The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 255 — 💪🏾 Power to the people
Your dollars matter. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise
Gooooood morning, family. Welcome to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me. I appreciate you.
Housekeeping: I’ll be doing a bit of traveling for Special Delivery over the weekend, so KYW will be out next Monday, November 14. Hopefully, we’ll get some good stuff that we can share with you soon!
Alright, let’s get to it.
The power of the consumer
I think if I could boil the events of the last couple of weeks between Kanye West and Kyrie Irving down into one central theme, it would be this: In this world, you can say what you want. But that doesn’t mean what you say will come without consequence.
Here’s the thing: Over the last few years, that hasn’t always felt true. We’ve seen a number of examples of that.
But in these last two cases, consequences have been in abundance.
Both Kanye West and Kyrie Irving used their platforms to peddle and promote antisemitic theories and propaganda. West, in particular, also used his brand to promote an anti-Black slogan.
In the time since, they’ve both lost a lot. Irving is suspended without pay from the Brooklyn Nets and has a suspended Nike deal. West is out at Adidas and has lost support from numerous brands including Balenciaga, Chase and more.
The why: We’ve seen people say wild things before — including these two — with no repercussions. So the question is what changed? And I think the answer is you. It’s me. It’s all of us and it’s our dollars.
They’d just lost the backing of the common folks who were there to support them before with their dollars.
Their actions triggered a reaction swift and widespread enough that it put the companies backing them in positions where they had to make decisions.
The options were either continue to remain silent or to push back. Ultimately, the decisions made were easy (albeit painful) because the people made the choice for them through public pressure. They had no choice but to move.
It didn’t help that, in both of these particular situations, neither party in West nor Irving backed down from the stances they took. And they weren’t really polarizing stances — they were just wrong.
The backdrop: Of course, there are still people who support Kanye and there are still people who support Irving through all of this. But that support doesn’t seem to be as vocal or massive as the opposition in this case.
We’ve seen this before: This is the power of the consumer at its finest. We’ve talked before about folks now hold corporations moral standards. We saw that throughout 2020 after the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many more unarmed Black people.
The people would not allow these companies to remain silent. If they did, they risked losing dollars and money talks louder than anything else.
Public pressure forced brands to put money into Black communities and Black programs. It forced them to open doors and give power to Black employees.
In this instance, that pressure was on again. But this time it forced brands to think about the standards we hold influencers to.
That standard is clear. No matter how great a particular person has been or how much money they’ve made a particular company, hate isn’t allowed. We won’t allow it.
And I think that’s a pretty good standard to operate by.
Early Access to the Lost & Found AJ1 is coming…but it’s kind of hilarious
The Lost & Found Air Jordan 1 finally populated the SNKRS app. Nike announced exclusive access coming on November 8 to the “most dedicated SNKRS Members” out there. They mean that. Literally.
The jig: Exclusive access will go to those who have entered and lost at least 20 different Air Jordan 1 High releases. Yes, seriously. Read it yourself.
Welp. I’m out.
Here’s the thing: Your brand loyalty has to be on a million for this.
Not only did you have to enter 20 times for any Air Jordan 1 model, but you also had to lose. Lose! You had to get denied 20 times just to *potentially* have access to this shoe.
Personally? I can only bang my head against a brick wall but so much. I love Nike, but not like that.
Let me be clear: This isn’t a complaint. I think it’s good that Nike is transparently telling us what the criteria is for this exclusive access drop. It’s just that this criterion is also absolutely hilarious. “If you have had the worst luck on our app for this long, we will finally throw you a bone.”
Thank you, Sneaker Gods. I guess? Good luck everyone.
Speaking of Yeezy…this stinks
The folks who will be hit the hardest by the chaos surrounding Yeezy and Adidas will unfortunately be the rank-and-file who have absolutely nothing to do with Kanye.
The backdrop: We’re already seeing the fallout.
Shortly after the company cut ties with West, it announced it initiated a hiring freeze which is always scary
In the same breath, however, it announced it “does not plan to” conduct any layoffs, which is good. And, hopefully, those plans don’t change.
Days later, however, Yeezy manufacturing partner Okabashi announced that it’d be laying off 142 workers, which is two-thirds of its staff.
The Okabashi layoffs aren’t something that falls on Adidas’ plate — it’s not an Adidas-controlled entity. But the manufacturer made that decision independently because of the decision Adidas made to cut ties with Kanye.
Be mindful: Adidas wasn’t wrong to do what they did. But there are lots of folks who are going to be caught in the crossfire here.
This is just the beginning. There’s no $2 billion stopgap out there to fill this void. A move like this reverberates for years.
Hopefully, the damage can be kept to a minimum. It just makes you wish that a global icon like Kanye West would think more about others before they speak. But that would also require a bit of kindness and humility that just doesn’t really seem to be there.
Nike is really out here blocking botters
Seeing is believing here at the Kicks You Wear. And it seems Nike really might be walking its talk when it comes to this whole botter thing.
A couple weeks ago, Nike changed its terms of sale to include some unfriendly conditions for botters.
It included Nike reserving its right to block the sale of certain items to certain consumers and charge them restocking and return fees.
What happened: They actually…they actually did it. They blocked a sale to a botter on a Nike Dunk because they had “already processed multiple orders” for the shoe.
Color me surprised. Good on you, Nike. Good on you. Let’s keep the party going.
What’s droppin, bruh?
LeBron James x Nike Dunk High “Fruity Pebble” — Tuesday, November 8
Air Jordan 1 Low “Voodoo” — Tuesday, November 8
Trophy Room Air Jordan 7 — Wednesday, November 9
Air Jordan 11 “Midnight Navy” — Friday, November 11
Air Max 97 “Silver Bullet” —Friday, November 11
Thank you so much for rocking with me, fam. I appreciate you. This has been a wild, roller coaster of a year for me and y’all have been one hell of a bright spot through it all. Thank you.
Let’s chat again Friday. Until then, folks. Peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