The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 392 — So Fortnite x Nike is still a thing, I guess?
Huh. Kinda forgot about this.
Goooood morning, folks. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thank you so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you! Hope you’re having a fantastic week so far and have a great weekend coming up.
From around the industry:
Amer Sports names a new CEO for Salomon as the business continues to boom for the company. (Retail Dive)
Jaylen Brown is trying to change how athletes wear footwear with 741 and his new signature shoe. (Bloomberg $$$)
Bimma and Yachty peace it up after the rapper’s vulgar outburst at ComplexCon. (Complex)
Nike goes deeper with Fortnite
Nike and Epic Games have come together again to bring the Swoosh’s brand into Fortnite’s virtual world.
What’s happening: The very first “Kicks drop” is coming to Fortnite starting on Nov. 21.
Players can purchase pairs of Nike sneakers using Fortnite’s “v-bucks” virtual currency.
Fortnite has made “Kicks” a new cosmetic category for player’s outfits. You’ll be able to equip Nike sneakers to your character the same way you would a character skin.
The details: There are nine pairs of shoes available for players to choose from. They’ll be split into two drops, separating Nike and Jordan Brand products. The Nike drop will come first on Nov. 21 and the Jordan drop on Nov. 22. Both will last until November 26.
Here’s a look:
The first drop: Black Toe Reimagined AJ1, Nike Cortez OG, Galaxy Foamposite, Nike Shox R4 “Comet Red” and the Chomp Stompers.
The second drop: Air Jordan 3 “Palomino,” Air Jordan 3 “Black Cement,” Air Jordan 11 “Bred” and the Air Jordan 4 “Manila.”
Between the lines: This is a continuance of the deal between Nike and Epic Games that started last year 2023’s “Airphoria” drop.
If you remember Airphoria, it was a far more creative endeavor than this latest “Kicks” drop between the two sides. It was essentially a new world for Fortnite players to explore. It was an interesting way of introducing Nike to players of arguably the most popular video game in the world and also brought in some .Swoosh integration with it.
My take: This “Kicks” drop? It isn’t quite that. If I’m being honest, it’s not even close. It’s just a cosmetic drop.
The V-bucks folks will spend to buy these sneakers will cost real money. To wear a pair of Jordan 3s in Fortnite, you’ll have to spend $10 real-life dollars.
The shoes give you no competitive advantage. You’re spending $10 to put Cell in Air Jordan 11’s. So, yeah. There’s that.
This doesn’t do much for me. Maybe I’m just an old coot! But, at best, this is a bit too boring and uninteresting. At worst, it feels a bit predatory, considering many teens and kids play this game.
The bottom line: This move makes me wonder how much juice this partnership might have moving forward. If you’re not giving consumers interesting things to consume, there doesn’t appear to be much purpose to it. At least not to me, anyway.
By the way, that doesn’t only apply to this Fortnite partnership. That’s also true for all of these virtual token partnerships.
Their virtual nature subverts the point of sneakers anyway. I keep asking who this is for. Which audience benefits from this and in what way?
I don’t have a good answer yet.
StockX makes a move
StockX is trying to get back on your good side.
After leaked court documents revealed that Nike got admissions from StockX about the validity (or the lack thereof) of the secondary market’s authentication process, the brand seemed to be on its heels.
It released a statement to the press about Nike’s “misguided” claims, but that would never be enough. So, this week, StockX decided to do a little more.
The solution: StockX decided actually to create a return policy! A return policy, guys! The sky is actually falling.
The gist of it is that if you’re dissatisfied with your purchase within a 14-day window of receiving it, you can return it to the company.
Customers can return the product if they aren’t satisfied with the fit, condition, quality or otherwise.
The product will be “authenticated” again to ensure it’s in the original condition it was sent.
Once it passes, the customer receives a StockX credit for the purchase (not including shipping costs).
Here’s the thing: Something like this goes a long way for customers. But, if you’ve ever shopped at StockX before, you know just how hard it’s always been to get the company to admit fault for anything — whether it’s a faulty product or inauthentic or whatever.
I never thought we’d see this day. I’m glad we are — even if it did take Nike airing out all the company’s dirty laundry for us to get here.
A big get for Crocs
Crocs keeps on picking up wins. Legendary sneaker designer and former Yeezy acolyte Steven Smith is the brand’s new head of creative innovation, according to reporting from Footwear News’ Shoshy Ciment.
The details: Smith will oversee and design footwear for Crocs and Hey Dude overall, per Ciment. He’ll officially start on December 2. Crocs president Anne Mehlman called Smith a “true icon” in the footwear industry and said the company was thrilled to add him.
He’s right. Smith is an icon. He’s designed hits for decades. The list includes the Reebok Instapump Fury, the New Balance 1500 and 550, Nike’s Air Zoom Spiridon Caged 2, the Yeezy 700 and more.
Remember: Smith was recently fired from Kanye West’s YZY brand. He’s been a partner with West and Yeezy since 2016.
During that time, he worked on the Yeezy Foam Runner, which should bode extremely well for Crocs.
He also worked with Salehe Bembury on various Yeezy projects. Bembury is currently the creative director for Crocs Pollex. We can anticipate work between those two as well.
This is an interesting spot for Smith. He’s always been a big positive for whatever brand he works for. We’ll see if he has the same impact for Crocs.
Mars Yard in the wild
Folks, we’ve got pictures of Tom Sachs’ upcoming Mars Yard 3.0 in the wild. Complex’s Brendan Dunne dropped a picture of the shoe on Twitter.
It…looks pretty bland.
To be clear: This isn’t the final product. This won’t be the shoe’s colorway. This is also missing the Nike branding that usually comes with a project like this.
Considering all the controversy surrounding the guy, I certainly expected better. But, hey. To each their own. I’m sure the Sachs cult will love these.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’ALL KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS! LET’S GET IT!!!
The homie Mark doubled up on us with these absolute heaters. Y’all got money, man.
The homie Matt came through with another double-up, too. This time with New Balance and Nike, though. Those Black Cement 3s look so crisp.
The homie Scott came through all the way from Australia with the Salehe 530s. LOVE these joints, man.
The homie Lois came through with the Ice Studios Minimus Trail Runners. So sleek!
My guy Heel came through with the Prada joints in this ICY blue colorway. These are sick.
Then the homie Rube took us home with the THERE Skateboards SB Dunk collab. MAN. What a sneaker.
Y’all SMOKED that. Shoutout to all the homies who submitted from BlueSky, by the way! The community there is growing.
Tap in if you haven’t already!
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you. Have a fantastic weekend.
If you have questions, comments or concerns hit me up via email at mikedsykes@gmail.com. You can also shoot me a message via Substack here.
Until next time. Peace and love. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
all those nike x fortnite shoes are OLD not even kids want new nikes i guess