The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 393 — Peeling back progress
This is why you can't trust corporate America.
Gooooood morning, folks. Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate your time!
Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving! We had a good one in the Sykes house. I did a ton of the cooking this year, which was honestly a pretty great feeling. Tasted good, too. Especially that fried turkey.
FRIDAY, FRIDAY, FRIDAY: KYW gift guide coming to you! Can’t wait for this one. If you have any recs, feel free to give me a shout.
Let’s get into it.
Done with diversity
Diversity, equity and inclusion policies from companies across the country have become a political battleground over the last four years, with conservative activists working to dismantle programs and policies aimed at engendering upward mobility for “othered” communities out there.
It appears they’re getting their way.
What’s happening: Companies have begun to peel back DEI initiatives and policies following the reelection of Donald Trump, the Associated Press reports.
Several companies are preemptively undoing diversity policies and initiatives out of fear of potential punishment or litigation from the incoming administration. Some of the biggest corporations in the world are already bending to their will. The list so far includes names like Ford, Lowe’s, Walmart and Harley Davidson.
Walmart, specifically, made headlines last week for its aggressive peelback.
The AP reports that the company is no longer prioritizing women-owned or minority-owned suppliers for its products.
It also chose not to renew its five-year commitment to the racial equity center it opened in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
Walmart also pulled out of a prominent gay rights index and pledged to remove trans-related products from its marketplace.
The backdrop: This isn’t happening simply because of the results of the election. That’s the culmination of it all, sure. But this systematic dismantling has been in the works for a while.
It starts with the administration’s chief of policy, Stephen Miller, and his legal group, America First Legal. Miller and other conservative law groups have been challenging DEI policies in companies, schools and other places over the last few years.
The Supreme Court also dealt a huge blow to DEI policies last year when it struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, setting a regressive precedent for cases moving forward.
The footwear industry will be impacted. Footwear companies were some of the first to initiate diversity changes in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Nike set new diversity targets for 2025 after the incidents, pledging to make 50 percent representation of women in its corporate workforce and 35 percent representation of minorities.
Adidas revamped its DEI policy and aimed to fill 30 percent of its new positions with minority hires.
That’s been a huge struggle point for Adidas over the years, BTW.
A bunch of brands, both in and adjacent to footwear, donated hundreds of millions of dollars to racial equity.
Why that matters: Every company that made these commitments and pledges to diversity will likely have its feet held to the fire at one point or another.
These corporations have a decision to make: Are they willing to fight to uphold progress or was it always simply about virtue signaling? Walmart and the others made their choice. They chose compliance. We’ll soon see where other corporations stand, including those we frequently discuss here. If I were a betting man, I’d bet most take the Walmart route. It’d be a shame, but the bottom line is what matters most. If people mattered more, we’d see far fewer layoffs than we do.
If and when that happens, we have a choice to make as consumers. Are these companies we’re still willing to spend our money with? Or will people take their dollars elsewhere and hit these corporations where it hurts the most?
The ball will soon be in our court, folks.
What meaningful storytelling looks like
Every collaborative effort from every footwear company you see will tell you that the sneaker they’re dropping together is “more than a sneaker.” That’s the point of all this — to make it feel like a much bigger deal than it is.
But very rarely do they make you feel that way. The collab is always just another sneaker — especially these days. Collaborations are a dime a dozen. We get multiple collabs from multiple brands every week. Nothing feels special.
But this one does: Kids of Immigrants makes you feel the weight of the brand’s upcoming Air Max Sunder collaboration with Nike. It’s less about the shoe and more about the message.
Take a look at this commercial.
Let me be clear: I’ve complained before about sneaker ads being far too serious. It always seems like a brand is trying to convince you that this sneaker is about to change the world or that its latest “We came from nothing” story is more impressive than its last.
But, guys, these are sneakers we’re talking about. This is supposed to be fun. It’s not always serious. So, is a brand going to be serious about a sneaker? It better nail it. It needs to mean it.
The video you see above is what nailing it looks like.
“We are proud of where we come from.”
That is so powerful. That is a message. It’s saying something — particularly in this political climate where immigrants have explicitly been villainized and dehumanized. That’s not hollow messaging. There’s heart to it.
The #brands cannot be our moral compass. They’ll fail you in the end every time. Our first story today teaches us that. But this is less about what Nike is saying and more about what Kids of Immigrants has to say for itself as a collaborator.
To me, this message is beautiful. It says a lot. This is what a collaboration should be. I’d ask for more of this, but the more we get the less genuine it’ll likely be.
So I’ll just appreciate what we have here.
Snapchat x SNKRS
In one of the more fascinating sneaker stories I saw last week, Nike tapped in with Snapchat to give some of the platform’s users early access to the upcoming Columbia Blue Jordan 11s.
What’s happening: Nike and Snapchat created an augmented reality game simulating the old experience of standing in line for sneakers.
Users had until November 29 to complete four missions using Nike’s interactive Snapchat lens. They had to:
Join the virtual line.
Talk to a sneakerhead in the line.
Grab a virtual basketball.
Help out an OG sneakerhead.
Users who completed those tasks were given an exclusive access link to the Columbias.
Here’s a look at what the experience looked like via Nice Kicks.
That’s interesting! If I’m being completely honest, it feels a bit dystopian. This is supposed to simulate what it was like the last time the Columbia 11s dropped in 2014. It reminds us how far away we’ve strayed from human interaction in commerce and hobbyism. But that’s another subject for another day.
When I don’t think about this too much, it’s an interesting way to grant users access to a drop. It’s also generally interesting to see Nike and a social company like Snapchat partnering like this.
Obviously, Nike has a social presence. But it's rare that we actually see the brand collaborating directly with a platform like this.
It’s a path I’m interested in seeing the company walk down.
Is minimalism cooked?
Minimal styles have dominated sneakers for the last few years. Especially with the meshy mid-2000s trend coming back. Brands have been quick to take simple colorways, plaster collaborative branding on it, bump the price up by $30-$50 and call it a day.
Bimma Williams called that out in the Collab Lab last week. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
He’s absolutely right. Not to single out any one brand or collaborator (but I am looking at you, JJJJound), but this has gone on for long enough. These minimal styles are fine on GR models. But if I’m paying nearly $200 for these pairs, I expect more than simply elevated materials. Truthfully, that feels like it should be the bare minimum.
What do we think? Is Bimma cooking with this?
What’s droppin’, bruh?
Lil Yachty x Nike “Concrete Boys” AF1 — Monday, December 2
Nike Foamposite One “Copper” — Wednesday, December 4
Who Decides War x Jordan Flight Court — Thursday, December 5
Fragment
Nike AF1 Low “Kobe” — Friday, December 6
Jae Tips x Saucony Matrix “No Shoes In the House” — Friday, December 6
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. Appreciate you. Have a fantastic week.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, hit me up via email at mikedsykes@gmail.com or shoot me a message here via Substack.
Until next time. Peace and love. Be safe. Be easy. Be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
I love that your newsletter is so much more than sneakers. It is connected to so many other things within culture and society. It also brings together people from different backgrounds. Although sad to read, I love what you wrote on DEI. The ball is definitely in our court.
I never really used Snapchat so easy for me to say, but hearing of Nike working with them now instead of 6-8 years ago is a bit jarring. Playing a sort of video game via the app where you pretend to make friends is, as you said, pretty dystopian stuff lol.