Gooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me today — I appreciate you.
REMEMBER: The KYW February Mailbag is coming this week! The inbox closes on Thursday. Make sure you get any questions you have in here. So far I got three questions from y’all. Don’t make me fight you.
Let’s jump in.
The feeling was *almost* restored
That All-Star game was boring. But, man. I can’t lie. It was cool seeing basketball sneakers retake center stage for the weekend.
The rundown:
For Jordan Brand, Jayson Tatum debuted his new signature shoe on the court and he won All-Star MVP in them — a dream scenario.
For Nike, Ja Morant showed off an iced-out version of his kicks and the swoosh dropped an All-Star pack for LeBron, Giannis and KD.
Puma signed Mac McClung and then he gave us an all-time performance in the Dunk contest. The brand also debuted a $1,000 Balmain basketball shoe, which…yeah, that’s wild.
For Adidas, Donovan Mitchell debuted his 5th shoe and the brand announced the launch of a reimagined version of Kobe’s old line.
Maybe I’m tripping, but this felt a bit closer to what OG All-Star weekends once were.
No, we didn’t get another 2012 Nike Galaxy Pack with the foams or the 2010 Wild West pack. It wasn’t quite Chris Webber’s Dada Chromes and we didn’t get an Omni Lite moment from the dunk contest. But, for the first time in a while, I cared about performance basketball sneakers again.
The background: That used to be the norm. All-Star weekend has always been the biggest stage for basketball sneakers.
The origin starts back in 1988 when Jordan debuted the Air Jordan 3 — the White Cements in the dunk contest and the Black Cements in the actual game. It continued on for decades with the models we mentioned above.
That changed for a few reasons.
Runners and retro overtook contemporary basketball looks as what the “in” style was. The All-Star launches followed suit.
We also saw brands prioritize celebrity influencers more than athletes. Collabs from folks like Virgil Abloh, Kanye West, Joe FreshGoods were highlighted by brands more than signature kicks. Athletes just became walking billboards.
In the meantime, basketball shoes also became much less wearable. The aesthetic was sacrificed for technology and performance, making them even less popular.
We’re still in that phase. You’re not wearing any of the basketball sneakers that debuted this weekend at the club. But this weekend felt like a bit of progress.
Let’s be honest: Things also could’ve been better. There was history to tap into that remained untouched.
The Air Jordan Aqua 8 is my favorite All-Star sneaker. Jordan debuted it 30 years ago in Utah on that same floor. Someone should’ve worn that. Jordan Brand should’ve retroed it specifically for this moment.
This is a missed opportunity. It speaks to how scattered some of the planning surrounding retro is these days. That’s another conversation for another day.
Look. I don’t see basketball sneakers becoming the norm again — not for a long time. But becoming fun again is step 1 in that process. That box was checked this weekend. I’ll take that as a win.
Could Nike x BAPE have actually been a thing?
Nike’s lawsuit against Bape just got a whole lot more interesting over the weekend.
The news: In the original suit filed to New York’s Southern District Court, Nike claimed after a 2009 meeting with BAPE the two sides came to an agreement that included BAPE peeling back on Nike’s North American territory.
BAPE is saying the meeting went a little differently, according to Complex’s Brendan Dunne.
In their response filed to the court, BAPE claims Nike offered it a licensing agreement back in 2009, showing the company made an effort to work with BAPE instead of suing it.
The company initially turned Nike away and asked for clarification on what BAPE was doing wrong. The letter claims it didn’t receive a response from Nike.
Here’s a snippet via Complex:
“We appreciate your efforts in coming over to Japan to discuss and present the license agreement in person. On careful review the license is not something we can rush to agree to since we do not perceive that Nike would have, at this late date, if at all, any viable or actionable claims against Nowhere/Bape.”
The big picture: This is such a fascinating wrinkle to this story. If this is true — which BAPE seems to have an email indicating it is — it feels like a licensing agreement with BAPE was potentially thought of as an alternative to suing it for Nike.
That…would’ve been a brilliant move.
