The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 193 — The Best Everything of 2021
That A Ma Maniére Jordan 3 will go down in history
What’s good, family! We finally made it! This will be the Kicks You Wear’s final send for 2021 and, boy, has it been an awesome year.
Thank y’all so much for rocking with me through this time. This newsletter has remained a sanctuary for me through the year and I’m eternally grateful. I’m also looking forward to 2022 with y’all. We’ll be back on January 6.
Enough of that, though. Let’s jump in.
Sneaker of the Year: A Ma Maniere’s “Raised By Women” Jordan 3
Key info:
Release date: 4/28/21
Retail price: $200
We did not do a sneaker bracket this year (I KNOW, I’M SORRY), but if we had then A Ma Maniere’s “Raised By Women” Jordan 3 would’ve definitely won it. That’s how good it was.
This shoe was universally liked. And that’s pretty shocking for a couple of reasons.
People can’t agree on anything these days from real life issues all the way down to sneakers. Style is subjective. But you’d have to search far and wide for bad feelings about these shoes.
It’s even more impressive when you consider how many really good sneakers dropped this year. The Travis Frags, the Patta Maxes, a number of sweet Dunks. Yet, these stood out.
How’d they do it: The answer is pretty simple. James Whitner and company didn’t just sell us a shoe. They sold us a story.
The “Raised By Women” theme that came with this sneaker resonated with so many people. This shoe was a homage to Whitner’s mother and how she raised him to be the man he is today. That’s something easy. That’s something just about everyone can get behind. And during a time where women are rightfully snatching their rightful place in sneaker culture, these shoes fit snuggly into that.
But that wasn’t all. They also made this shoe accessible. For women, too, which was who they said their target audience was (more on that in a sec.)
They opened their in-store raffles to women only. Any woman who was in a local area where a store was located could sign up.
If you signed up, it was basically a W. They took care of their actual consumer base. Real people. And that was very cool.
They didn’t come without bumps, though. There was the issue of the shoe actually being seeded to more men, which was a huge issue. It largely ran against the actual theme of the sneaker and brought the brand’s actual intentions into question.
Were women really the priority? Or was this a marketing tactic? That was a looming question and, honestly, still is for many. Especially since this was a release spearheaded by a man.
The bottom line: Even with that hiccup, that shoe set the bar in 2021. It showed us storytelling really matters on top of an amazing product.
James Whitner and the Whitaker group gave us both. All. Year. Long. And the Jordan 3 was just the best of that.
Highest climber: New Balance
This is the third year in a row that I’m saying this, but there’s not a brand out there that had a better year than New Balance in the footwear industry.
Key drops:
ALD x 550 Spring and Winter ‘21 drops
JFG x New Balance “Outside Clothes” 990v3
Salehe Bembury x New Balance “Water Be The Guide” 2002r
In just a few years, New Balance has transformed itself into a key player in the mainstream of a footwear industry it strayed far away from. They leaned all the way in to the 90’s vintage aesthetic of the day and came out with essentials.
They brought back vintage looks with the 550, which is now essentially it’s equivalent of an Ice White Air Force 1 or a pair of Dunks.
They used collabs with ALD, JFG, Salehe and others to shine light on quality general release models.
Speaking of GR models, they released tons of quality ones. The Protection Pack 2002r, the 990v3 and v4, several 57/40’s, the XC-72. All great, great stuff.
It’s no coincidence that New Balance has made this transition so seamlessly. There’s been a ton of turnover from within the company over the last couple of years and, because of all that turnover, they’ve brought new strategies to the company.
Chief Marketing Officer Chris Davis and company have done a fantastic job of empowering creatives and allowing them to do what they do.
They’ve done extremely well in working with Black creatives, too.
They’ve tapped some incredible Black creatives in the culture from JFG and Salehe to names like Jazerai Allen-Lord, GaTa and a number of others.
They think outside of the box. They’re not afraid to lean in and explore areas other brands would scoff at (like giving Rich Paul a sneaker). Could you imagine Nike doing something like that? Absolutely not.
