The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 312 — 🐝 The end of Ivy Park (with Adidas!)
Beyoncé's run with Adidas is coming to an end, but Ivy Park isn't done yet. Plus Jaylen Brown is a hater and I kind of love it.
Goooooood morning, family. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me this morning.
I just want to send some love to Bowie State University. My HBCU had an incredible homecoming this weekend filled with lots of love and good vibes. Unfortunately, those good vibes were ruined by gun violence. And it came just a few days after gun violence ruined Morgan State’s homecoming week, too.
This madness needs to stop, man. Enough is enough.
Let’s jump in.
The end of Ivy Park x Adidas
The relationship between Beyoncé and Adidas is officially over.
Where we’re at: The superstar announced that the Ivy Park NOIR collection would be her last with the brand in a recent Instagram post from her Renaissance tour.
Matching the title of the collection, every single item in it is black. Bey skipped out on the pastels and used a variety of fabrics and materials to make this pop.
She and her backup dancers debuted pieces on the latest leg of her tour, which was great to see and something people have been wanting more of over the years.
The backdrop: We knew this breakup was coming. Adidas was concerned with Ivy Park’s big dips in sales over the last year.
The brand’s sales reportedly dipped by a bit more than 50% in 2022, dropping to $40 million from $93 million in 2021. Adidas also only anticipated sales to reach $65 million in 2023.
This is good timing for Adidas. Following the Kanye West breakup, it’s clear the brand needs to rethink its strategy when it comes to macro-influencers and celebrities. There’s no reason a Beyoncé collab should’ve failed the way this did.
To me, it’s a reflection of the brand not knowing how to market arguably its biggest star.
Adidas can’t treat everyone like Kanye West. Ivy Park was never going to be a Yeezy-like because Beyoncé (thankfully!) isn’t Kanye. She has her own personality and brand with her own way of doing things within that.
Beyoncé was never going to constantly market Ivy Park herself. She wasn’t going to do interviews constantly pushing her own brand. That’s just not her. Adidas seemed to expect that from her and it just never manifested. She’s not a fashion mogul — she’s a musical icon. There’s a distinct difference.
So what’s next?: Ivy Park isn’t done. Beyoncé made sure to include that “With Adidas” quote in her Instagram post. There’s more coming down the road from her with this brand.
She can take this thing a number of different ways.
Ivy Park could find itself a new brand to work pretty easily. It’s Beyoncé. Hard to think of too many brands who’d turn down an opportunity to work with her.
I could also see Ivy Park launching independently. Drops might be more scarce, but Beyoncé and her team would then be able to curate them exactly the way they want without any outside pressure from a corporation like Adidas.
My take: I think, for a while there, Ivy Park didn’t know what it wanted to be with Adidas. It was swimwear. It was gym chic. It was high fashion. And it’s fine to aspire to be all of that, but I think the brand just needed to pick a lane.
Now, at the end, I feel like it’s found a bit of a stride. The fits coordinated for the Renaissance tour have been fantastic. Not only from Beyoncé, but also with what she’s inspired fans to put together, too.
I’d love to see Ivy Park nailed down to this aesthetic moving forward no matter where it goes next. She’s got something special cookin’.
Birkenstock buys into the hype
Hype is about to bring literal billions to Birkenstock.
The news: The brand has reportedly secured enough of a commitment from investors on its upcoming IPO to gain a $10 billion valuation, Reuters reports.
The IPO will be listed at the top of the company’s range, which is around $44 to $49 per share.
How we got here: Birkenstock has always made solid products people rave about. But, in recent years, the company has really leaned into hype and collaborations to boost its profile. The company is about to set an all-time trade record on StockX, Footwear News’ Peter Verry reports.
StockX’s latest “Big Facts” report in July revealed that Birkenstock was the company’s No. 2 brand in trade growth after a 492% jump year over year. Apparently, that’s still growing.
More from Verry:
StockX confirmed Birkenstock is on pace to set another all-time trade record for the brand in 2023.
“We’ve seen incredibly strong demand for non-sneaker footwear on StockX. While the pandemic and a new appreciation for comfort has increased consumer interest in a more diverse set of footwear brands, Birkenstock’s successful collaboration strategy, obtainable price point, and celebrity fans have really given the brand staying power and will continue to fuel its success,” [StockX merchandising director] Drew Haines said.
