The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 212 — It's time to check in on Nike again
Nike's earnings call is on Monday and it'll be an interesting one
Goooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thank you so much for rocking with your boy this morning!
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Let’s dig in.
Nike peels back the curtain this week
Y’all know the vibes here. Earnings calls are not necessarily what moves KYW. Yes, we pay attention to them. But the culture is much bigger and much more interesting than that, in my opinion. I only wait on earnings information if I think something interesting will come out of it.
But this week… I’m definitely waiting on Nike’s call on Monday. This feels like it could be a pretty big one mostly because of everything that has happened in the news in the last couple of months.
What’s happening:
They’ll probably touch on the supply chain and what sort of headwinds — if any — it’s presenting with shutdowns popping up in China.
We’re also probably going to hear about Nike’s closure in Russia after the country’s attack on Ukraine…though some stores are still open.
And there’s also potentially SNKRS stuff we may hear about with the Rebellionaire’s success on the NBHD side and the change in strategy for SNKRS Pass drops.
The elephant in the room: Of course, it’s Nike’s Direct To Consumer strategy. Would it be a true earnings call without it?
We’ve been talking about this for years now and how it’s impacted mom & pop shops and boutiques across the country as they lose Nike accounts.
But last month’s Foot Locker news was the first time we’d seen it hit one of sneaker culture’s heavyweights in a major way.
There’s bound to be more to follow. And Nike will undoubtedly be asked about this and how much further their strategy will reach. We could get some info on that.
There’s a lot to talk about. And I doubt they’ll get to all of it. Honestly, some of it they may actually be trying to avoid.
But the questions are there. This is a golden opportunity to have them addressed. We’ll see what happens on Monday.
These Social Status Pennys are beautiful
As we discussed last week in our KYW thread, outside of the Concepts Air Max ones (that you can watch me talk about down below!), there hasn’t been much that has moved me in the sneaker world for 2022.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been a lot of good out there. There has. Just nothing that has jumped out to this point.
But I found something: Those Social Status Pennys are absolutely fantastic. They’re beautiful, y’all. Those Penny 2’s, in particular, are scintillating.
For those of us who aren’t hip, these are the first two basketball shoes from retired NBA player and current Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway’s signature basketball line.
The top sneaker in the tweet above is the Penny 1. The one below it is the Penny 2.
I find these super interesting: We sometimes see the 90s and 2000s basketball shoes retroed. But we rarely see them involved in collaborations — especially not one like these.
We see things like the Kobe Protro models from UNDFTD and LeBron with Kith from years ago on the 15 and obviously various Jordan models.
But, outside of MJ, those only happen every once in a while. And it always happens with one of Nike’s main guys — not Penny.
I’m really looking forward to seeing these and not only how the hype builds but also how they drop. I wonder if this is another Nike NBHD style release where they tap into sneaker boutique accounts as they did with the Rebellionaire AJ1?
We’ll see. Either way, I need a release date for these bad boys. I’m tryna be in Jamaica sipping on a Pina Colada with them in July. So please, Mr. Whitner, let’s get it poppin.
Aimé Leon Dore is back with another 550
Teddy Santis and crew brought New Balance’s 550 to the forefront of sneaker culture with their first drop back in 2020.
Two years later they’re back again with more flavors of this vintage basketball classic.
This time the featured colors are brown, maroon and a deep purple. Let’s call it plum.
There’s no release date yet but the joints are listed as “Coming Soon” on ALD’s web store.
A quick look:
The 550 has had a pretty fantastic journey over the last two years from complete obscurity to a cultural staple these days and ALD is a huge part of that.
With these and the 650s dropping soon as well, that won’t be changing in the near future.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: A look at CNCPTS trippy ass Air Maxes
Y’all know how long I was waiting on these joints, man. Y’all know. Since we first caught wind of them they’d been on my list.
We managed to snag a pair and got them on SD. This is one of my favorite episodes yet.
I PROMISE I’M NOT OUT HERE ON ACID. PROMISE.
What’s droppin, bruh
Adidas South Park collections — Monday, March 21
Nike Dunk Low “Vintage Green” — Tuesday, March 22
Yeezy 700 “Waverunner” — Tuesday, March 22
Air Jordan 3 “Muslin” — Friday, March 25
AIR MAX DAY DROPS
Nike Air Max 1 “Blueprint” — Saturday, March 26 (North America Exclusive)
Nike Air Max 1 “La Ville-Lumiére” — Saturday, March 26 (Europe Exclusive)
Nike Air Max 1 “Wabi Sabi” — Saturday, March 26 (Latin America/Asia Pacific Exclusive)
Nike x CNCPTS Air Max 1 “Far Out” — Saturday, March 26
WHEW, that was a lot.
Thank you so much for rocking with your boy today. Go out there and have a fantastic week. We’ll chat again on Wednesday.
Til then, family. Peace and love. Be easy. Be safe. Be kind. And we out.
-Sykes💯