The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 252 — ⏳️ It's about damn time

Nike is finally doing something about the bots

Oct 14, 2022

Goooood morning, family. Thank you so much for rocking with the Kicks You Wear this morning. I appreciate your time.

Hope you’ve had a fantastic week and are headed into an awesome weekend. Did y’all get your Halloween costumes yet? Jasmine got me one. It’s Piccolo from that episode of Dragon Ball Z where he and Goku had to get their driver’s licenses. My wife, y’all.

Let’s jump in.

Better late than never, I guess?

Nike #just do it text — *Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash*

People have been begging Nike to do something about their bot problems for years with no answers. Until now.

The news: Nike updated its terms of sale agreement to include anti-bot regulations, according to the Wall Street Journal.

According to their new terms, the swoosh can:

Cancel orders, charge restocking fees, limit purchase quantities and deny access to folks who aren’t end-consumers.
It also stated it could cancel orders if they’re made or appeared to be made through an automated service — aka bot orders.

The how: This is feasible. Nike should be able to go through orders and easily identify folks who’ve made multiple orders of one SKU or see who is making bulk returns. How isn’t really the right question.

It’s why: Nike has seemingly been fine with botters running amok over the last few years, especially. And, from a business standpoint, it makes sense.

Botters purchase the same products end-consumers are. Their intent — which is to resell and not to wear — is just different. But we pay the same $100 for, say, the Panda Dunk.
To Nike, that $100 is $100. It doesn’t matter who bought it or why they did. Just that they bought it.
They're also more likely to come back for drops in their mission to squeeze out a profit.

We hate resellers, but they’re a reliable source of profit for these brands. That’s why they’ve mostly been hands-off until now. So the question is why would Nike jeopardize that?

The reason: They seem to finally be prioritizing the end-consumer, or the person who just wants to wear the kicks. And I think that might be true on one hand.

People have been asking for this for years now. And Nike has given a ton of lip service to everyday consumers this year to keep their brand loyalty strong.
These new terms probably won’t change much, but will give the consumer more confidence because “hey, at least they’re trying now.”

What I think: The cynic in me won’t allow it to be just that. There’s too much at play for it to be that simple.

The sneaker resale market is cooling. It’s less profitable and easier for big brands like Nike to hit because sellers aren’t as active.
Nike is also sitting on excess inventory. Creating new terms in which they can block mass returns allows them to keep that inventory sold.
Plus, the (mild) conspiracy theorist in me thinks that Nike has a resale market play of their own coming down the line. It would be massive and lucrative. And we’ve already seen signs of it from Nike refurbished.

That last point is another discussion for another day. But the crux of this is Nike has plenty of reason to do this right now. It’s not a terribly difficult thing for them to do and it probably won’t change much at all.

Whether there’s any impact here for regular consumers remains to be seen. Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it.

Going winless for Wembanyama stretches into sneakers, too

Victor Wembanyama is breaking basketball, but he’s also about to break the signature sneaker world, too.

The background: For those of you who don’t know, Wembanyama is a French kid who is essentially what LeBron James was back in 2003.

He is the most can’t-miss NBA prospect since LeBron James. The dude is a basketball alien.
He’s only 18 years old but is already 7’3. But he can dribble like a point guard, shoot like a wing and protect the rim like a center.
See for yourself. Look at this kid.

What’s happening: Wembanyama is going to sign a massive sneaker deal whenever he makes it to the NBA. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony is reporting that brands are already talking about signature shoes for him. Nike seems to be the lead suitor but he can go anywhere he pleases.

There's already talk of signature shoe deals on the horizon -- a rarity for rookies -- either from Nike, which has Wembanyama under contract for two more seasons, or other companies vying for his services. This despite the old adage "big men don't sell shoes," which Wembanyama is looking to test with the incredible amount of interest he is generating on and off the floor.

That’s weird, y’all: There are two counts against Wembanyama here. He’s a rookie and he’s a big man. And big men normally don’t sell sneakers well. There are exceptions like Shaquille O’Neal, but the history there is well documented.

But brands are willing to throw that all aside for this kid. And, honestly? Nobody can blame them.

Hot take incoming: He’s the greatest NBA prospect we’ve ever seen (yes, ever). Missing out on that could mean missing out on potentially billions for the next decade and more.

If there’s any risk, you’ve got to take it. He’s just that good.

GOAT just acquired Grailed

In news I think we all saw coming, GOAT is reportedly acquiring Grailed, according to Bloomberg.

Details:

The exact terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
Grailed will still operate as Grailed — its branding won’t change just yet. But it’ll adopt GOAT’s payment and shipping structure.

It’s about time: This felt inevitable after GOAT was the lead investor on a $60 million round of funding for Grailed last year along with a few other groups. It’d been clear that this was a point of interest for GOAT.

The why: They’re interested in the apparel side of the brand, Bloomberg’s Kim Bhasin writes. That’s a space where GOAT has been looking to grow.

“Eddy Lu, co-founder and chief executive officer of Goat Group, said Grailed offers unique items such as rare Balenciaga jackets and vintage Coogi sweaters that can’t be found elsewhere. “

This is a pretty exciting acquisition. Grailed has always been one of my favorite secondary market spots because of the vintage finds. It’ll be interesting to see how they continue to evolve.

But, uh, can we get that Android app back tho? Figured I’d ask.

My obsession: My new favorite Instagram

The homie Sumeet just launched a Humans of NY style sneaker account called @KicksFamofIG and it’s the absolute best. Partly because I am featured but, also, mostly because WOW this is a fantastic idea.

kicksfamofig