First, it skips over the murky legal territory that could arise from Nike — a North American company — suing a Japanese brand in BAPE.
Plus, at the time, the BAPESTA was more interesting than the AF1. People were more into the colors and the variations the Japanese brand presented.
This could have been Nike finding a non-litigious way to get the money it felt like BAPE owed it. And it absolutely could’ve worked. Why it fell apart? We’ll probably find out as this case moves along.
What’s next: BAPE requested a pre-motion conference between the two sides before it decides to file a motion to dismiss Nike’s lawsuit entirely. The Japanese streetwear brand wants to settle before things go any further. We’ll see if it works out.
What is Jordan Brand doing with Billie Eilish?
I don’t really know what Jordan Brand is doing with Billie Eilish anymore.
What’s coming: The next project Billie has been tapped for is a retro of the Air Alpha Force — a model MJ wore once ahead of his transition to the Jordan 3 from the Jordan 2 in 1988.
It mostly looks exactly like that model.
Here’s my deal: That’s why this is so confusing. This shoe looks…just like the OG Air Alpha Force did.
Billie Eilish’s Nike and Jordan Brand collabs have obviously been off-the-cuff to this point, which has been totally intentional.
Jordan Brand had the pop star work with the Jordan 15 (a shoe Jordan never wore on court) and the Air Jordan 1 KO (the “knockoff version of the OG model.)
Her Air Force 1 with Nike didn’t have laces — it came with straps instead to give it a completely unconventional look.
The point seems to have been to shine a light on lesser-known Jordan models for a new generation of consumers through Billie Eilish. But that’s not really what’s going on here with the Air Alpha Force.
This looks like just a regular, retro version of the shoe. It just has Eilish’s logo on the insole and the tongue looks a bit different.
That’s all fine. It’s a great shoe. Nobody is going to hate the look. But this doesn’t feel like the greatest use of a collab.
Michael Jordan was and is a true maniac
Happy belated birthday to Michael Jordan. The GOAT turned 60 last week, and to celebrate Andscape’s Aaron Dodson put together 23 fun sneaker facts about MJ. I don’t know what else to say besides you should really read this.
Every story is great, but my favorite has to be this one from Jo Jo English on the one time he wore the Jordan 10s…*without Mike’s permission.
“I wore Jordans once on the court in my career; the pair Scottie Pippen held up and pointed at to get MJ to come back to the Bulls. One day, I went to my locker at the Berto Center [the Chicago Bulls’ former practice facility] and we all had a pair. So, I didn’t think anything of it and wore them in one of the first five games of the [1993-94 NBA season]. Before the following practice, I’m in the Berto Center getting taped up. MJ, even when he was retired, used to come by the facility. He was sitting on the training table and said, ‘Yo, young fella. Who gave you permission to wear my shoes?’ He was kind of joking, but he kind of wasn’t. He said, ‘You have to get my permission. Don’t worry about it. Just don’t let it happen again.’ Back then, nobody was really wearing Jordans but him. Scottie wore them to get him to come out of retirement. But I wasn’t supposed to.”
Dog. This is unbelievable to me. Imagine LeBron telling, like, Troy Brown Jr. he can’t wear LeBron 20s without his permission. That’s what this is. Jo Jo was just trying to show this man love and he hit him with a “don’t let it happen again.” EL. EM. A. O.
HBD Mike. Hopefully, I don’t have to check in to say that.
What’s droppin, bruh?
Nike Vomero 5 “Photon Dust” — Wednesday, February 22
Nike SB Dunk Low “Adobe” — Wednesday, February 22
DTLR x New Balance 990v3 “Greyscale” — Friday, February 24
A Ma Maniére x Air Jordan “She is the Blueprint” — Friday, February 24
Air Jordan 6 “Cool Grey” — Friday, February 25
Thank you so much for rocking with me. Appreciate you. Have a fantastic week, homies. You deserve. REMEMBER: Get those mailbag questions in for next week!
Let’s chat again on Friday. Til next time. Peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