This tracks: While it’s a bit staggering to see this interest in Birkenstock, it makes sense when you think about the brand’s most recent moves.
The collaborations the brand has done in recent years have been with big-money names. Dior is the most recent, but it’s also worked with Staud, Manolo Blahnik, Rick Owens and more.
Sure, that attracts folks who want to wear this brand. But it also attracts resellers who, admittedly, are the tide that raises all ships for these brands. That’s at the center of this hype.
Those collaborations created a buzz around the company. People already wanted to wear Birks because of the comfort, but the collabs also made the company look *cool*.
This is the playbook a company like Nike works from. Birkenstock executed it perfectly. A whole lot of folks are about to be richer for it.
Jaylen Brown is HATING … but his critique isn’t wrong
Jaylen Brown — the NBA’s newly minted $300 million man — appeared on Complex’s Sneaker Shopping series and was out here dropping bombshells.
Brown thinks today’s basketball sneakers are trash. Those are his words, not mine. I swear.
What he said:
"I think there needs to be some disruption in the sneaker game. Because everything is kind of getting boring. The design is getting lazy. There's no creativity. There's no authenticity. Some of the sneakers that are out right now, some of the designs — even for athletes — are just trash. So we've got to come with the originality and bring it back to what it was like in the 90s."
Between the lines: It’s super easy for Jaylen Brown to say this right now. He’s a sneaker free agent and not beholden to any brand at the moment so he’s got nothing to lose here (though this might also make it harder for him to find a deal!).
But, still. I don’t think he’s not off with this sentiment. A lot of you probably don’t either. By and large, today’s basketball sneakers are pretty boring.
Everything looks the same. I know y’all are tired of hearing me talk about the Kobe-fication of sneakers overall in recent years. But that’s real.
Even before that, though, the best signature basketball sneakers were in that mid-to-late 2010s era when the LeBron, Kobe and KD lines were all at their peaks.
Now, everyone has a sneaker. But nobody’s sneaker feels unique or different. Part of it is the tech. But part of it feels like brands just playing the hits on what works. And that’s not good.
The bottom line: It’s good to hear an actual athlete saying this. Shoutout to you, Jaylen Brown.
What do you think?
Let me know where you stand on Jaylen Brown’s take here. Do you think today’s hoop shoes are bad? Here’s a quick poll:
I’ll drop the results of this in the top of Friday’s newsletter.
Remember all the good I said about the Born x Raise drop? Yeah, nvm
I was incredibly impressed with how Born x Raised handled the skate shop’s Nike SB drop a few weeks ago. The operation seemed to prioritize folks within its own community who were legitimately fans of Chris “Spanto” Printup, which was really cool to me.
Now, I’m not quite sure how to feel about it.
What happened?: Twitter user Raffy Collects shared an email on Friday showing the company canceled his order. The explanation was not a good one.
“So, unfortunately we had to cancel some orders from the 12:00 AM drop in order to fulfill [Family and Friends] orders. Your order was one of the many canceled. We are very sorry for the inconvenience, and you will receive a refund back to the initial form of payment.”
Well, at least they were transparent, I guess? That’s all I’ve got. What an unbelievable explanation. Probably not a great idea to cancel customer orders for family and friends pairs, but hey. What do I know?
The game is the game, I guess. Nasty business, folks.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
AURALEE x New Balance 1906R — Wednesday, October 11
Sean Wotherspoon x Adidas Gazelle “Mylo” — Friday, October 13
Above the Clouds x Asics GT-2160 — Friday, October 13
Asphalt Gold x Saucony Shadow 6000 “Accelerate, Decelerate” — Friday, October 13
Air Jordan 1 Low “University Red” — Friday, October 13
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading this morning! I appreciate your time and I hope you enjoyed it. Let’s chat again on Friday.
Until then, peace and love. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯
I'm glad Ivy Park is leaving Adidas. Maybe now the fabrics of all the products won't feel like shit. If you put Adidas clothing next to other athletic wear/athleisure it's just not as comfy and Ivy Park always took a hit because of that fact. Like can we not line a hoodie with fleece.... You can make things that look nice AND feel nice Adidas.