The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 209 — Let's set the record straight
Foot Locker is not losing ALL of its Nike product. Fake news.
Goooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for giving me a few minutes of your time this morning.
Heads up! No newsletter next week. We have some wedding stuff to handle and I just need a quick mental break. Don’t miss me too much, though. I’ll be back soon.
Let’s jump in.
Foot Locker ain’t going nowhere
For hot second earlier this week there was confusion about the development between Nike and Foot Locker.
The details:
Last week, Foot Locker said on an earnings call that they’d be losing Nike products and that no single vendor would represent more than 60% of its revenue.
What followed that was a firestorm of speculation on what that could possibly look like and how it could lead to FTL’s demise.
It also led to speculation about Foot Locker losing all of the Nike product on its shelves instead of just a percentage.
Let’s set the record straight: I reached out to Foot Locker to figure out exactly what’s going on here.
I was told by an FTL spokesperson that Nike is expected to account for around 55% of their total supplier spend, “which will make them still our biggest partner.”
They expect to reach that 55% point by the fourth quarter of 2022. That number will be down from 70% in 2021 and 75% in 2022.
So while the drop is still drastic, it’s not 0% as some had speculated. And Foot Locker is not without a plan. During last week’s earnings call, they highlighted success from New Balance, Crocs, Puma and other vendors as potential areas of growth.
No, these companies aren’t Nike. But a bigger presence from each of them on Foot Locker’s shelves would go a long way in rebuilding what they’re losing from the swoosh.
And if all else fails Foot Locker still has GOAT in the tuck. They invested $100 million in the company back in 2019.
The big picture: That’s important to note here because it isn’t just Nike that’s going to DTC. It’s Adidas. It’s Under Armour. There are plenty more that will come, too. This is the wave of the future as e-commerce continues to expand in our lives. Companies are going to look to shed costs and grow profit. They do that by cutting the middleman out.
These middleman retailers like Foot Locker need options. Clearly, they have quite a few both for now and moving forward.
So I’ve said it once already and I’ll say it again: Don’t worry about Foot Locker. They’ll be just fine.
The Drakes worked
All of the KSwiss jokes in the world could not keep folks away from Drake’s Hot Mess Step Air Terra shoes. I went in to try and cop for Special Delivery thinking that, ya know, nobody was really into these but it’d be cool to explore on camera.
NOPE. I was wrong. Very wrong.
The shoes dropped at Midnight officially on March 3rd via the NOCTA website.
Within just a couple of minutes all sizes were sold out. No bot protection. Just a long queue and nothing to show for at the end of it.
Initially, I was astonished that this shoe had gone so quickly despite no one seemingly wanting in. But then I remembered exactly how the sneaker game works.
Here’s what I mean: Just like me trying to cop these shoes to get them on camera, other folks out there were trying to live in and be part of this moment. It was the Drake shoes, after all.
That doesn’t mean that they were upset they didn’t get them or that they even liked the shoes, for that matter. Many didn’t care. They took the L just to see if they could. It’s FOMO at its finest.
There’s also the resale aspect of this. Every commodity we buy off of the internet has some secondary value now. There were sharks out there waiting to take advantage of that, too.
They knew people had a desire to be part of that moment and tried to capitalize on it. That’s why the shoes sold out so quickly.
That desire is fleeting, however. We’re already starting to see a dip in resale prices for these joints.
The bottom line: This is the sneaker game now. It’s not about the sneaker anymore — it’s about being part of a moment, however fleeting that might be.
That’s kind of sad. But that’s our reality.
Why Nike’s SNKRS pass just changed
Nike just made a pretty major change that sort of went under a few people’s radars last week.
What happened: Nike just changed the rules up a bit on its SNKRS pass.
For those of us out of the loop, the SNKRS pass is a geolocation mechanism Nike uses to unlock access to exclusive drops in local stores.
They target specific stores on the east coast, midwest and the west coast.
Sounds like a great idea. But the problem with the pass is that it gets botted to hell pretty much every time there is one.
They’re trying to change that though. Instead of using the usual first-come-first-serve process, they’ve decided to make the SNKRS pass into a draw.
The pass remains open for a time limit. You enter. And then, if you’re lucky, you hit and you get to reserve a shoe for purchase at a local store.
This is helpful for the consumer. It removes the bots from the equation where they’d traditionally been successful. Manual users have a slightly better chance.
The big picture: Remember last year when we talked about Nike trying to earn your trust back as a consumer? This is part of that. That’s what they’re attempting to do with this.
It’s self-serving in a sense, yes. But it’s still something that should ultimately help manual folks. And that right there is a good thing.
The only thing they need to do now is add more locations. But baby steps, though.
It’s…it’s happening???
Holiday 2022. Chicago Jordan 1’s. They’re coming…allegedly. The “Reimagined” Chicago AJ1’s are slated to drop this holiday season, per @zSneakerHeadz.
These are beautiful.
These are really beautiful. Just amazing. I really, really need these to be real. And I need them to look like this — not these, as the homie Jordan Keyser points out.
The only thing I really have to say is this: I would like to see it.
#TheKicksWeWear
First the homie Rick Dubb got us popping with these Flyknit Lunar classics. Man, these were an era.
Then the homie Matt popped out in these lovely Air Max 1’s to show the AM1 some love.
My guy Phil totally stunted on us with the Panda Dunks while doing a live podcast. LIVE. PODCAST.
Then the homie Doug gave us a glimpse at how dope the Cardinal Red 3’s look on foot. These are amazing.
The homie Jonathan popped out in the Curry Air Max 1’s and y’all already know how I feel about this colorway.
The homie N8 came through with the Travis 6’s and these joints are just incredible.
My guy Yosh popped out in this incredible lace job on the Maui Wowie Dunks. So good. I need to learn how to do this.
The homie S. Janelle came through with the University Blue 1’s and I still think these might be the best AJ1’s to have dropped in 2021.
Then the homie Ryan went crazy on us for Air Max Month with a trio of Air Max 1’s.
And then our guy J Block took us home with this AMAZING DIY job on the Denim Jordan 4’s. Just incredible work from my guy. Sheesh.
SMOKED IT. Y’all >>>>>>
Thank y’all so much for rocking with your boy this week. Appreciate you! Don’t forget! Have the homies subscribe! This pair of shoes is hanging in the balance, y’all.
Anyways, fam. Peace and love. Be easy. Be safe. Be kind. And we out. Talk soon.
-Sykes 💯
Did you cop the JJJJound NB’s? I tried, got let in from the queue to purchase real fast (like barely two minutes) and they were sold out.