The Kicks You Wear, Vol 267 — Happy almost birthday, Boost! 🎊
Adidas Boost is finna be 10 years old, y'all. Let's talk about its impact.
Goooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thank you so much for being here with me today. I really appreciate y’all.
Big shouts to my Eagles! Back to the big game. Guess I need to cop me that starter jacket I’ve been eyeing for a minute.
Here’s the link for February’s mailbag mailbox! Drop your questions in! Now, let’s get to rockin’
Adidas Boost is as old as a 5th grader
In news that might make you feel a bit older today, Adidas’ boost technology turns 10 years old in a couple of weeks.
The backdrop: In February of 2013, Adidas held an event to unveil the new Energy Boost — a new running shoe on the market infused with BASF’s foam tech in its midsole. The Energy Boost drops on February 13. It’s a hit. Two years later in 2015, we get the Ultra Boost. Kanye West wears it and the rest is history.
Since then Boost has become the lifeline for Adidas.
Boost tech has its origin in the running category, starting with the Energy Boost. But now it's literally stretched throughout Adidas in every category from running to basketball to lifestyle to skateboarding and more.
Not to mention that it is — or, uh, was — the core of Kanye West’s Yeezy line for years. All of your favorite Yeezy models incorporated boost in them.
At the moment, Adidas obviously isn’t at its pinnacle in terms of hype and cultural influence. Since its peak, Adidas has lost so many of the designers and strategists behind its rise. The fallout with West is obviously a massive setback, as were the departures of lesser known folks like Jon Wexler and Eric Liedtke.
Regardless of their current standing, there’s no denying what Adidas was at its pinnale — a powerhouse.
By the numbers: Adidas had an 11.3% share of the US athletic footwear market in 2017, per the NPD group, which rose up from 6.3% in 2016. It even surpassed Jordan Brand’s 9.6%.
By the culture: The Ultraboost, in particular, changed what running shoes looked like and the standards they had to perform by. Remember Nike’s React and the React Runners? How about the Element 55 and 87? Ah, what a time.
For my money, Boost is still the best running technology on the market in terms of quality. Nothing has managed to surpass it or quite capture the zeitgeist in the way it did.
Boost did the same thing the Air Bubble did for Nike. It started off as a design in utility and then became a foundational piece that was more cultural. What the Air Max line is to Nike in the 80s and 90s, the Ultraboost line is to Adidas in the late 2010s.
Adidas might never recapture the magic it had during that phenomenal run. Maybe it will. I have no idea.
Regardless, it’ll always have Boost. And that’s a win.
Speaking of Adidas…these Yeezy-less Yeezys look weird
Adidas told us it’d be releasing more Yeezys and it absolutely meant that. Here’s a look at the Adidas 350 v2 without Kanye West’s Yeezy branding.
What this is: It’s the “Space Grey” colorway, according to Yankee Kicks. There’s no set release date just yet, but it’s supposedly dropping this year.
I won’t lie to y’all, man. These look weird. They look like something you’d buy off of Canal Street in, like, 2017. It just doesn’t feel real.
The situation: There’s more of these coming. Adidas owns these designs. The company can market it and sell it however it likes. There are a few things in question, though.
We still don’t know how people will actually receive Yeezy-less Yeezy. There are some folks out there who will refuse to wear it with no Kanye.
It also doesn’t help that it seems like one of those people is Jerry Lorenzo, who is also currently in partnership with Adidas.
The bottom line: People aren’t going to like this. It's easy to understand why.
But the long-term play here is Adidas’ biggest concern. And, long-term, people will probably still be wearing these silhouettes, whether they have Ye on them or not.
The sneaker industry is not immune to layoffs
We’ve been seeing all of these layoffs coming down in the tech and media industries with people losing their jobs at places like Google, Vox and more. But that’s not just a tech and media thing — it’s coming in footwear retail, too.
What happened: Foot Locker just announced a round of layoffs impacting what they’re calling an “undisclosed” number of employees, per Footwear News.
The positions being cut are from what the company called “corporate and support roles.”
Foot Locker expects to save about $18 million annually because of the cuts starting in the 2023 fiscal year.
Why is this happening? It’s the same reason its happening in industries across the board — companies are sacrificing their employees in order to save a relatively insignificant amount of money.
Foot Locker is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. In the long run, $18 million in annual savings isn’t a significant amount. But, for shareholders, every little bit counts in sprucing up the company’s image.
It’s unfortunate. Especially when you consider the fact that layoffs aren’t guaranteed to save companies money, The Verge’s Elizabeth Loppato writes.
In fact, there is little empirical evidence that layoffs help improve profitability, and some evidence they actually hurt profitability, he says. “Oftentimes, companies don’t have a cost problem,” Pfeffer says. “They have a revenue problem. And cutting employees will not increase your revenue. It will probably decrease it.”
Best wishes to all those impacted by Foot Locker’s upcoming moves. If anyone reading this is impacted by this, feel free to reach out. Maybe there’s something the community can do to help.
Nike is in the newspaper
Nike pulled out a full-page ad in the New York freakin’ Times for the Tiffany Air Force 1s set to release this spring.
Honestly? I didn’t think Nike still participated in such analog forms of media. I won’t lie though — this is pretty cool. It looks great. The shoes are cool, too. I just wish the shoes had more color for $400
Anyway, shoutout to the newspapers.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Nike x Premium Goods Air Force 1 “The Sophia” — Tuesday, January 31
YCMC x New Balance 990v3 “Trail Blazer” — Thursday, February 2
Air Jordan 5 “Aqua” — Saturday, February 4
Union LA x Air Jordan 1 KO — Saturday, February 4
Tom Sachs x Nike General Purpose Shoe — Sunday, February 5
Thank you so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate you! Hope y’all have a fantastic week. Let’s talk again Friday.
Until then, folks. Peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