The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 335 — Time to give it up? ⏱

Adidas' Yeezy plan isn't looking so great right now

Gooooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks for rocking with me this morning. I appreciate you.

Hope you had a great week so far. Can you believe it’s Friday already? I feel like we made it here kind of quickly. Whatever. I’m grateful. Been a long week, folks.

Let’s jump in.

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Is Adidas’ Yeezy run over?

Photo by David Lezcano on Unsplash

A big part of Adidas’ strategy for 2024 is selling what remains of its Yeezy inventory to customers who want it. But, uh, it doesn’t seem to be going that well. At least not if Thursday’s Steel Grey 350 v2 drop is any indication.

What happened: Adidas dropped the pair on the CONFIRMED app on Thursday with a raffle that ended at 10 a.m. Eastern. The interest for these sneakers wasn’t there.

• The raffle was extended to give consumers a “last call” for the sneakers, indicating that the pair hadn’t sold out as it usually does.

• There also seemed to be plenty of sizes generally available, per Sole Retriever.

The background: One of the biggest reasons these struggled might be because of a new Adidas raffle charge policy.

In the past, entering raffles on the CONFIRMED app just meant submitting payment information, your shoe size and awaiting a verdict. The new policy allows Adidas to charge you full price upon entry. You’ll be refunded within 14 days if you don’t win.

• I contacted Adidas officials about this new policy and was told this was an “extra layer” added to the process turn away resellers and their bots.

• “We take every opportunity to ensure that all high-demand product available via Adidas dot com and our Adidas apps are delivered into the hands of consumers,” the company said in a statement issued to KYW.

In the end, I do think the company’s intentions were good here, but it also may be getting in its way with this one. Some customers weren’t pleased with this decision.

Don’t believe the hype: There is the whole Kanye West rant thing that people are pointing to as a possible reason for the cool on these. Basically, he called Adidas out for selling these and called the shoes fake on Instagram.

I wouldn’t bet on that having much of an impact, though.

• West has been singing the same song since Adidas cut him and it hasn’t mattered. Folks still purchased billions of dollars worth of Adidas. That was just a few months ago.

The real answer is this: These shoes just…might not be that good. It’s Occam’s razor.

• It’s an all-grey version of the 350 v2 — a shilouette with its best days behind it in a bland colorway.

• Add a $230 price tag plus shipping and you’ve got something people might just not be that interested in buying.

If this were, say, pairs of slides or foam runners, there’d still be folks lining up to buy these. But that’s not what this is. It’s new and lacks color to draw people in. There’s no real reason to go for these unless you’ve been jonesing for a new pair of 350s. Not many folks are falling into that category these days.

The big picture: If that’s the case, then it begs the question of what may become of other new Yeezy colorways. Will there be a lack of interest there, too? I have my doubts, but we’ll see.

Regardless, one thing is still certain here — Adidas needs to focus most of its energy and efforts on its non-Yeezy offerings. That’s the company’s bread and butter now.

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Make this into a movie, please

Remember that sneaker theft scheme that made headlines about a month or so ago? As it turns out, there was a lot more to that.

The skinny: That was just the beginning. Behind that bust was a multi-million dollar sneaker theft operation that spanned from Nike’s distribution facility in Memphis all the way to Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Here’s more from the Times’ Libor Jany:

Since June 2023, the ring has been responsible for swiping more than $2 million in Nike products, according to the search warrant, written by LAPD Commercial Crimes Division Det. Marc Sternin, detailed to the department’s cargo theft task force. Sternin’s warrant, made public last month in Los Angeles County Superior Court, said the sneaker heists remain “ongoing and pervasive.”

The details of this thing get intricate, with the thieves taking advantage of “loopholes” in Nike’s supply chain.

The details: Here’s how they got it done.

• The culprits redirected products from Nike’s Memphis facility to L.A.

• They paid off Nike and UPS employees in Tennessee and California. The criminals got them to place fake shipping labels onto the product before it was shipped to its original destination.

• Once the product was received, the culprits would sell it to sneaker boutiques for profit.

So far only one arrest has been made — Roy Lee Harvey, Jr.. He was previously reported to be involved in the scheme. Police traced the shipments back to RHJ Global, which is a company registered to Harvey.

The plot thickens: There are reportedly several “co-conspirators” in Nike’s Memphis factory as well as on the UPS routes involved. Nike had reportedly been investigating the thefts before contacting the authorities.

This is insane: The entire story reads like an Oceans movie plot except instead of revolving around high-priced art or diamonds, it’s sneakers.

It isn’t surprising someone would go to these lengths here. After all, literal millions of dollars of goods were stolen. Factory workers aren’t paid enough to keep from getting curious. This was bound to happen.

As far as where we go from here? I have no idea. There’s no putting this toothpaste back in the tube. The fallout here is only going to spread. Nike is going to tighten up on the back end after this.

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Kyrie Irving’s basketball shoe is good

We now have an official look at Kyrie Irving’s first signature shoe since being dropped by Nike. It’s pretty good.

A look: These hit the shelves in early March.

Though it does look like something that may have been on Irving’s previous sneaker line, it seems like a good product and is a new competitor in the sneaker market. I think that’s a good thing overall. Plus, at that $125 price point, it seems like you’re getting a good bang for your buck.

We’ll see what the response on court is. I don’t expect to see a ton of these around, but hey. It’s Kyrie. You never know.

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Off-White’s new basketball shoe is bad

On the flip side, I guess Off-White is veering into basketball, too. I wish it would veer out. These shoes are irredeemably bad.

It’s one thing to make a basketball shoe. It’s another to make a shoe that…looks like a basketball. Somebody tell Ib Kamara to knock it off.

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#TheKicksWeWear

Y’ALL KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!!!!! LET’S GET IT!

First, the homie Storm kicked us off with her insanely good fits for Photoshoot Fresh. She’s always killing it, man.

The homie Guru popped out with the Craft AJ1 with an incredible lace job. This is perfect, yo.

The homie Avi popped out in the Daytona 990v3s. I gotta get a pair of these joints before the Summer gets here.

The homie Kali Rhe came through with these amazing Dunks and some AMAZING pants. Love this look.

The homie Jed popped out with my 2022 Sneaker of the Year along with some Birkenstocks. We love the duality.

The homie Retro Boogie pulled up with the Performance Art 993s. Amazing sneakers, man.

Then the homie Sumeet tok us home with these 2019 beauties, man. Can’t get enough. of the Sacai Waffles. Never.

Y’ALL DID THAT. 💥

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That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you. Let’s chat again next week.

Substack has also added a direct message feature to its platform, so if you want to hit me directly on Substack you can do that here!

Until next time. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.

-Sykes 💯