The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 233 — 🤔 Is that...a WNBA signature shoe?
Is Nike hiding a signature WNBA model in plain sight?
What’s good, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me this morning. Appreciate you.
The Bachelor party was fun! Next step is the wedding. I cannot wait for July, y’all.
Let’s dive in.
Is this Elena Delle Donne’s signature shoe?
We’ve been asking for a WNBA signature shoe for years now. But it turns out Nike might’ve just had one hiding in plain sight.
Wait, what?: No, seriously. Elena Delle Donne seems to have a signature shoe. The Mystics star has been posting about this unnamed FlyEase model she’s been wearing for a while now. Here’s a look.
She called it the Air Deldon. It has her logo on it along with a signature box. Honestly, it all looks great. It was just hard to know this was hers because we haven’t heard a peep about it.
Between the lines: We’ve known this was a shoe that exists since early May. Delle Donne debuted it at the top of the WNBA season. The only coverage of these I could find in researching these came from Sole Collector, where it was just referred to as an “unnamed” silhouette.
That makes sense because you don’t want to assume that a sneaker is something that it isn’t. Especially considering Delle Donne also has a history with Nike PEs.
She was the face of the Nike Air Zoom UNVRS. It wasn’t exactly a “signature” shoe though.
It would be reasonable to think the shoe Delle Donne is showcasing now could’ve possibly be the second iteration of the UNVRS.
That’s not how Delle Donne is referring to this — she’s calling this her signature shoe. That’s a pretty huge deal considering it’s been a decade since we had a female signature athlete from literally any brand.
The big question: So why didn’t we know? Why would Nike keep quiet on that considering how big a deal this is? It just doesn’t make a ton of sense.
Nike is one of the best marketing companies in the world. They don’t miss opportunities like this one — not normally, anyway.
This is a golden opportunity. People are going crazy over Breanna Stewart’s upcoming signature model with Puma. You think they wouldn’t go crazy over EDD’s sneaker with Nike?
I reached out to Nike looking for confirmation that this is a signature model and an explanation on why it’s been so quiet, but they’ve yet to comment.
The only explanation I can somewhat buy into is that the shipping crisis delayed their release, which would in turn delay the marketing push. But then, why would Delle Donne still be wearing them? I’m not sure. It’s all confusing.
I’ll keep trying to get to the bottom of it. Hit me back, plz, Nike. I know y’all read this.
Beware of the Protection Pack
Folks have been looking forward to the next batch of Protection Pack sneakers from New Balance for quite some time, so it’s not surprising that they’d be doing numbers on StockX.
It just looks like the pairs sold might also be fake.
What’s happening: Fake pairs of New Balance Protection Pack sneakers are circulating around and, apparently, even getting certified by StockX.
Someone shared this pair online. There’s a picture of a fake tag with missing manufacturing date and a real one sent from a retailer on an authentic pair.
I’m not going to lie — this caught me off guard. You don’t really see this happening with New Balance pairs very often.
The most coveted pairs are made in the US or the UK, which limits the issue of fakes.
But, more importantly, there aren’t that many hyped NB pairs out there fetching insane resale value. At least relative to competitors like Nike and Adidas.
So what happened: New Balance hasn’t given these a wider release. And, with that, the homie Sockjig posited a theory that this was just a really good opportunity for inauthentic manufacturers because of a lack of authentic pairs out there to compare them to.
Be careful, y’all. This just goes to show you how easy it is to get scammed out here.
Oh my God, what happened to Union?
Man, these Union drops, huh? The last few months have been absolutely brutal for every drop they’ve had. But the latest Cortez drop had everyone tweeting like this.
The skinny: There were reportedly less than 5,000 pairs of these to go around between both colors on this drop. That doesn’t even dive into how scarce the sizing was. I entered for a size 13 for a homie with a 3-minute wait in the queue. They were sold out after 30 seconds. That’s how bad this was.
I don’t want to complain because, ultimately, this was a collab. And collabs are always hard to get. But this frustration has been 2022 in a nutshell for Union, though.
The Jordan 2 release is still the worst drop of the year with the thousands in held charges and late shipping dates.
The Dunk wasn’t much easier with super limited supply on that drop.
This is disappointing: Mostly because Union was so good at their drops in 2021. The Jordan 4 release wasn’t the smoothest, but it felt fair and accessible. It didn’t come at a cost and it didn’t bring you headaches.
Can’t say the same about this year, unfortunately.
Batman rocked Nike once and it was pretty cool
I don’t know about y’all, but I think about Michael Keaton’s Batman fairly often.
Not just because he was the best Batman ever — well, honestly, Pattinson might have him beat now — but also because he actually rocked Nikes on set. And, honestly, I’ve always wondered why.
The skinny: Complex’s Brendan Dunne has an answer for us. Apparently, it was because of a product deal set up by producer Jon Peters
“He wanted all the background, all the actors to be wearing Nike sneakers,” [Graham] Churchyard says. “And we said, ‘John, it doesn’t fit with our 1940s wingtips and double-breasted suits and fedoras and the trenchcoats and all of that.’ It didn’t fit in with that Gotham City.”
But Peters needed Nikes in the movie, according to Churchyard, in order to satisfy a product deal he’d struck. So rather than dress the entire fictional world in sneakers, the costumers settled on outfitting the leading (Bat) man with a pair.
The more you know, y’all. I’d always wondered why there felt like such a stark contrast between the Bat’s outfit and the rest of the world in that film. Now I get it.
Worth your time: How Tinker Hatfield Outfitted Bruce Wayne
#TheKicksWeWear
LET’S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBES
First, my guy Yosh got us started with the Sachs GPS joints. I can’t wait to get some of these, man.
Then the homie Storm showed the Dubs some love with these volt gold AJ1s. SHEEEESH.
Then my guy Barrett came through in the Blu The Great “Fearless” AJ1 and, MAN, these are spectacular. Shouts to the Trail Blazers, btw.
My guy Nic came through and made me jealous with these Teddy Santis 990v2s. Why was I not picked, Teddy? Am I not good enough?
The homie Brett came through flexing calling these AJ3s his beaters. THESE ARE BEATERS FOR HIM. I love it.
‘Then my dog Rick Dubb popped out in the “Road” SB Dunk Lows. These joints are SICK.
Then the homie Peter sent us packing with these Tiffany SBs. Just…just look at them. Good Lord, man.
SMOKED THAT. Good stuff, y’all.
Thank you so much for rocking with me, fam! Your time is precious and I appreciate you giving me a bit of it.
Let’s chat again on Monday. Til then, peace and love. Be easy. Be safe. Be kind. And we out.
— Sykes 💯