The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 52 — These ain't your dad's shoes anymore
The hype is catching up to the dad shoes.
Good morning, folks! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear! Thank you so much for giving me a bit of your time on this glorious Friday morning. I hope you’re all safe and sound and in good health.
Today’s shoutout? All of these mascot dogs on a Zoom call. This is the best thing ever. I love this.
By the way, I hopped on another podcast, by the way, with my guy Devin. We talked about sneakers and R&B battles. It was a good time.
With that out the way, let’s dive in.
When hype meets Dad
(Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash)
Remember back in the day when you were wearing all of those Roshe runners (I can’t believe we did that) and roasting people in chunky dad shoes? Yeah, the dad shoes folks won.
Dad shoes are hyped now. They’re the wave. All of the non-Air Max running shoes from the 90’s that we swore we’d never wear again are coming back.
Don’t get it twisted — the hype has been building. Dad shoes have been a thing for a few years now.
The Air Monarch emerged again as an “in” shoe at the tail end of last decade. The run was so strong it birthed the Air Tekno.
The dad shoe influence doesn’t stop there, though. Remember the Balenciaga Triple S? Or how about just the general aesthetic of Yeezy? All hyped shoes. Also all dad-ish.
So, yes, the trend has been here. But it feels like, right now, every brand is coalescing around it in ways they haven’t before.
Just look at all the random 90’s runners we’ve revived in just a few short months in 2020.
Start with Steven Smith’s Spiridon Caged 2. People hated it. Now it’s a Stussy piece and Nike is bringing it back in a bunch of different colorways.
Or how about New Balance’s Aime Leon Dore 827? This 1999 runner was nonexistent before this collab brought it back and now we’ve got more colors on the way.
Up next is Nike’s P-6000 that Virgil Abloh is fusing with a Dunk sole to undoubtedly turn into a hyped creation come the summer when it drops.
Don’t get me wrong. There are definitely sneakerheads who hold these shoes, and other dad-ish joints, near and dear to their hearts
But now, the general public is starting to. And that’s something we haven’t seen quite yet.
Which brings me to my next point. Obviously, these shoes make a name for themselves because of their chunky builds and the obscure materials they’re made of.
But the other thing that makes them great? Their price points. People wear these shoes because they’re cheap.
You can go out right now and cop a pair of Monarchs for $60 or a FYW Adidas joint for $70. If you remember, runners were once the same way until Yeezy broke the space. The same thing is happening with these dad joints from the 90’s.
As that continues to happen, people will go out in search for what the next thing is. The thing that looks cool but doesn’t cost a brick. The thing that you don’t have to wake up early on Saturday morning to try and get.
What is that next thing? No idea. But with the way things are rolling, we probably won’t have to wait much longer to find out.
Puma, WYD?
(Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash)
Copying designs happens a lot in fashion. Lots of well respected folks have made careers out of it. The thing is they normally get a pass if the design has one of two qualities: It’s either good or not that egregious.
So that’s why I was floored when I stumbled upon these Pumas on Twitter. Because they’re both bad and the design was very blatantly stolen.
For a second, I really thought Puma may have pulled off a coup and snatched Virgil Abloh from Nike. This is the design of the Off-White Dunks.
Now, I normally don’t care much about things like this. But this is just disappointing. It was only a few months ago that I was here writing about how Puma had risen from the ashes back in 2017 and had an opportunity to make some real noise in the industry.
They had it all. The platform, the celebrity. I mean, Jay Z was their creative director. It felt like everything should’ve been a lay up.
But things have been the opposite.
They stole the top 2 NBA draft picks of 2017 in Deandre Ayton and Marvin Bagley, but neither have panned out.
Jay Z hasn’t really done much of note with Puma considering the platform that they gave him as creative director.
The star power that people (me included) thought they had just hasn’t really mattered.
The biggest factor here, though? They haven’t really produced much of anything great as far as footwear goes. They don’t have a signature shoe athlete, their basketball shoes are fine but not eye popping and they don’t have a Beyonce or Kanye West or Travis Scott on tap.
So until they figure that part out? We'll probably have a lot more of this on the way.
Virgil Abloh has a signature sneaker on the way
Virgil Abloh jumped on Twitter to chat with people about what they’d like to see come from the him and Nike next. He left us with a couple of good nuggets.
The first one: He’s planning on doing is dropping a signature shoe.
That’s a big deal. This is exactly what Nike should be doing with Abloh and, for that matter, with Travis Scott. They’ve got the name recognition now. This is the next step.
It’s also a big test. You’re building from the ground up, not remodeling classics. It’s a totally different job. It’s also something people have criticized Abloh, specifically, for not being able to do. Now, we’ll find out if those criticisms are valid.
The next: He seems to have his eye on OG basketball silhouettes now. He specifically said the Ndestrukt was fire. Remember these joints?
No idea if he’ll actually do anything with this, but the possibilities are exciting. Not only is it a unique silhouette, but it’s also a 90’s basketball shoe. These don't get the love they should.
If Abloh does work with this, it would be a big boost for basketball shoes overall but specifically retro designs.
Let’s make this happen, Virgil. The people need it.
You ain’t got these on
So I’ll start this by saying I don’t really know what Quibi is and I don’t really know how much of its content is worthwhile, but I will say that I have enjoyed the bit of Lena Waithe’s “You ain’t got these” documentary on sneakers.
This film covered the intersection of sneaker culture and black culture, which is a conversation that we definitely need to have. The trailer is pretty compelling. Take a peek.
The first part is only 10 minutes, which is the concept of Quibi (I think?), so it’s a pretty short watch. There are more episodes on the way, so we can watch it as a family.
I’ll be tuned in. As always, feel free to hit me about this. We can definitely chop it up.
#TheKicksWeWear
Y’all. Know. The. Vibes. Quarantine can’t take away our fly. Look at how we killed it this week.
Me and the homie Joe were definitely twinning in our Deerupts.
Then my guy Dandin popped out in the J Wall 1’s. CLASSIC.
Then the homie Adrian popped out in the Mist 380’s to start us off right.
The homie Julian kept the heat coming with the Hare 7’s (and also LISTEN TO THE POD ITS REALLY GOOD LOL)
My boy Shawn jumped out some dope 530’s. This is the New Balance king, y’all.
The homie Mike Golic Jr. took the best picture of the Air Max 270 Reacts I’ve ever seen.
The homie Luis came up on the Silver Bullet 97’s. God, I love this shoe.
And the homie Mags took us to the future in the Nike Adapt Auto Max joints. Y’all. These look incredible.
Then, my guy Nick sent us home with the Off-White Dunks that I am now sooooo mad at myself for selling.
That’s it for this week, y’all! Y’all killed it, as always. Best sneaker community in the game.
That’s it for this week, y’all! Thanks so much for rocking with your boy. I appreciate each and every single one of you. Shouts to all the new folks here, too! Thanks for joining, y’all.
Don’t forget, tell a friend to tell another friend to subscribe. Somebody is winning a free pair of shoes when we get to 800 and I cannot wait to see who it is.
Y’all are the best, man. Stay safe out here. As always, peace and love. Be easy. Be well. Be kind.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