The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 331 — The Super Duper Double Deckers 💥
Deckers has a super sneaker brand coming and I really want to know what it is.
Gooooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate you. Hope you’ve got a great week ahead of you.
On the Air Max DN: The poll results are in. There were 69 (lol) of you who voted — thank you for that! A whopping 57 percent of you are here for the latest Air Max model. Another 29 percent say they’re trash. The other 14 percent of you want Js.
I’ll be honest. I didn’t expect that! I’m glad y’all are excited, though. I am, too.
HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: In light of the NBA trade deadline and the *checks calendar* Super Bowl coming up, KYW will be out this Friday and next Monday seeing as my hands will be full at my day job. We’ll be back on the 16th.
Alright, let’s jump in.
Deckers’ super sneaker
Deckers CEO keeps talking about a super secret sneaker brand that it’ll be unveiling soon and I’m so curious about what it might look like.
The skinny: Deckers CEO Dave Powers talked about the upcoming brand in the company’s Q3 call, Footwear News’ Stephen Powers writes.
This is a new brand entirely coming under the Deckers umbrella, Owens says. The company is developing it in the same innovation lab where it works on new Ugg, Hoka and Teva products.
Owens is calling it a “new kind” of sneaker brand that is built using the best performance technology featured in Deckers’ other brands.
While it’ll be built for performance, Owens says, it’ll also be a day-to-day wear, too.
More details will be unveiled to us sometime around March and April.
My take: As you’ve probably guessed from reading all of that, I’m skeptical about this. What can I say? I’m just naturally a cynic. Anytime a CEO gives you a big promise, you should always take it with a grain of salt.
Owens is going to oversell this. He wouldn’t tell us if Deckers was selling us garbage even if he pulled it right out of a dumpster. That’s not what CEOs do.
Plus, haven’t we heard this all before? An all-purpose sneaker that’s supposedly perfect in every area? Lifestyle and performance. That’s tough to do.
We’ve seen the “stuff sneaker X full of technology” playbook before. That’s where performance basketball is right now and we’ve seen how that’s worked out. Trying to do too many things at one time is usually the downfall of a sneaker. At least in my view, anyway.
But… With that said, there is part of me that remains genuinely curious about what Deckers has going on here.
Here’s why: Let’s face it — out of every footwear brand people are wearing right now, Deckers has one of the best contemporary track records as far as innovation goes.
What the brand has been able to build through Hoka over the last few years has been impressive. It’s emerged as one of the leading brands in the running space.
Plus, Ugg’s continued evolution as a lifestyle and luxury brand shows the company knows how to walk the line.
The proof is in the pudding. Deckers just had the best quarter in its history with a 16 percent jump in sales to $1.56 billion.
The company is doing stuff that works right now. It’s got two of the hottest footwear brands out there right now and 2024 is looking up for it, which is something its biggest competitors cannot say.
Maybe whatever Deckers has coming is actually good? Nobody knew the Ultraboost was going to work until it did. Obviously, Kanye West did a lot of signal boosting there. But still! Gotta start somewhere, right?
I’m not saying this super brand or whatever is that. It might actually just stink. But I do think it’s worth waiting around for.
I guess somebody does love the Jumpman Jacks
Looks like the time is here, folks. Travis Scott’s “Jumpman Jack” signature shoe shock dropped on Sunday night, in case you missed it.
As expected: It went terribly. The shoe sold out in literal seconds. It populated on Travis Scott’s site and was gone almost immediately.
There was very little warning that came with it.
The most people got was a change in the Jumpman logo on Instagram to add a lil bit of Spideysense to it. Or, uh, Travissense? Idk what to call it.
Some leakers also announced that the shoe populated on the backend of Travis’ site, which, it’s always great to know when the bot monitors are picking up on highly coveted drops. Got to love that.
And, just like that, they were gone. As expected.
But fret not: If you’re actually into these, this wasn’t the real thing. It’s just part of the marketing for it. Nike’s push on these is just starting.
The drop was timed to coincide with Scott’s performance at the Grammy’s.
The quick sellout was because there weren’t actually that many pairs available. The shoes were made artificially scarce to create hype.
The company also dropped a full commercial and poster surrounding the shoes.
You can best believe there’s a wider release coming for these joints.
What I’m watching: I want to see how much Nike believes in this signature shoe. The brand did its usual thing in generating hype on Sunday night. But how wide will this release be? Will the supply remain this short? Do people actually like them like that?
We’ll find out soon enough.
The discounts are still discounting
If you still feel like you’re seeing a ton of sales on Nike products at wholesale retailer spots, you’re not tripping. You are. And it’s been going on for a while.
What’s happening: Nike’s wholesale partners are slashing prices on the brand’s products deeper than they have in years, Kathern Masters of Reuters writes.
The numbers: The discounts are reaching heights higher than what we saw in the middle of the pandemic, according to data firm Vertical Knowledge.
The firm recorded data from a set of eight wholesale retailers. They’ve slashed prices on Nike products by 44 percent on average.
That number was only at 19.4 percent during a comparable period amongst those same retailers in 2022.
Competitors aren’t seeing the same discounted rates, Masters writes. “Nike sneakers at a discount than they did Hoka sneakers (4.5%), Adidas shoes (18.9%), Switzerland-based ON Running shoes (23.1%) or Puma styles (37.4%).”
Zoom out: This is a problem. Nike pivoted from its direct-to-consumer attack a bit last year to get back in bed with a few retailers like Macy’s and DSW again.
But as Nike is starting to work with these retailers again, interest in certain products that worked before seems to be waning. People aren’t willing to just buy any Jordan at full price anymore. We’re in “been there, done that” territory. That’s why people are pivoting to other brands.
Until the people see something new and interesting, those discounts will likely have to continue.
Translation: Nike needs to find another hit and it needs to do it fast.
BHM is in effect!
The footwear brands might not be doing it big for Black History Month, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to.
The good homie, JerLisa, is doing her BHM KOTD activation again this year. She has sneaker prompts for every single day of the month, honoring some moment in Black history.
She explains the moments on Twitter and what the prompts mean, so hit that follow button so you can tap in.
Here’s the calendar:
We’re a few days behind here, folks, but better late than never. Tap in with her.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
KD 4 “Year of the Dragon” — Wednesday, February 7
Kobe 8 Protro “Aqua” — Thursday, February 8
New Balance MiUSA 990v4 Black/White — Thursday, February 8
Nike SB Dunk Low “City of Love” — Friday, February 9
Air Peg 2k5” — Friday, February 9
Nike Lunar Roam “Desert Moss” — Friday, February 9
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you all a ton. Your time means a lot to me. Sorry I’ll be away for a minute here. The sports are sporting again.
I’ll be back soon, though! Promise. Until then, peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