The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 391 — Complex's Sneaker of the Year surprise 🏀
A basketball shoe is sneaker of the year
Goooood morning, folks! Welcome to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you giving me a bit of your time. Hope you had an awesome weekend.
OTW ✈️: The Amine x New Balance Benson Tech 740 is on the way to the crib today. Really excited about this one. It’s a very Knicks-ian colorway, which might be a lil weird, but I’m loving the 740 rebirth so far.
On my radar 👀: The Jae Tips x Saucony Matrix looks incredible. The ComplexCon exclusive release is a bit annoying, but these will drop in early December. Right in time for my birthday. Perfect.
Let’s jump in.
The AE1 has officially broken through
ComplexCon’s sneaker of the year panel actually surprised me for once. The crew picked a basketball shoe as its sneaker of the year.
The big deal: The much-maligned panel selected Anthony Edwards’ AE 1 as the best sneaker in 2024.
The full list: Here’s a thread with the full list via Twitter.
AE 1
Air Jordan 4 “Bred” Reimagined
Jordan Jumpman Jack
Kobe 4 Protro “Girl Dad”
Kith x Asics Marvel Villain Pack
Action Bronson x New Balance 1906 “Rosewater
Wu-Tang x Nike Dunk High
Futura x Nike SB Dunk Low
Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4 RM “Grandma’s Fence'“
Saucony x Jae Tips ProGrid Omni 9 “To Do List”
To be clear: I have some major gripes with this list. There are some glaring omissions, but that’s solely my opinion and something we’ll go over another time.
What I’d really like to talk about (and what I do agree on) is the fact that a signature basketball shoe just won sneaker of the year from arguably the culturally relevant sneaker publication in the space. And it wasn’t a Nike shoe!
That’s an extremely difficult thing to do in this day and age. Adidas made it look easy.
How they did it: All year long Adidas has done a masterful job of making the AE 1 the new, cool kid on the block.
It focused on two things to make it happen.
First, it knocked its competition down to size. Taking shots has been a mainstay for Adidas in marketing the AE 1 from the beginning. We’ve seen direct and indirect shots at Ja Morant, LaMelo Ball, Kevin Durant, LeBron James and more throughout the last year.
This is a risk many brands have usually been afraid to take because Nike loomed so large. Adidas being unafraid to do so in the Bjorn Gulden era has largely worked to its benefit.
Second, the brand also elevated Edwards at every moment it could. Is he on the level of a LeBron James or a Kevin Durant? No. But if you’ve ever watched an AE 1 commercial, you certainly wouldn’t be able to tell. You’d probably argue he’s cooler. The stories are more creative and fun.
Most of that is largely Adidas playing off Edwards’ personality. He’s never been shy about telling us how much better he is than everyone else. Even when his shoe was picked as SOTY, he sent a message to Complex telling them they did the right thing. Because, I mean, what else would they pick?
That’s bold. But that’s Anthony Edwards. That’s what makes this shoe so great. Well, that, on top of the fact that it generally looks awesome. I haven’t seen a meh colorway yet.
Why this all matters: The performance hoops market has been trending down for a long, long time. The AE 1 isn’t even a huge sales boon for Adidas, relatively speaking. It’s not the Samba.
But the AE 1 pick here proves that Adidas has done something that no brand has been able to do in the a decade. They’ve turned a general release performance basketball product into something hot that people have latched on to.
That’s a huge deal. It’s something the brand will surely be able to build upon in the coming years with future models. Especially as Adidas looks to reestablish itself as a force in North America in this post-Yeezy era.
Nike nails StockX
Unsealed court documents in the Nike vs. StockX lawsuit revealed by SneakerLegal over the weekend revealed some pretty damaging claims from Nike about the aftermarket brand.
What they’re saying: Nike claimed StockX admitted three major things:
That its authenticators cannot actually determine if a product is authentic and that claims of authenticity were “knowingly false.”
