The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 230 — ✅ StockX is authenticating its authentication for you
The only question is how much do you actually care?
Goooood morning, family! Happy Friday! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me today. Hope you had a fantastic week.
Let’s jump in.
StockX is trying to clear its name
StockX is finally firing back at Nike after the Swoosh’s efforts to delegitimize the platform in court last month.
A recap:
Nike added false advertising and counterfeiting claims to their lawsuit against StockX in an attempt to shut down its Vault NFT program.
They claimed to have purchased fake Nike sneakers from StockX and raised concerns that consumers could get fake sneakers from the NFT program and that, in turn, could turn the public against Nike.
What’s the latest: StockX officially made its reply this week with a lengthy statement from CEO Scott Cutler.
They reinforced their authentication system does work and pointed out how integral it is to the company. They also took Nike to task by pointing out how the company’s executives have previously praised their authentication process.
Nike’s Vice President of Global Litigation and Investigations also praised StockX in writing as a “good actor” in connection with efforts to remove a counterfeit listing, and in 2020, Nike’s Brand Protection Director of Authentication and Innovation described StockX and Nike Brand Protection as “aligned on ensuring consumers only receive authentic product.”
But here’s the kicker: StockX actually peeled back the layers on the process to show exactly how their authentication process works with numbers and visualizations. They revealed to us things that they’ve been tight-lipped on for years — literally since the company’s beginning.
By the numbers: Here were some of the big revelations from around the company’s 11 authentication centers.
There have been 35 million products that have gone through the authentication process since 2016. Over the last year, they’ve had more than 1 million products go through the process per month.
The team includes more than 300 authenticators plus another 200 members that “support” the process. It wasn’t clear what that support was.
They’ve rejected more than $400 million in product since 2016, including $60 million specifically in fake sneakers.
The company also officially claims to have a 99.96% accuracy rate from their authenticators.
Truthfully, some of those numbers hold a lot more questions than answers for me that I’ll certainly be digging into. For example, how many products do authenticators see per day? Are there specific authenticators for sneakers? Are they trained? What’s that training like?
We could go deep in that rabbit hole, but we’ll hold off on that for now. What I think a better question for today might be is why is StockX doing this?
Between the lines: The answer is it's all for you.
It’s clear what Nike did in their efforts to publicly damage StockX's reputation worked in some way. This reveal was meant to counter that.
And maybe some of this would’ve been revealed, anyway, through discovery. But still, to be proactive in this way is interesting.
The next question is how much will this actually matter to the people? Will this sway anyone’s thoughts on either company? That’s something only time can tell.
The big picture: In the meantime, I, for one, am here for this transparency and hope that we get more from both sides as this thing continues further down the line.
Phil Knight owning a team might be kind of cool
In what was a pretty big shock to everyone in the sports world, Nike co-founder and chairman emeritus Phil Knight might actually get in the business of owning a sports team.
The skinny: Knight partnered up with Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Alan Smolinosky to put together a $2 billion bid for the Portland Trail Blazers, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
There has been no movement in the time since other than the Trail Blazers coming out and saying the team isn’t for sale.
Let’s be real, though — they almost certainly are. It’s been widely anticipated since former owner Paul Allen’s death in 2018 that the team would be sold.
But Phil Knight is a surprise. For years, Knight has been the apple in the eye of various sports leagues looking for owners to run their teams. And why wouldn’t he be? This guy is rich as hell. He’s also very much still plugged into Nike – maybe the biggest sports brand in the world. The positives are obvious.
But for the longest time, he’s just never seemed that interested. At 84 years old, something has changed.
These teams are play toys for the rich. It’s like buying a fancy sports car and showing it off to your friends.
Knight has never had one of those fancy sports cars, so why not get one now? Especially in Portland.
We don’t know where things will go from here. Knight and Smolinosky will need to up the bid to make it happen. They offered $2 billion, but the Blazers are worth an estimated $2 billion per Forbes.
The team is likely looking for $3 billion, per John Cazano’s Bold Face Truth newsletter.
A source told me the target price for the Blazers is $3 billion. It’s an ambitious valuation. Forbes estimated the franchise’s value at nearly $1 billion less. However, the NBA’s domestic television rights are expected to boost revenue dramatically in 2025 and industry insiders believe the franchise is baking in that increase at a premium.
That’s a lot of money. They’ve got it, though. Hopefully, they spend it. I’d love to see Phil Knight sitting courtside Mark Cuban style at Blazers games.
Also maybe we’d finally get a Damian Lillard trade. Who knows?
FINALLY. Good looks at the Reimagined Jordan 1
I had no idea what the “Reimagined” version of the Chicago Jordan 1 would look like. To tell you the truth, it doesn’t really look reimagined at all.
Take a peek: It does look good, though.
It’s the detail that really sets these things off.
There’s cracked leather on the collar of the sneaker and on the toebox and quarter-panels.
That red also looks very, very, very, very vintage. It’s just beautiful.
They aren’t disappointing at all. Don’t get me wrong — these shoes are amazing. I guess I just expected something different. In what way? I’m not completely sure. But “reimagined” implies that something has actually been reimagined instead of just recycled. That’s a nitpick, I know. But I can only be honest about it.
Regardless, these are going to go crazy in the streets once October rolls around. Can’t wait to hold this L.
Being Warren Lotas probably ain’t so terrible
So just about a year and a half ago, Warren Lotas found himself in lots of legal trouble with Nike behind the Nike Dunk lookalikes he created and sold.
Ultimately, the product was shut down by Nike after they settled with Lotas and La La Land, who promised to stop manufacturing Lotas’ Dunks.
Fast forward to today? Lotas has a deal with the NBA.
Pretty wild, right? Turns out that jumping out there and getting sued by one of the biggest marketing companies in the world probably isn’t the death knell we thought it was for him. In fact, it might be a boost?
I’m not sure. Definitely wouldn’t recommend it. Good on Lotas tho.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW WHAT IT IS! LET’S GO.
The homie Dom got us kicked off these these LOVELY Air Max 90s. SHEESH that green is vibrant.
My dog Marc came through with these SWEET 991s. So good.
Then the homie Candace popped out in the Ozweegos and I really need to find a pair.
My guy Will was outchea rocking these 997s and they look great.
The homie Jon popped out in the Tokyo Maze AM1 and MAN are these things fresh.
Sumeet popped out with the A Ma Maniére AJ2 and WOWWWWWWW they’re beautiful.
And then the homie Tommie sent us home with the Blueprint Air Max 1. So good everyone had to pull up to see it. SHEEEEESH.
YALL SMOKED THAT. 🔥🔥🔥
Thank y’all so much for reading! You are the absolute best. I appreciate you, family. Keep being great.
Have an excellent weekend. We’ll chat again on Monday. Til then, peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯
I was pretty firmly against Knight buying an NBA team after I heard about the Portland bid but I’m thinking about it a little more and it might not be a terrible idea. He would certainly bring a different perspective to owners meetings and probably knows more about the game than all the other owners.
Plus he’s old as hell so it ain’t like he’ll be in he owner forever 😬