Dunk High “Strawberry Cough”. Shoe sizing 8 - 12, stock 1 pair of each size 😂☠️ Photo: @iws_skate

People are accusing the shop of backdooring pairs and, while I won’t go that far, I will say this: Hurry up with those sneaker cops, Nike. Somebody gotta figure this out.