That StockX knew it was passing counterfeit footwear through inspections.
And that the brand has no idea what percentage of fake sneakers successfully passed through those inspections and into customers' hands.
Nike also said far more than the 77 initial fake pairs that StockX admitted made it through inspection were actually found. The brand also claimed a “fraud ring” sold more than 1,800 pairs on StockX’s platform before being stopped.
The big picture: This is a huge deal. The authentication process is StockX’s tentpole. People use it because they trust that process. If they can’t, then what’s the point? It has no purpose.
Not only do Nike’s claims here make a solid argument in the brand’s case accusing StockX of fostering marketplace confusion, but it’ll also further sow the seeds of mistrust already brewing between StockX and the public.
The clean-up: StockX played a little damage control over the weekend. The brand issued a statement to the press on Nike’s claims, saying that Nike’s claims are “completely misguided” and that it stands behind its verification process.
The products in question in this case amount to a mere 0.0004% of the 17.8 million Nike sneakers StockX reviewed while this litigation was ongoing. Compare that to the more than $80,000,000 of suspected counterfeit sneakers alone that StockX has prevented from being sold on our platform. StockX has long done our part to prevent bad actors from trading on our platform, but we can’t do it alone. It’s a shame that rather than work with us to fight fakes, Nike has opted to use its resources to pursue meritless, expensive litigation and persecute a company that has long worked to fight the prevalence of counterfeits.
The bottom line: StockX is in deep trouble with this one. This statement likely won’t do much to get the people back on the brand’s side. There were already scores of folks out there who didn’t trust the platform because of previous bad experiences. Today, they’ll feel vindicated in their beliefs.
You’ve got to wonder if this is why Scott Cutler stepped down when he did. What a mess.
3D-printed Air Maxes
There were plenty of interesting things going on at ComplexCon over the weekend, but the most fascinating thing for me was the Air Max 1000.
What it is: This is a 3D-printed “reimagining” of the Air Max 1, created by German manufacturer Zellerfeld, according to Nike Chief Innovation Officer John Hoke.
A look: It’s basically a clog version of the Air Max 1 with an air unit in the heel.
There are more colorways of these joints coming down the line. The shoe isn’t won’t debut until the spring of 2025.
We’re already seeing folks in them, though. Here’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander rocking a pair in the tunnel.
If I’m being frank, these aren’t really for me. At least they don’t feel like it right now. Not really a clog sort of guy.
I am excited to learn more about them, though. Maybe I’ll change my mind.
Let’s talk kicks on BlueSky
Yerboi is packing up his bags and leaving. I’m basically off Twitter now and have migrated over to BlueSky with millions of other folks who were tired of bots and trolls filling my timeline with slop.
The only problem: I haven’t found much of a sneaker community on BlueSky just yet! It’s just not as robust of a platform. The niche footwear space hasn’t completely taken root.
So let’s lock in. If you’re heading over to BlueSky, give me a follow! Mention me with the hashtag #KYWSky and I’ll give you a follow back.
I’ll be doing #TheKicksWeWear on the platform from now on. I’ll also be posting KYW links here (it’s so refreshing that links actually work now, by the way!).
Hope to see y’all there soon!
What’s droppin’, bruh?
Nike KD 4 “Christmas” — Wednesday, November 20
Makeway x Nike P-6000 — Wednesday, November 20
AVAVAV x Adidas Superstar — Thursday, November 21
Nike Air Sunder Max “Phantom” — Thursday, November 21
Air Jordan Black Cement 3 — Saturday, November 23
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you. Hope you have a fantastic week ahead of you.
If you’ve got questions, comments or concerns, hit me via email at mikedsykes@gmail.com or shoot me a message via Substack.
Peace and love. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
I hadn't seen that Jae Tips Saucony Matrix until I clicked on your link, but I was immediately struck by that bold ridge around the shoelace area. Very reminiscent of the newest Adidas DON 6, and it's very cool. Might have track down a pair.