The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 416 โ Even Travis Scott hates retro now ๐
Does this mean the fad is officially over?
Good morning, fam! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for giving me some of your time today. Appreciate you.
WNBA draft tonight, yโall! Lock in! My Mystics need to nail this draft. The Spirit canโt be the only good sports team in D.C. this summer.
HOUSEKEEPING: KYW will be out next Monday for Easter. Enjoy the holiday if you celebrate. If not, I'm sure someone is grilling. Find some good food.
Iโm rambling. Letโs get it.
Letโs dive in.
Travis Scott is ready to move on
Travis Scott is arguably the king of retro collabs these days. Virtually every single shoe heโs released in the last seven years has been a remake of some older sneaker model of some sort. How many pairs of Jordan 1 lows does he have at this point? Iโve lost count.
So when even Travis said heโs done with retro, it certainly struck a chord with me.
Wait, what? Yes, youโre reading that correctly. At this point, Scott, Nikeโs biggest and best celebrity ambassador, said itโs time for Nike to find a new storytelling slant in his latest interview with Complex.
He was asked what excites him in the sneakerspace right now and what he thinks needs to evolve.
His response:
โStorytelling. I think the art of storytelling has to come back to sneakers, instead of the idea of retroing. I wonโt say it needs to dissolve, but thereโs a lot of good new ideas out there. I think they just need to be developed, and the storytelling needs to come back.โ
What Iโm thinking: My first thought after reading this was โI know that ainโt who I think it is.โ I canโt believe itโs Travis Scott โ of all people โ saying this. All of his success with Nike is rooted in the Air Jordan 1.
Travis has had some hit models before, but none quite took off like that initial mocha Air Jordan 1 with the reverse swoosh did in 2019.
He and Nike have riffed off that model so many times since with a number of Jordan 1 lows, the Fragment highs and more.
Youโd think that if anyone were still here for retro models like the Jordan 1, itโd be him.
Yes, but: Kudos to Travis for saying this, because heโs absolutely right!
Retro has become a crutch โ not just for Nike, but for the industry overall. Itโs low-hanging fruit. The stories in retros are baked through years of marketing. Slap a collab logo on there, and youโll have something you can sell.
But the market is cooling. Sneakerheads are looking for something new. People want innovation and creativity in their footwear, not the same thing they wore five years ago. Itโs up to these footwear brands to deliver on that. So far, they havenโt.
The state of play: To Nikeโs credit, the brand is peeling back on retro as we speak.
Last year Nike said itโd be cutting down on classic models as demand for them had clearly slowed down.
That edict has only been reinforced in the Elliott Hill era for Nike. Retro is supposed to be less of a focus for the brand.
That hasnโt quite happened yet. While Nike has given us some new flavors like the Air Max DN8 and the Air Max 1000, retro models have remained the brandโs mainstay over the last few months.
Letโs be real: Even with Scott saying this, his Jordan 1 models arenโt going anywhere. They still sell like hotcakes. The kids still love them, even if the most engaged sneakerheads out there have cooled on them a bit. Resellers will still gobble them up. Nike isnโt just going to drop that.
But Scott is an influencer in the sneaker space. That matters. What Travis says goes โย if he says weโre off of retro, then for a lot of people, that means weโre off of retro. Itโs like that time Jay-Z got us all to stop wearing jerseys.
Iโm kind of cynical about Scottโs insistence that itโs time to move on. I think itโs partially because he wants people to show more interest in the Jumpman Jack โ in this same interview, he spoke glowingly about his signature sneaker and his process.
But, hey. Whatever! If thatโs what it takes to deliver us from our retro prison, then so be it.
The bottom line: Itโs time for new energy in sneakers. Footwearโs biggest celebrity star sees it. Hopefully, his brand does, too.
RIP Bodegaโฆkind of
Folks, good news! Bodega is back. Folks, bad news! Itโs also a complete shell of itself now, despite its return.
The backdrop: Bodega, the streetwear and sneaker boutique disguised as a literal supermarket, shut its entire operation down after nearly 20 years in business on March 21.
Since opening in Boston in 2006, Bodega has become a staple in streetwear and sneaker culture. Itโd made its name through several collaborations with Nike, New Balance, Converse and more.
