The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 215 — Is "Made in USA" the new normal?
New Balance might have the game figured out here.
What’s good, family? Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me on this beautiful Friday. Hope you have an amazing weekend.
Y’all, I copped the Union Dunks. I’m, uh, not the biggest fan. But they match my Sparks jersey so I thought it was a good grab? Anyway, thoughts coming soon!
In the meantime, let’s dig in.
USA. USA. USA.
Every brand is trying to think of the best way to navigate this supply chain crisis that isn’t going away.
COVID-19 is still a thing, international relationships between countries are deteriorating and there’s a whole war going on in Eastern Europe right now. Basically, the global economy is wylin and these companies don’t really know how to navigate this new landscape quite yet.
But New Balance might make some pretty good progress with their latest move.
What’s happening: NB is leaning in a bit harder to their “Made in USA” mantra by dumping $20 million into their new Massachusetts factory, per CNBC.
This is New Balance’s 5th U.S. factory. It’s reported to have about 100 employees operating already with plans to double that number soon.
They’re looking to produce an additional 750,000 pairs of sneakers to the 4 million they already produce.
The additional four factories the brand has in the United States are spread across Maine and Massachusetts.
Let me be clear: I don’t — and never really have — brought into the whole “Made in USA” thing as a mantra. It’s basically just a tagline to get folks like you and me to pay a premium on their goods.
It’s not even completely made in the USA. About 70% of it is. The other 30% comes from foreign materials — which is totally fine. Just…sort of misleading.
That aside, this investment into their US factories is a pretty sound one. It’s probably something every brand should at least think about doing at this point. Many are facing delays because most of their manufacturing pipeline runs overseas. A stronger dedication to an American pipeline means less of those issues.
It’d take a ton of commitment and a hard reset, but for most brands, the foundation is already there.
Between the lines: Pretty much every brand has factories in America. Nike has 31 of them, for example. They just produce a minuscule amount of product and it’s mostly apparel.
The production of everything else is done overseas.
Both the labor and the materials are cheaper than what it’d cost to produce in the U.S.
So, sure, you may run into shipping problems. But you also save yourself quite a bit of scratch doing that…even if it’s morally questionable.
These are corporations and corporations are always about taking care of that bottom line. No matter who or what gets damaged in the process.
But my question is…is it worth it? With all these supply chain issues and ethics questions, why not shift the chain altogether? Lean into it. It’s to the point where it’s taking about six weeks longer than pre-pandemic levels to get goods, per CNBC. If your factories are in the U.S.? That problem fades quite a bit.
It was once hard to ever envision a world where that could potentially happen. But today? It’s something some brands seem to definitely be considering.
As for the ones we’re talking about like Nike and Adidas and the like, we’re probably a long way away from that. They’re so entrenched in their systems now and uprooting them would take years.
But if this keeps up for as long as some think it might? That shift might actually be on the way. And it’ll drastically change the way we buy forever.
The Turtle Doves are BYKE…allegedly
Back in 2018, we thought there was a Turtle Dove restock coming from Yeezy after some official images were loaded onto Yeezy Supply. We were wrong. It never came.
Don’t fret: If you’re looking for them then this might actually be your year. There’s allegedly a restock coming and it could happen this month.
Now, there are some caveats worth mentioning here:
First of all, we’ve heard no mention from Ye himself about the Turtle Doves coming back. And that feels like one he’d let folks know about. But, then too, he is Ye.
Second, Adidas hasn’t mentioned this at all either. What started this was a leaked image on Instagram.
But what piqued my interest was this video from Yeezy Mafia.
Obviously, this isn’t an account officially associated with Yeezy. But they normally get things right. And the account is alluding that this shoe will rerelease in 2022.
It makes sense when you think about it. There’ve been so many pairs of Yeezys retroed and brought back already. Plus, it’s been 7 years since these dropped in 2015. It feels like a good time to bring them back now.
Maybe it’ll chill those $2,000 resale marks a bit. Yikes.
A female future for Jordan Brand
Obviously, the sneaker world has been mostly dominated by men for, well, pretty much, forever.
That’s not because women didn’t exist in this space. They’ve just been ignored by the brands they love for so long.
Jordan Brand is trying to fix that. At least, in their own house, anyway. They just opened up what they’re calling the “Global Women’s Collective” program.
The details:
The brand tapped 33 women from global cities around the country to participate in the program.
The sixth-month program will give these women access to special panels, retreats, grants and other amenities provided by the brand to further uplift their own communities in the sneaker and basketball world.
This is Jordan brand’s attempt at making a connection with the women who power it to build a more constructive and inclusive brand for those same women moving forward. That, alone, is a great thing. This seems very well-intentioned.
This is also not a one-off. It’s something they’re doing every year.
I’m unsure how this ends and unsure where it goes from here. But I do love to see it and hope we can see the benefits when the time comes. Maybe other brands will follow.
P.S…Can we pick some cities outside of the usual LA, Chicago, New York and the like next time? There are women who love this culture everywhere. They should be heard, too.
We’re really getting Halloween Dunks in April
Happy Halloween…in Novemeber? I really can’t believe this is happening. Isn’t the point of April Fools Day to pull the rug from under the joke? Why are these actually dropping?
Like…they’re really doing this, right?
Buying these today is like buying Halloween candy at full price in April which, I guess, someone would probably do.
Just couldn’t be me.
#TheKicksWeWear
OH LEH DOOOO IT
First the homie Tej got us popping with his baby boy and MAN my heart is on fire.
Then the homie Nata popped out on Bourbon in the AJ1 CMFT joints. Slick!
Then my guy Hardly Clerkin popped out with the Playoff 12s. This is such a dope joint man.
The homie Candace came through with the Free.99 Dunks and I can never get enough of these joints.
The homie Jeff came through with the Travis 6s and MAN that glow gets me every time.
Speaking of the 12s, our girl Rhe came through in the Royalty joints looking like royalty.
The homie Jas came through in some AJ1 lows that were HITTING. I am very glad she did not troll me this time lol.
Then the homie Will came through finishing off Air Max month strong in the Pattas.
Then the homie Jaz popped out in the Sacai Vapor Waffles and I feel like these are pretty underrated.
My guy Adam came through in the Tinker Jordan 3’s and these are absolutely legendary.
Then the better Mike sent us packing with these wedding 11s! CONGRATS TO THE HOMIE!!!!
We absolutely love to see it, man.
Thank you so much for rocking with me, family! Appreciate y’all. And thanks for showing love while yerboi was at the dentist this week. I appreciate you.
Let’s talk again Monday. Til then, folks. Peace and love. Be easy. Be safe. Be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