The thing is New Balance has to do this. They have to have these different activations or they don’t catch anyone’s attention. Playing by Nike’s playbook only works for Nike.
But NB is aware of their identity and they embrace it in the right ways. It’s been a fantastic 2021 for New Balance.
We’ll see if 2022 is just as good.
Biggest faller: Travis Scott
I couldn’t imagine typing this sentence in January or even just three or four months ago. Yet, here we are.
What’s happening: Just about everything with Travis Scott feels like it’s up in the air after his Astroworld Festival in Houston.
Ten people who attended the event died after the crowd broke out into a riot during Travis’ performance. A 9-year old was among those who died. He’s now tied to a number of lawsuits surrounding the disaster.
Shortly after, Nike postponed Scott’s coinciding Air Max 1 release due to the event. He also lost a number of endorsements and was even dropped from Coachella due to the backlash.
He did an interview on the Breakfast Club and, well, let’s just say it was bad. That’s putting it kindly.
Here we are: Travis Scott was a brand that could not be touched. He worked with some of the biggest companies around the globe — Nike, McDonalds and more. Now, it seems, nobody will touch him.
Let’s be real: Will he ultimately lose his major deals because of this? Probably not. He’s worth a lot of money to those folks and, ultimately, that’s what matters most for better or worse.
And also, be honest. You went right to the SNKRS app when you saw the ghost notification for the Cactus Air Max 1.
But, still, it’s clear some folks are backing away now. And that’s wild considering where Travis was just a year ago.
Biggest question: How does the culture mesh with the Metaverse?
There’s been so much talk about the Metaverse and how all of these sneaker companies are going to function within it.
What’s happening:
Both Nike and Adidas have made huge plays in diving into the Metaverse already.
Adidas has opened up a partnership with Coinbase and has a plot of land in Sandbox. Nike created a Roblox world and just signed a deal with RTFKT.
The skinny: These companies are trying to find ways to move into this vast, virtual world consumers and creatives are heading into so they can continue to make money there like they do in the real world.
It’s not just a sneaker thing. Facebo…er, excuse me…Meta, Microsoft and many others are doing it, too.
Here’s the thing though: I see people talking about how this will work for these companies much, much more than how it’ll work for the people these companies serve.
The Metaverse is an area where the power is in the hands of the creative. What you can build is limitless. The utility of it is determined by you and your supporters.
You don’t need a Nike or an Adidas or Facebook or whoever else to back you. The leverage belongs to the creative because, at the end of the day, they know much more about this space than most of these companies do.
So what I’m personally more eager to see here is how creatives leverage this space against these new companies. Not the other way around.
Will corporations stifle their creativity? What does a partnership in this space look like? Do creatives believe they even need to partner with brands like these? Those are all questions I’m eager to find answers to.
We won’t have to wait long. This stuff is moving very, very quickly.
The Best Ten
Here are my top ten sneakers for the year, as promised.
A Ma Maniere “Raised By Women” Jordan 3
Social Status Chocolate Milk Dunks
Joe Fresh Goods “Outside Clothes” 990v3
Aime Leon Dore x New Balance 550 Spring ‘21
Salehe Bembury x New Balance 2002r “Water Be The Guide”
Patta x Air Max 1 “Aqua Noise”
A Ma Maniere “Airness” Jordan 1
Union LA x Jordan 4 “Desert Moss”
Off-White Jordan 2 “Chicago”
Nike Dunk Low “Panda”
Did I get it right? I think so. If not, you know what it is. Feel free to roast me.
That’s a wrap, family! Thank you all so much for rocking with your boy. I’ll see you guys on Twitter next week for our Festivus version of #TheKicksWeWear! Y’all are the absolute best.
I love you. I wish you a very happy holiday season and a very happy new year. I’ll see you in 2022.
Peace and Love. Be easy. Be safe. Be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯
Travis shoes are gonna start dropping in less then six months lets not pretend otherwise. Good top ten for the year.