Both the LA and Boston-based stores were shut down, as well as their web store.
Fast forward: Last Thursday, the Los Angeles store reopened after a few weeks. The reopening was announced on Instagram.
But even with the store reopening, Bodega is still a complete shell of itself, according to the details gathered here by Complexโs Brendan Dunne. Itโs not what it once was.
The details: As things stand, only the Los Angeles store is reopening. And thereโs only a handful of staff, along with co-founder and majority shareholder Jay Gordon, left to run it.
Gordon decided to cut the staff to the โbare minimum,โ Dunne reports, with around 30 employees being laid off.
All thatโs left is Gordon, the LA staff and a bookkeeper for the finances on the backend.
Gordon decided to reopen the operation after someone at Nike offered to help Bodega navigate its way back to normalcy. The path is beginning here, but with the headwinds Nike and the footwear industry face, this will be an uphill battle.
How we got here: Like many of its peers, Bodegaโs finances turned sour after booming through the pandemic.
The company outsourced its logistics operation following increased demand in the early 2020s.
The industryโs slowdown in the last few years, plus the current headwinds the industry is facing, have flipped things.
Why this matters: Whatโs happening to Bodega has happened to so many other pillars of the streetwear space. Round Two, SneakersNStuff, The Hundreds, Bodega. They seemed to bite off more than they could chew in one way or another and are now beginning to disappear.
Bodega is โreturningโ here, but Iโm not quite sure you can call this a return when the owner and a handful of other employees are the only folks coming back. This is something a bit different. Something a bit bleak and desolate.
I hope this works. I hope Bodega can genuinely work its way back. Sneakers are better with these sorts of operations around. We lose a bit of culture every time we lose one.
The GT Future is Nikeโs future
Nike is undoubtedly going through some tough times right now, but it does seem to have something cooking with its basketball line in the GT Future.
Whatโs new: The sneaker finally had its on-court debut. PJ Tucker showed off a new colorway of Nikeโs upcoming Foamposite-like sneaker on the court for the first time last week.
These joints are fully reflective โ one flash and they flip from charcoal to silver. Thatโs a bit of the creativity that weโve been itching for from Nike hoops for a while. Itโs good to see that here.
The backdrop: The GT Future has a lot of energy behind it. Weโve had a few colorway reveals already. Thereโs orange, copper, blue, krypto-Nate green and, now, a metallic charcoal look.
Be smart: This is Nikeโs response to the AE 1. This is the basketball shoe the brand wants you in on and off the court.
Theyโre using Wale in an official capacity to show you that these can be fly, as he did with the AE 1 when the sneaker first released. They also want you to know you can hoop in these, so weโre seeing them now on PJ Tucker.
These arenโt schedule to drop until later this year, so weโll see how long the iron can remain hot here. But, so far, Iโm certainly enjoying what Iโm seeing.
Those run TTS, sir
Weโve all been in that spot where you find a pair of sneakers in store that might be just too big or just too small for you.
In that moment, youโve got to make a decision. Do I bite the bullet and get them anyway or do I let this moment pass? It happens. Sometimes, you just go for it.
But never go for it like this.
Homie can legit fit a whole sleeve of pennies in the back of his shoe right now. This is insane.
Waitโฆare there still sleeves of pennies that exist? Is that still a thing or did I just age myself? Whatever.
Whatโs droppinโ, bruh?
A Ma Maniรฉre x Air Jordan 3 โFor The Loveโ โ Tuesday, April 15
New Balance 1906L โSilver Metallicโ โ Wednesday, April 16
New Balance 991v2 โOffbeatโ pack โ Thursday, April 17
Nike Air Force 1 low โEaster Basketโ โ Thursday, April 17
Nike Air Jordan 1 low โRookie of the Yearโ โ Saturday, April 19
Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you. Hope you have a fantastic week.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to reach out via email at mikedsykes@gmail.com or hit me here via Substack.
Thatโs a wrap. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes ๐ฏ
I WALK THE SHOE, THE SHOE DONโT WALK ME - Celine Dion ๐คฃ weโve all been there!