The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 327 — Nike's on the wrong page with Book 📖

Devin Booker's signature shoe hasn't gotten off to a great start.

Gooooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me this morning. Hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Following up in that Salehe Bembury poll from Friday: 70 of you voted in the poll. Thank you for doing that! Out of that total, 51 percent said you wouldn’t wear them. A solid 29 percent of you said you would. The other 20 percent said they were undecided.

As for me? Obviously, I’m with the 51 percent. Good luck with those, though, Crocs.

Let’s jump in.

---

This Book ain’t good

Photo by Paul Steuber on Unsplash

It’s never a good sign when the first chapter of a book doesn’t hit. That’s what seems to be happening here with Devin Booker’s first signature Nike shoe.

What’s happening: Devin Booker was seen in the comment section of an Instagram post from Complex voicing his displeasure with his sneaker’s rollout.

The prompt asked whether Nike was fumbling the Book 1 launch. According to Booker, “a lot of people feel the same way.” Big yikes.

That’s not a good sign — especially not for a shoe that’s barely a month old.

Here’s the thing: Booker is right. A lot of people do feel that way. The bad news for Nike is that they’re totally justified in their feelings.

How we got here: Nothing about this shoe’s release has felt coherent.

• Nike released the pre-heat orange colorway of the Book 1 (which is a great shoe, btw!) back in December. The drop was limited to 500 pairs and only released at UNKNWN — the LeBron James. Miami-based sneaker spot. Keep in mind Devin Booker plays for the Phoenix Suns, folks.

• On top of that, every other colorway we’ve seen on this shoe has been so unoriginal. There’ve been colorways taken from other Nike models.

  • We get the shoe pulls inspiration from several older models, but, at some point, the Book 1 has to stand on its own.

  • That’s something Nike is normally great at — look at Ja Morant’s signature shoe. But, for whatever reason, that’s not happening here.

• Plus, people just feel the shoe is bland. It doesn’t look much like a basketball shoe at all. It’s a lifestyle piece you can hoop in.

Throw all of that in the pot and you get an athlete who seems to be unhappy with his very first signature launch plus a fanbase that isn’t connecting with the product. On top of that you’ve also got another brand actively recruiting him now while under contract.

Zoom out: This adds yet another chapter (yes, that’s another book reference) to the tumultuous run Nike basketball has been on over the last three years.

1. It started in 2021 with Kyrie Irving’s unhappiness with the brand. He eventually lost his signature shoe and his entire Nike deal, obviously, for reasons outside of basketball.

2. You add Ja Morant to the equation with a new signature model and things almost immediately go left with his multi-game suspensions in the NBA.

3. Now, you add Booker, who had plenty of momentum with a fun colorway to start things off and everything just rolls downhill from there. Now, he’s unhappy.

And don’t forget: Adidas is completely smoking the basketball side of things with Anthony Edwards right now. Usually, the shoe is on the other foot here, figuratively speaking.

So what’s next: Let’s be smart about this. Devin Booker isn’t going anywhere. He’s locked in on a signature deal with Nike and this moment is only the beginning of it.

There’s good and bad to that. He’ll be a Nike guy moving forward, but the brand is also currently locked in with this shoe and its plan. From what we’ve seen so far, it hasn’t gone well. The only hope is that Nike isn’t limited in the scope of things it can change with this rollout.

The bigger question: I’ve got to be honest with you all. Seeing all this here makes me wonder why Devin Booker has a signature shoe at all. It’s not that he doesn’t deserve it or that he couldn’t make this work. It seems that Nike basketball is biting a bit more than it can chew right now.

• The brand already has its big 3 in LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo who are unquestionably priorities at this point.

• Next to that, you’ve also got the legacy line of Kobe Bryant that Nike desperately needs to find some wins with now that it’s trying to transform it into its own brand.

It’s easy to wonder how much time and how many resources it might be worth dedicating to Devin Booker just to make sure this thing works.

The smart take: Morant and Booker are both important to Nike as the youngest athletes on its non-Jordan Brand basketball roster. They’ll be huge assets moving forward.

But…if Nike is going to roll out Devin Booker’s shoe like this? Then this is all just a waste of time. And it might be best to just rethink how they’re going about this.

