The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 357 — How bad do you want these sneakers? 🤔
The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 357 — How bad do you want these sneakers? 🤔
Action Bronson is pushing the limit with his latest New Balance sneaker drop.
Gooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate you.
Haven’t done this in a minute!
In my cart 🛒 : The Northern Lights 860v2 pack is incredible, but this pink colorway has got to be the best one in my mind. I love these so much.
On my radar 👀 : The Trocadéro Gardens SB Dunks are AMAZING. Nike has done its thing with its Olympics SB pack this year. I’ve got to get these, man. Between these and the City of Love joints I copped, I also might have to book me a flight to Paris.
Let’s jump in.
The wrong kind of gatekeeping
Look. Y’all know me. I’m all for brands and creatives finding unique ways to beat the bots. It’s hard out here! I feel for anybody who has ever had to release something and deal with scalpers.
But…The Action Bronson Scorpious New Balance drop just pushed my limits. The way these sneakers were gated feels like a disservice to fans.
What happened: These were released as a Friends and Family drop from Bronson, which means there was already extremely limited stock.
To try to make the drop fair, Bronson’s team took a unique approach to ensuring access was distributed fairly—or, I guess I should say, a fair enough way.
It didn’t feel very fair to me.
To get access to these shoes on the initial drop, you had to be selected via email. You’d receive a message with a link for purchase.
To complete the purchase, you also had to cart a $125 orange crew neck along with the sneakers. Shoutout to the homie Chef Doomy for sharing this.
This didn’t all sell through on the initial drop. The rest of the inventory was released on a password-protected page the next day. Of course, you had little to no shot of buying them because of the limited inventory and botters. Either you got lucky and could pay that initial $305 or took the L.
Why this is so bad: Look, I’m here for gatekeeping. It’s fine. Everything isn’t meant for everybody. I didn’t even try to purchase these — they’re just not for me and that’s OK!
But everything about this process felt so wrong to me.
The F&F concept was only a rumor until just days before the actual sneaker launch, which threw people for a loop.
They were also made to buy a $125 crewneck in the middle of June to go with a $180 pair of shoes. That’s $300 before you even get to shipping and tax.
Between the lines: That’s not necessarily a novel strategy. It’s not even one that I generally mind — I’ve seen skate shops, in particular, encourage customers to buy other products to complete a sneaker purchase.
But we’re not talking about a pair of socks or a graphic tee—we’re talking about a crewneck that costs $125. That’s a hefty price to pay for a pair of shoes. It’s not a great look.
Personally, it’s completely turned me away from Action Bronson drops. The shoes are nice, sure. But his drops have either been extremely unorganized or extremely cumbersome. I don’t want these joints that badly.
The big picture: This just kind of puts everything into a bit of perspective for me. Like, what does it mean to be a true fan of someone in this way? At this point, you’re buying your way in. And I’m just not sure that’s how this is supposed to be.
Maybe I’m tripping, though. Do you feel like this drop was fair? Let me know. Feel free to sound off in the comments.
On is making cool moves
On made sneaker news last week by signing Zendaya to a new multi-year creative deal, placing her in a fascinating space with the brand.
She’ll lead and create marketing campaigns with the brand moving forward as part of her new role.
She’s already developed her own edit with On and launched a short film called “Dream Together” directed by C Prinz to go along with her announcement.
Why this is fascinating: Zendaya is one of the biggest names in Hollywood at this point and is only 27 years old. She’s got plenty of space to grow with the brand moving forward if that’s what she wants.
But… As great of a move as it is, this seems like a lot to give a person who doesn’t typically play in this space.
Zendaya typically works in high fashion. She currently works with Louis Vuitton and has worked with Valentino.
On has dabbled in the space before—the brand has collaborated with Loewe. But, at its core, this is still a sportswear brand.
That doesn’t mean the partnership won’t be fruitful. It’s just an interesting change of pace.
The big picture: This is yet another interesting move for On that further solidifies the brand in the zeitgeist. You’ve got this move here, the FKA Twigs partnership, and even the Larry June, Ari Lennox and JD Sports deal with the Cloudmonster from last year. The brand has some interesting things working.
Not to mention that some Frank Cooker work may be coming down the pipeline at some point. We’ll see on that.
These moves show us that On is doing its best to be identified as one of the “cool” brands. We’ll have to see whether it works. I respect the effort, though.
It’s a Futura summer
It’s turning out to be one heck of a summer for Futura 2000.
One minute, the dude is dropping what many people consider the sneaker of the year so far (which he says he doesn’t care about, btw). The next minute, we find out this dude will also have his fingerprints all over the Olympics this year.
What’s happening: Breakdancing will be featured as a sport in the Olympics for the first time in 2024. Nike tapped Futura to design the uniforms for its sponsoring teams (the United States, Japan and South Korea).
Here’s more from the Wall Street Journal:
Not only did he bring flourishes and color to the eight-piece breaking collection for the Games, including his stitched-in cartoons of dancers, he also lent it a healthy dose of street cred. Futura, 68, knows all about the soul of breakdancing because he was there in the 1970s, as a close friend to the performers and artists who defined early hip-hop culture and as someone who shaped its aesthetics through his spray-painted art.
For footwear, Futura worked in collaboration with Nike’s lab technicians, who borrowed technology from basketball and skateboarding to create breaking-specific shoes with greater support on the sides and versatile soles to help dancers slide and pivot. Futura said that designing Olympic gear was his own way of living out a dream he’d held since tuning into the Mexico City Games in 1968. “I watched like, ‘Damn, it’d be dope to represent the U.S.A. and rock the colors,’ ” he says. “I’m not going to do that as an athlete, but in a way, I am participating.”
A look: Here’s a quick look at the kit from South Korea. These are sweet.
Somebody let Nike know I’d like to purchase this. Please and thanks.
Sockjig breaking the industry
First of all, if you don’t listen to the Sockjig Sneaker Podcast, you absolutely should. Sockjig is a footwear industry expert who can brilliantly dive into the minutiae of the drop in ways no one else can.
That’s why I nearly lost my mind when I saw this man build a sneaker drop simulator.
What’s happening: Sockjig built the Sockilizer — a drop simulator that visualizes your chances on limited sneaker drops.
How it works: Here’s a comprehensive thread on it from Sockjig explaining how it goes. Here’s my more simple breakdown:
You set a stock number for the drop and select the drop type (high heat, limited, etc.).
You select your shoe size and pick a total number of entries for all sizes in the raffle you’re jumping into.
Punch it in and then you’ll have the likelihood of you actually hitting in the raffle. The chances, generally, are not favorable.
Why this is a big deal: The footwear industry doesn’t want you to have this type of tool. That’s why they don’t give us stock numbers on sneaker drops. We’d be more informed about our chances on individual drops and could decide whether we want to waste our time. That time is valuable to them. It’s money.
Shoutout to Sockjig for putting the tool in our hands. This is great for us. Not so great for #TheBrandz tho.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
Nina Chanel Abney x Air Jordan 3 (GetSuperCool drop) — Thursday, June 13
Nike Air Force 1 “Linen” — Thursday, June 13
Nike Air Max Diamond Turf ‘96 — Friday, June 14
Stone Island x New Balance 574 — Friday, June 14
Air Jordan 4 “Oxidized Green” — Saturday, June 15
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. I appreciate you giving me a bit of your time.
Let’s do this again on Friday. Until then, peace and love! Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