The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 416 — Even Travis Scott hates retro now 😂
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, y’all! Lock in! My Mystics need to nail this draft. The Spirit can’t 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.
I’m rambling. Let’s get it.
Let’s dive in.
Travis Scott is ready to move on
Travis Scott is arguably the king of retro collabs these days. Virtually every single shoe he’s 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? I’ve lost count.
So when even Travis said he’s done with retro, it certainly struck a chord with me.
Wait, what? Yes, you’re reading that correctly. At this point, Scott, Nike’s biggest and best celebrity ambassador, said it’s 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:
“Storytelling. I think the art of storytelling has to come back to sneakers, instead of the idea of retroing. I won’t say it needs to dissolve, but there’s a lot of good new ideas out there. I think they just need to be developed, and the storytelling needs to come back.”
What I’m thinking: My first thought after reading this was “I know that ain’t who I think it is.” I can’t believe it’s Travis Scott — of all people — 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.
You’d think that if anyone were still here for retro models like the Jordan 1, it’d be him.
Yes, but: Kudos to Travis for saying this, because he’s absolutely right!
Retro has become a crutch — not just for Nike, but for the industry overall. It’s low-hanging fruit. The stories in retros are baked through years of marketing. Slap a collab logo on there, and you’ll 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. It’s up to these footwear brands to deliver on that. So far, they haven’t.
The state of play: To Nike’s credit, the brand is peeling back on retro as we speak.
Last year Nike said it’d 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 hasn’t 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 brand’s mainstay over the last few months.
Let’s be real: Even with Scott saying this, his Jordan 1 models aren’t 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 isn’t just going to drop that.
But Scott is an influencer in the sneaker space. That matters. What Travis says goes — if he says we’re off of retro, then for a lot of people, that means we’re off of retro. It’s like that time Jay-Z got us all to stop wearing jerseys.
I’m kind of cynical about Scott’s insistence that it’s time to move on. I think it’s partially because he wants people to show more interest in the Jumpman Jack — in this same interview, he spoke glowingly about his signature sneaker and his process.
But, hey. Whatever! If that’s what it takes to deliver us from our retro prison, then so be it.
The bottom line: It’s time for new energy in sneakers. Footwear’s biggest celebrity star sees it. Hopefully, his brand does, too.
RIP Bodega…kind of
Folks, good news! Bodega is back. Folks, bad news! It’s 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. It’d 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 Complex’s Brendan Dunne. It’s not what it once was.
The details: As things stand, only the Los Angeles store is reopening. And there’s 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 “bare minimum,” Dunne reports, with around 30 employees being laid off.
All that’s 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, Bodega’s finances turned sour after booming through the pandemic.
The company outsourced its logistics operation following increased demand in the early 2020s.
The industry’s slowdown in the last few years, plus the current headwinds the industry is facing, have flipped things.
Why this matters: What’s 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 “returning” here, but I’m 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 Nike’s 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.
What’s new: The sneaker finally had its on-court debut. PJ Tucker showed off a new colorway of Nike’s upcoming Foamposite-like sneaker on the court for the first time last week.
These joints are fully reflective — one flash and they flip from charcoal to silver. That’s a bit of the creativity that we’ve been itching for from Nike hoops for a while. It’s good to see that here.
The backdrop: The GT Future has a lot of energy behind it. We’ve had a few colorway reveals already. There’s orange, copper, blue, krypto-Nate green and, now, a metallic charcoal look.
Be smart: This is Nike’s response to the AE 1. This is the basketball shoe the brand wants you in on and off the court.
They’re 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 we’re seeing them now on PJ Tucker.
These aren’t schedule to drop until later this year, so we’ll see how long the iron can remain hot here. But, so far, I’m certainly enjoying what I’m seeing.
Those run TTS, sir
We’ve 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, you’ve 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.
Wait…are there still sleeves of pennies that exist? Is that still a thing or did I just age myself? Whatever.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
A Ma Maniére x Air Jordan 3 “For The Love” — Tuesday, April 15
New Balance 1906L “Silver Metallic” — Wednesday, April 16
New Balance 991v2 “Offbeat” pack — Thursday, April 17
Nike Air Force 1 low “Easter Basket” — Thursday, April 17
Nike Air Jordan 1 low “Rookie of the Year” — 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.
That’s a wrap. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯
I WALK THE SHOE, THE SHOE DON’T WALK ME - Celine Dion 🤣 we’ve all been there!