The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 228 — Is it just me or is the market cooling? 🥶
The secondary market feels like it's correcting itself a bit
Gooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me on this glorious Memorial Day weekend. Hope you’re having a great one.
We’re going to keep things chill today since it’s a holiday weekend. Hopefully, you’ll spend more time eating than reading this.
Alright, let’s jump in.
A little patience goes a long way
I always preach patience in this newsletter when it comes to buying sneakers. When you miss something, more often than not, just waiting a few weeks to go to the secondary market is the best strategy.
Sometimes, it doesn’t pay off and the price of the sneaker on the aftermarket just ends up being the price. But today that patience strat feels more effective than ever.
Prices are dipping. Ever so slightly and ever so slowly — but they’re definitely dipping.
Last week’s examples: The Salehe Bembury Crocs and the Travis Scott Air Trainers and Air Max 1s were two of the most anticipated drops of this year so far.
Last week, the Crocs were selling for nearly $500. The Air Trainers were selling for nearly $600. The Air Max 1s were over $1,000 earlier this month.
In looking at StockX’s index right now, the Crocs are down to around $160 the Air Trainers are at $195 and the Air Max 1 is at $309.
This is happening not even a week after the official release of these sneakers. As more time goes by, prices will continue to dip once more restocks come along and people move on to the next big thing in the sneaker world.
Why is this happening: There are a few things impacting this.
People are finally spending less. As inflation continues to rise and the price of necessities like groceries and gas continues to grow, consumer priorities shift.
There are also more pairs being made available. Between restocks and larger scale drops, it’s a bit easier to grab new pairs right now.
There’s also so much in the market. Everyone is dropping 2021 goods because of the supply chain crisis. We’re being overstimulated right now and it’s hard to care about everything.
The big picture: For the average consumer who just wants kicks, this is good. It makes doubling back on the secondary market a more viable option. And not just for collabs — for general release sneakers, too. Go look at those 2021 Dunk prices, y’all.
So, no. Don’t rush to resale on these drops. Just wait. You’ll be rewarded.
TOM SACHS BYKE!!! But in a simple way
It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a Tom Sachs shoe. The last one was the Mars Yard overshoe in 2019, to be exact. That’s changing soon, though.
He’s back with Boring: Sachs is dropping the General Purpose shoe on June 10. And it looks exactly like its name.
If you ever pictured a Tom Sachs GR model in your mind, this feels like exactly what it’d have looked like. It’s like a fusion between the Nike Daybreak and the Waffle One.
But that’s the point: It’s supposed to be plain and uninteresting. That’s part of his message with this one.
“Your sneakers shouldn’t be the most interesting thing about you. They are tools, and what matters about your tools is that they work. They do their job so you can do yours. You put them on and forget about them. You focus on getting a little bit faster, a little bit sharper, on finding the signal in the noise.”
This sort of messaging reads like a shoe that should be pretty available for the everyman — something we can’t say about other Sachs models. Often they are feature. And they resell for literal thousands of dollars. It feels, to me, like this shoe sort of scoffs at that mentality and I love it for that.
Btw…Yo, Tom. If you’re reading this and you’re doing some sort of workshop with these? Please, count me in.
-Your pal, Sykes 😂
Stop hating on the Panda Dunk, y’all
I’ve seen so many videos on TikTok and so many posts on Instagram trashing Nike’s Panda Dunk.
What they’re saying: People are calling these joints the new “Air Force 1s” but, like, not in a good way. I get the restocks can be frustrating because of botters. But the more, the better. At least in my opinion, anyway.
We talked about that on this week’s episode of Special Delivery
Stop hating, folks.
A world with $39.99 Jordan 1s
Jordan 1s really used to sit on clearance racks, y’all. This video from zSneakerheadz is unreal.
What you’re watching: This is a reel from zSneakerheadz showing a “Nike Week” ad from 1986 where they’ve got a bunch of Nike gear on sale. The Jordan 1 is just $39.99, y’all.
I cannot even imagine this today, fam. The Georgetown Hi ‘85 literally retailed for $200.
Just goes to show us, man. You never know what the next it sneaker will be next. Always cherish your kicks — if only because they might be worth millions in 40 years.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Sneaker Politics x Asics Gel-Lyte III — Monday, May 30
Nike Air Trainer 1 “Photon Dust” — Thursday, June 2
Nike Dunk Low “Rose Whisperer” — Thursday, June 2
Nike Air Max2 CB 94 — Friday, June 3
A Ma Maniére x Air Jordan 2 “Airness” — Friday, June 3
Thank y’all so much for rocking with me, fam! Appreciate you. Have an incredible Memorial Day weekend.
Remember, KYW is out for Friday but will be back next week. We’ll chat then. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯
I bought Jordan 1s OG red white and black, for less than $60 back in that day.
I agree about the cooldown, I stopped in two big box sneaker stores as well as two boutiques in the last month to “browse” and all had a selection of shoes that would’ve been only available on the resale market a few months ago.
It goes the other way too - copped the AJ13 singles day under retail even after fees from stockx!