The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 337 — RIP Sneakers? 💸
Is sneaker culture really dead?
Gooooood morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate y’all. Missed you on Friday! Hope you had a great week and a dope weekend.
In my cart 🛒 There’s this pair of grey 993s from New Balance Reconsidered that I’ve got my finger hovering over. I haven’t copped from Reconsidered yet, so I’m looking forward to the experience.
On my radar 👀 The Kith 1906r — but not the one you’re thinking. I’m keen on the black and red joints. That subtle hit of green there? Come on. Magnificent.
Before we begin, I put together a quick reader survey here! If you’ve got some time today after reading, I’d love it if you filled this out!
Alright. Let’s jump in.
The downfall is greatly overstated…but real
If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone declare sneaker culture was “dead” or the sneaker game was “over,” I’d be rich. Alas.
The skinny: Shawn Stussy is the latest to lament sneaker culture. The former owner of the Stussy brand declared it “officially over” in a random post earlier this week. Credit to Snobette’s Lois Sakany for digging this up.
Stussy seemed to be giving us a delayed reaction to Donald Trump hawking his sneakers at SneakerCon.
What he said: There’s a lot here, but this part struck me.
"Sneakers are not dead by any stretch of the imagination. It is the "culture" to which I allude... The massive tradef show convention aspect I see on my phone with tables piled high with guys trading big stacks of cash for shoes that are just a commodity to those involved. Cash cows if you will. It could be a gun show or an electronics convention in Anytown, USA. The sneaker world I grew up in was anything but this. We were on the hunt in a sparse jungle and needed to have our sense fully engaged. Cash in the bottom of your pocket and no lint as Rakim would talk of. The world was different and there was nothing ahead of us to follow.
My thoughts: Stussy isn’t wrong here. We know this. I’ve talked about it ad nauseam on this platform. The footwear industry isn’t about passion. It’s about cash. We see it everywhere with this stuff at every level. Everyone is responsible for the current state of the culture.
Step 1: Brands like Nike, Adidas and New Balance create and release limited products and constantly tease us for not having the latest. That’s the role of apps like SNKRS and CONFIRMED.
Step 2: Retailers who distribute these goods release them in ways that amplify that brand message.
Step 3: The consumer feeds into it and lines up for every hyped purchase every week no matter what because, well, if you don’t have that next shoe then do you love this stuff?
Step 4: The secondary market platforms we all consume from solely exist to transform sneakers into the cash cows Stussy was alluding to.
Step 5: The media amplifies that message on the backend, glorifying the repackaging of goods and morphing these simple sneakers into status symbols for the rich and famous.
It’s a vicious cycle. That’s how we get to the place we’re at — a world where multi-million dollar theft operations for sneakers feel plausible. A world where backdooring limited goods internationally doesn’t feel like the bombshell it should. A world where the former president who has never given a second thought to the sneaker world can just waltz right into one of the biggest sneaker trade shows and be welcomed into the “culture” with open arms.
Stussy is right, man. With the way things are now? This game is broken.
Here’s my problem: I don’t expect Shawn Stussy to fix the world with a social media post. That’s unreasonable. But I do have a problem with him thumbing his nose at us all here.
He’s decrying the state of things while telling us the way things used to be was so much better while not offering any solutions of his own. Big old man yelling at the clouds energy.
He also references the fact that many of people he’s complaining about wear the brand he founded and sold, which I think is important to note.
Zoom out: In the end, this is partially on Stussy and other folks like him. Like it or not, he was once a gatekeeper in this culture. His brand was and still is a staple. He built up a tremendous amount of cultural cache. Then he sold it. He held the keys and then gave them away.
If he cared that much about the state of things? He wouldn’t have let that happen — plain and simple. That’s easy for me to say when I’m not the one who cashed out for millions like he did. But he’s asking everyone to forget about the money here when that’s something he didn’t do himself.
Let’s be real: Sneaker culture isn’t dead. It will never die. Has it been absorbed into the ether of hyper-capital, just like so many other cultural touchstones? Yes. (I’m looking at you, Hip-Hop)
But it lives on through me. It lives on through you. It lives on through the folks who still legitimately care about this shit.
And we ain’t going anywhere.
The future of sustainability
As Nike continues to trim and search for more innovation within the brand, sustainability seems to be falling by the wayside.
What’s happening: Around the same time Nike made all its layoffs a few weeks ago, brand Chief Sustainability Officer Noel Kinder also announced he was stepping down from his position, Future World’s Karl Smith writes.
