The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 288 — Grand opening, grand closing...maybe 🫠
Ja Morant's behavior has potentially put his sneakers in jeopardy
Gooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me this morning. Appreciate you.
Hope you’ve got a fantastic weekend ahead of you. The weather is starting to break and Memorial Day is right around the corner. SUMMER Y’ALL. Cannot wait. Sky’s-out-thighs-out season is BYKE.
Let’s jump in.
What happened to the Ja 1?
Ja Morant has, once again, put a lot in jeopardy when it comes to his business dealings. One of those things is his Nike deal.
Though Nike hasn’t said anything about the latest instance of Morant flashing a gun on social media, his new signature shoe seems to be on shaky ground.
The details:
The Ja 1 “Hunger,” which was slated to release on May 25, has been removed from the Nike app and Finish Line, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Damichael Cole.
The only things that surface on the Nike app when you search Morant’s name are a Dri-FIT jersey, a t-shirt and a track shoe.
This is weird: It’s not a good sign. When you search for an athlete and that athlete has a sneaker, that’s the first thing that usually pops up on the Nike app. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, LeBron James. That’s just how it goes. Morant is nowhere to be found.
That leaves a lot of questions to be answered here. Particularly with an upcoming release scheduled.
The backdrop: I’ve reached out to Nike for comment, but haven’t gotten a response from the brand. It’s clearly keeping things tight-lipped for now.
In the meantime, the release is still scheduled on the SNKRS app as of Thursday evening at 5 p.m.
Reading the tea leaves: Nike seems to be distancing itself from Morant. That doesn’t necessarily mean the brand is dropping him, though.
Releasing a sneaker under Morant’s name right now might cause another unnecessary firestorm. Nike would be wise to avoid it.
A delayed drop may just be a timeout for Morant — not necessarily him getting clipped here.
As far as the SNKRS drop remaining on the calendar, we’ve seen drops get delayed on the day of release before. It wouldn’t be shocking if Nike just hasn’t changed it yet.
The reality: This is definitely not good news for Morant and definitely not what you want to see if you’re a fan of his. But this is on him. He knows where things stand right now and he’s violated a lot of people’s trust. There are consequences that come with that, whether we like it or not.
The big picture: I’m much less worried about Ja Morant’s money and contracts than I am about his actual safety and well-being. I desperately want Ja Morant to be OK, Nike deal aside.
That’s all I got. The Nike thing will play out however it does.
Why Nike is still betting on the Metaverse
If you’re one of those folks who question why Nike is still investing in the Metaverse, .Swoosh’s first real drop just gave you the answer.
The news: .Swoosh finally had its Our Force 1 drop on Wednesday where it sold digital versions of the Air Force 1 for $19.82 a pop. Things could’ve gone a lot smoother. But, either way, Nike just made a chunk of change off of digital collectibles.
The math: This tweet from Snobette’s Lois Sakany sums it all up. .Swoosh can be a cash cow.
After only selling 16,500 units, according to Nike itself, they’d have made a little over $300,000.
Yes, that’s a drop in the bucket for a multi-billion dollar company. But that can be — and will be — expanded.
The OF1 token people are purchasing here is just an entry point that will lead to more spending down the line. And it doesn’t even have to be for physical goods.
Proof of concept: Nike still has to show the value of the OF1 purchase to people so that this continues to be a thing. And a lot of sneakerheads will be turned off if this doesn’t manifest into a physical product.
But there’s no doubting that there’s money to be made here — especially if there’s something available for folks on the backend.
Yeezys might be back by next month
Adidas’ web pages around the globe are leaking details on when potential drops are coming.
On Thursday Adidas India posted a splash page that contained information about a release with a number of Yeezy styles slated for June 1.
The information also included a note that a portion of the sales would be “donated in support of the fight against discrimination, hate, racism and antisemitism.”
There were also Yeezy product pages loading for Adidas Europe earlier in the week.
Be smart: All of these leaks were eventually removed. Adidas hasn’t committed to any of this. Naturally, none of this means a drop is absolutely happening on June 1. We also have no idea what the timeline is for North America. Different regions can have different drop dates. So I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting on June.
There’s more: We need more info. Adidas has to make people OK with this sale to minimize damage to its public perception. That means the brand needs to give the public specifics.
Most importantly, we need to know what organizations Adidas will donate a portion of the proceeds to.
We also need to know how much of the proceeds will go to those organizations, specifically. One would think that it wouldn’t be any less than Kanye West’s 15% royalty.
Only time will tell. But, until we get some of that information, don’t expect any movement.
Speaking of signature shoes…
A while back there was a rumor that Anthony Edwards had a clause in his contract with Adidas that if he’d made an All-Star game, he’d get a signature shoe.
I was skeptical. But, apparently, I was wrong. We got leaked images of what is reported to be an Edwards signature shoe.
The verdict: These are solid. A bit bulky, to be sure, but they certainly feel like they’re in the Fear of God/Yeezy vain that Adidas Basketball has been taking on through these last few years. Like, this could’ve been the YZY QNTM v2 or something.
Remember: I always reserve judgment on leaks because, well, they’re leaks. And it’s never the most accurate portrayal of a sneaker. We don’t know much else about this shoe aside from it allegedly being Edwards’ sneaker.
Let’s wait for more information, obviously. But this ain’t a bad start at all.
#TheKicksWeWear
First the homie CJ came through as comfy as ever with the Hokas on. I need to stop faking and get a pair.
Then the homie D Miller came through in the Grey Day 998s. These are SUPER clean. NB really did its thing, man.
The homie Dandin came through with the DMV classic Flightposites. LOVE THESE.
My dog Rube came through with one of his students in the Fire Red 4s. Nature is healing.
Then the homie Ed came through in these CRAZY clean Adidas. These are sick man.
Then my dog Dan closed us out with some amazing Dunks and an amazing story to come with it. I HAD to share this.
Love y’all, man. Y’all SMOKED it.
Thank you so much for rocking with me today! Appreciate you. Have a fantastic weekend.
Let’s chat again on Monday. Peace and love. Be easy, be safe, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯
I have a feeling that Ja is going to get the Travis (or Tiger, for that matter) treatment.
Hold on everything until he truly gets to a good place, then
(a) build out a campaign around him and
(b) then slowly relaunch the pairs.