---

A Ma Maniere speaks on the AJ5 disaster

Remember when everyone was waiting on those A Ma Maniére Air Jordan 5 orders to finally come in? It took weeks for the brand to get folks the Dusk and Dawn pairs of the AJ5. Some orders were canceled with no real explanation as to why.

Fast forward: Now, the company is giving us a window into what happened with that drop. A Ma Maniére posted a full explanation on Instagram.

What happened: The company said there were two issues at the heart of this.

• There was an increased demand for the company’s supply network, which led to an overloaded system impacting shipping times.

• As a result of that, the order fulfillment team was tasked with both processing orders and an inordinate amount of customer service duties. The team could not handle both.

Translation: Despite how technical and complicated the brand is making the issue sound, what happened is simple. A Ma Maniére didn’t anticipate the demand for this particular drop and didn’t have the staff to handle it. That’s all it comes down to.

The company is trying to make it right by granting folks with canceled orders exclusive access on A Ma Maniére’s next drop, which is fine.

But… the most important thing the brand has to do here is make sure it’s prepared to handle things so this doesn’t happen again.

A Ma Maniére says its making the proper changes and that’s encouraging to hear. That, plus the brand’s history of actually fulfilling orders on time, should give you confidence.

But it only takes burning a consumer one time for them to lose trust in a brand completely.

• Don’t forget: The story of James Whitner’s court case looms in the background. It might not necessarily have impacted this situation, but it certainly impacts consumer trust in his brand. Perception is reality.

Let’s hope A Ma Maniére's words ring true here.

---

Saucony said y’all gon learn today

The word “Saucony” has sneaker YouTubers everywhere in shambles, dog. It’s a shame. I’ve heard every variation of the brand name from Saw-Coney to so-ko-knee to saow-cuh-knee. I’m sure I’m missing some. I don’t know which is best or worst. I just know it’s all bad.

Here’s the thing: A big part of branding is having folks pronounce your name correctly. Saucony seems to be smartly using JaeTips’ next drop to make sure we get it right collectively.

Tips posted a picture of a box that included the phonetic spelling of the brand’s name. It’s Sock-A-Knee folks.

This is hilarious, man. Two things on this:

• I just love the awareness here. Many brands are afraid to go meta and take themselves a bit too seriously. Saucony saw y’all struggling. Good on the brand for correcting the folks out there.

• If this is the box for the next JaeTips project, that’s a brilliant move. Spreading brand awareness through what is now the brand’s most hyped collaborator is an excellent strategy.

It’s also funny because this was a thing before back in 2016 and everyone hated it. I guess that’s just how the dice roll sometimes.

Anyway, let’s be better in 2024, ShoeTube.

---

Change your passwords, folks!

In news you probably would miss if you’re not paying attention, VF Corporation was involved in a massive data breach, Business of Fashion reports.

The details: This isn’t a good look for VF Corp.

• The company said the data breach involved the personal data of about 35.5 million (!!!) customers.

• It happened on Dec. 13. Unauthorized activity was detected and ended up impacting order fulfillment processes.

• The company says it doesn’t retain personal information like social security numbers or credit card data and also doesn’t have any “evidence to date” of passwords being acquired.

My take: Yeah, sure. Ok.

The big picture: This isn’t the biggest data breach we’ve seen. In a world where they’ve become so common, this one feels like a blip on the radar. But considering the scale of VF Corp and its companies (Vans, North Face, Supreme, Timberland, Dickies, etc.) it’s probably best to change your passwords and make sure your info is protected, anyway.

I’ll certainly be doing that on my end.

---

What’s droppin’, bruh?

• Air Jordan 14 Low “Love Letter” — Wednesday, January 24

• Nike Dunk Low “Photon Dust” — Thursday, January 25

• Adidas AE 1 “Arctic Fusion” — Thursday, January 25

• Reebok Preseason Low 94 — Friday, January 26

• Nike SB Dunk Low Pro “Court Purple” — Saturday, January 27

---

That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you giving me a bit of your time. I hope you enjoyed it!

Let’s tap in again on Friday! Until then, peace and love! Be easy, be safe, be kind. We out.

-Sykes 💯