Along with Kinder, several folks in the sustainability department were also laid off. Smith described it as a “gutting” that sacrificed sustainability for capital:
“Naturally, when such swingeing layoffs are undertaken – this one round alone covers over 1500 individuals – jobs will be cut in every direction. That so many high-profile roles across Environmental, Social, and Governance departments, however – those having been named both officially and unofficially only representing a fraction of the truth, according to those same sources – nonetheless suggests that, when the going gets tough, it’s commitment to innovation and to progress that falls quickest by the wayside, shattering the illusion that an outfit like Nike might ever really put planet over profit.”
Zoom out: This begs the question of what sustainability might look like at Nike over the next few years — or if it has a presence at all. We’ve already seen it dwindling.
As Smith notes throughout his piece, we haven’t received an updated look at the Space Hippie line in years.
There are sustainable offerings out there from Nike. Portions of the ISPA line are dedicated to it. Plus, things like the Cosmic Unity line exist. But how often do we see them? Not very. Especially when it comes to promotion.
My thought: This is a shame to see — especially as Nike desperately searches for its next big thing. Exploring sustainability could easily unlock whatever that thing is. Nike would be doing itself a disservice by forgetting about it completely.
It’s a copycat game
Folks called out New Balance this week for dropping the Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone 9060s just a few short months after Joe FreshGoods released the Intro 990v4 in his last collection.
A look: I must admit, the two shoes do look similar. The homie Chef Doomy posted the shoes together on Twitter for everyone to see.
They’re both hot. But there are some key differences there:
The mesh on the 9060 is a licorice/brown color instead of black, as the JFG 990’s mesh is.
There’s also a darker tone on the hairy suede with the 9060. It’s not as grey as the JFG joints.
With that said, it’s still pretty hard not to compare these two designs.
Be smart: Still, this isn’t the problem people are making it out to be. All of your favorite brands do takedown designs almost all the time.
Adidas did this a ton with Yeezy. The Adi Q Foam looked like foam runners.
Nike isn’t immune either. The Mocha AJ1 road the coattails of the Travis Scott AJ1 drop.
We’ve even seen this in reverse with Aimé Leon Dore taking a Teddy Santis Made In USA design and re-using it for New Balance.
As they say, a rising tide lifts all ships. This is an age-old technique brands use to bring attention to other products. It’s the halo effect folks love to debate being put to direct use.
With that said, let me know what you think on this one. Is this similar design OK with you? Or is New Balance out of line?
The 992 is back
Speaking of New Balance, the 992 is supposedly coming back. After a quick retro run through 2020 and 2021, there are reportedly new silhouettes coming, according to the New Balance Social Club account.
The sneaker is supposedly set to return later this year.
The backdrop: The 992 has such a fractured history. It’d be good to see a return.
These originally dropped in 2006 and continued to drop until 2010 when production was halted.
That lasted until 2020 before we saw a retro run along with several collaborations with these. Momentum stopped again after 2021 with the shoe being discontinued.
A return in 2024 wasn’t on my bingo card, but I’ll take it. Let’s hope they don’t run us $250.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
Awake NY x Jordan Air Ship — Wednesday, March 13
Trophy Room x Air Jordan 1 Low — Thursday, March 14
New Balance T500 — Thursday, March 14
Adidas AE1 “Deep Blue” — Friday, March 15
New Balance 9060 “Moonrock” — Friday, March 15
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Have a fantastic week. Let’s do this again on Friday!
Til then. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. And we out.
-Sykes 💯
So here's the thing, prices are dropping and all the sort of hyper-consumerist aspects are finally taking a backseat. To me, this is great; "Sneaker Culture" in it's modern, sorta sleazy connotations is *almost* gone.
As a result, I think the pendulum is about to swing in the opposite direction, and people will actually begin to value brands for their brand-specific originals (e.g., Adidas Superstars, and not some other shelltoe) and not buy a crossover for essentially no reason. Bobbito Garcia (somehow I'm friends with him) always told me he could never buy a $100 pair of AF1s, and I think THAT culture is coming back a little.
The type of person who knows who Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is and would buy her sneakers is unlikely to know what JFG is. It's two vastly different audiences. And. the color scheme goes with the rest of Sydney's collection of apparel so it makes sense.
Plus so many sneakers this season are releasing in netural colorways. It's an appealing look right now.