The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 332 — When switching it up goes wrong 🫣
MLB players are upset about Nike and Fanatics' new uniforms
Gooooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me this morning! I appreciate you. Hope you’ve had a fantastic week. Ready for that President’s Day off?
I want to send my condolences to everyone here who may have been impacted by the shooting in Kansas City this week. What an awful situation, man. It’s shameful we have to live like this. Tell your people you love them today.
Let’s dig in.
Baseball has a jersey problem
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but people seem to have a problem with Nike’s new MLB jerseys.
The skinny: There’s a groundswell of MLB players complaining about Nike and new Vapor Premier jerseys, The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt reports.
Details: The Vapor Premier uniforms are the new on-field kits for Major League Baseball.
They were designed and engineered by Nike and manufactured by Fanatics. The uniforms use what Nike says is “at least 90 percent recycled polyester yarns” to make them. The uniforms are supposedly more breathable and stretchier than they have been in years past.
The big problem: That all sounds great. But MLB players seem to hate everything about them.
Players have called the jerseys everything but good. Most of the complaints center around the quality and look.
“They criticized the jerseys’ poor fit, cheap look, inconsistent quality and small lettering,” Nesbitt writes.
As pictures have continued to circulate the internet, complaints about the product that Nike and Fanatics have put together here have grown louder and louder amongst fans and players.
The more you know: Most of the complaints seem to center around Fanatics and the manufacturing process. There’s a perception out there that Fanatics just recently took over manufacturing for the MLB and has ruined the quality. That’s not exactly true.
Fanatics has been manufacturing the jerseys since 2020, sources at the company told me. It’s not a new role the company is stepping into.
Since the two entered their partnership together in 2019, Nike has designed and engineered the uniforms for MLB while Fanatics has manufactured them.
That’s a weird arrangement, but it’s not uncommon. “Chris Creamer, who runs SportsLogos.net, explained in an email Wednesday that it’s surprisingly common for one company to create jerseys for another brand like Fanatics is now doing for Nike,” Nesbitt writes.
In the end: It doesn’t really matter who forks what portion of the responsibility here for creating this product that nobody seems to like. The bottom line is nobody seems to like it.
When you’ve made a billion-dollar investment as Nike and Fanatics have here, that’s a problem. An expensive one. And problems like this one desperately need solutions. So that begs the question…
What’s the solution? To be quite honest with you, I’m not sure there is one. At least not in the near term.
Certainly, Nike can make changes in colors and shades. Maybe it can even correct some of the font issues involved down the line.
But as far as materials go, what you see is what you get. This is going to be the official MLB kit for this season at the very least. Players will have to get used to it. That’s not changing.
Eventually, this is going to pass just like other changes in the past have, too. Nike and Fanatics just have to hope the players don’t crap on their product enough to stop people from buying it in the meantime.
Good luck with that.
Foot Locker and Nike are playing nice again
It seems like just yesterday that Nike was slowly peeling its products back from Foot Locker’s shelves. Now, they’re at All-Star weekend together.
Details: Foot Locker is partnering with Nike and Jordan Brand to put on an activation for All-Star weekend called “The Clinic.”
It’s part of Foot Locker’s “Heart of Sneakers” initiative announced back in November.
Foot Locker will be hosting events with Victor Wembanyama (Nike) and Paolo Banchero (Jordan Brand) in Indianapolis for All-Star weekend. Read the full details on the events here.
The events aren’t necessarily the most interesting part of all this. Rather, it’s the fact that Foot Locker has this sort of access to Nike athletes to begin with.
Zoom out: Big brands like Nike are using their athletes to promote the company’s products in Foot Locker’s stores. It’s basically what House of Hoops used to be.
That makes sense, right? That used to be pretty common. But it’s something we haven’t seen in a while — at least not frequently.
Direct-to-consumer initiatives shifted brand focus on promoting their own products with their own athletes on their own channels instead of working with wholesale partners like Foot Locker and others.
That’s changing: DTC is peeling back. Nike and others are working closely with wholesalers again. And, with inventory gluts being a problem, it behooves brands to work to shed some of that weight. Wholesalers help a lot with that.
So while those problems continue to persist and plague the industry, we should expect these brands to continue to play nice.
Getting that old thing back
Speaking of All-Star weekend, there sure were a bunch of things that suddenly popped up on the for this weekend. This weekend has been sort of quiet over the last few years. This year feels a bit different though.
What’s happening: There are lots of releases on the calendar this weekend.
Adidas is pumping up a new All-Star colorway for Anthony Edwards’ signature shoe.
Nike is releasing Devin Booker’s first non-pre heat colorway for the D Book 1.
Puma has the Porsche LaMelo MB.03 releasing.
This isn’t quite 2012 All-Star weekend with the Galaxy drops. This isn’t even 2020 All-Star weekend with the AJ1 x Air Ship pack or the Yeezy QNTM drop or even the Off-White AJ5 release.
But… There’s some pretty fun and exciting stuff coming for basketball this weekend that I don’t think we should overlook.
The GOAT Valentine’s Day card
Have I ever told y’all that my wife is the best? I’m almost certain I have. But, you know, just in case I hadn’t, you should know that my wife is the best.
Here’s the Valentine’s Day card she put together for me. It’s the sweetest, corniest thing in the world. I love it so much.
On a scale of 1-10…I’m a 12, y’all. I don’t deserve her. But, every day, I’m grateful. Thank you, Jasmine. ❤️
#TheKicksWeWear
First, the homie Sam got us popping with the Walk the Dog 4/20 SBs. These are sick, man. One of the funkiest shoes out there.
Then the homie Pat came through with the Metallic Gold AJ1s. Smooth.
Speaking of AJ1s, the homie Nate popped out in the Melo PEs and these joints are TOO CLEAN. Legendary sneaks. Great pics. Man.
The homie CJ popped out in the AE 1 and every time I see one of these colorways it just keeps getting better and better. These shoes are awesome.
Then my guy Rick Dubb sent us home on Threads with the White Cement AJ3s. CLASSICS, Y’ALL.
Y’all smoked that, man. SHEESH.
That’s a wrap! Thanks so much for reading today. Y’all are the best. I hope you have a great weekend. Let’s chat again on Monday.
Until then, peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. I love y’all. We out.
-Sykes 💯
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