The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 96 — The two faces of the deal
Endorsements, endorsements, endorsements.
Good morning, folks! Happy Monday! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear, you beautiful people, you.
We’re still on the way to 2,000! Tell your friends to tell their friends to subscribe to KYW! We’re giving away two pairs of shoes — your choice — up to $150 once we hit two stacks.
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Let’s jump in.
The delicate dance of the endorsement
(Photo by Nasonov Aleksandr on Unsplash)
I spent most of this week thinking about the good and bad of the endorsement game in the sneaker industry after a couple things happened.
Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers were eliminated from the NBA playoffs in the most embarrassing fashion possible by blowing a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets.
And Kanye West has been ranting for about a week straight now. But this week, he declared himself the head of Adidas…and Puma, apparently. And said Puma sucked. He eventually apologized, but yeah. Not a great look.
The sneaker industry runs on endorsements. It’s been like this since Converse attached sneaker salesman extraordinaire Chuck Taylor to the All-Star shoe in the 1920’s. He didn’t even play basketball, btw.
That’s been the formula forever and ever. Create a shoe, attach a name to it, and sell it like crazy. But it feels like now, brands are starting to rethink it. Those two scenarios with Ye and Kawhi exemplify why.
The honeymoon stage is over for New Balance and Leonard. Everyone hates the Clippers again. That’s not a good thing for a brand trying to reemerge in sports.
And Kanye is, well, Kanye. These rants are part of him (and I hope he gets some help with this). But moments like this show a house out of order.
When you have big personalities on big stages, you have to manage them. When they mess up or when they fail, it reflects on the brand just like it does when they succeed. New Balance took a big hit this week. So did Adidas.
Moments like these make the Puma route look so brilliant. Yes, they have athletes and entertainers they’ve signed. But they don’t have a Kanye or Kawhi. Everything is low maintenance
Their biggest star might be J Cole or Neymar, at this point. They don’t have a bunch of signature lines or brands to manage. They have their stars wear general Puma product.
Occasionally, we get a Fenty Creeper with Rihanna or an RS-Dreamer with J Cole, but those are rare. It’s low risk, high reward.
In 2020 when everyone has so much access to everything, that might be the best route to go. Especially in sports like basketball, for example, where the market is disappearing. Endorsees have value, but sometimes just aren’t worth the commitment.
Let me be clear. This is not me saying that Yeezy and Ye aren’t worth Adidas’ time. That would be foolish. They absolutely are. Sometimes you land on gems like Kanye West or Travis Scott or LeBron James and things work out beautifully.
But this game is a double-edged sword. You live and die as a brand by these names. There’s risk. Stephen Curry was a boon for Under Armour. He blows one 3-1 NBA Finals to James and no one wanted those shoes anymore.
Those are the breaks, yo. Finding someone with a true “halo” effect is hard. Most times you don’t. That’s why they are who they are. But if you do? A rising tide lifts all boats. It unlocks so many doors.
That’s what makes the game worth playing.
Nike’s unexpected confidence
(Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash)
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted literally every facet of every industry that you can possibly think of. Economics across the globe are shot. People don’t really have money to spend anymore.
Yet, amid all that, Nike somehow remains confident of their place ahead of their Q1 earnings call later this week. Nike Inc.’s leadership claims the brand “hasn’t slowed down a bit” amid the crisis, Footwear News’ Sheena Butler-Young reports.
CEO John Donahoe is hailing their Direct-To-Consumer transformation as the reason why during an investor call ahead of this week’s earnings report.
“In short, our strategy is working…The Consumer Direct Offense was working coming into the pandemic —[which then] stress tested the strategy and reaffirmed how correct the direction was.”
Nike announced its Direct-To-Consumer campaign back in 2017. Part of the plan was to increase innovation, build out a stronger e-commerce arm, cut out middle-man retailers and sell products directly to consumers from Nike in key major cities. They’ve begun to put that plan into motion in 2020, which was another reason for those layoffs.
It’s clear that their plan is going along as scheduled. But they’ve definitely been slowed a bit by the pandemic. When we last checked in on Nike in Q4, here’s where they were:
They missed their projected earnings mark by $790 million, which isn’t huge relatively speaking. But it’s not a drop in the bucket either.
Total revenue also dipped 38% to $6.3 billion (I know) from year to year at that time. Yes, again, that’s still a lot of money. But it’s a step back.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where those numbers have bounced back by a large margin from that in just one quarter. We’ll see, though.
Recycling On
The subscription recycling strategy has been one of the most fascinating and interesting discussion points when it comes to sustainability in sneakers.
This is when a company creates a recyclable sneaker with a subscription service that allows consumers to ship it back and get a new version of it. Adidas did this with the Adidas Futurecraft Loop.
Now On, the Swiss running brand, is doing the same with its new Cyclon runner. Here’s how it works, per Hypebeast’s Ross Dwyer.
Although the tech used may be advanced — we’ll get into that later – the subscription model is relatively straightforward. Subscribers to Cyclon will receive shoes and apparel, which they then return to On at the end of each product’s life cycle. On will provide these subscribers with the latest models, while recycling returned items and using the raw material to create new pieces.
It’s essentially rewarding the consumer for recycling the shoe with a new, updated version of it. That’s brilliant. It gives people more incentive to actually send the shoe back, which wasn’t happening with the Futurecraft Loop. They weren’t getting shoes back as quickly as possible.
Keep an eye on this one. I have a feeling On won’t have that issue here. We’ll see, though. Either way, this is a W for sustainability.
I was today years old when I learned Batman was fly as hell
Fam, did y’all know Batman was out here wearing Jordan 6’s in ‘Batman Returns’ because I absolutely did not and this just blew my entire mind.
WHO KNEW MICHAEL KEATON WAS GIVING IT UP LIKE THIS?!?! He is almost certainly not my favorite Batman, but he just climbed up the rankings for sure.
Next Batman boot we gotta get slim to wear some black Timbs. He’s in Gotham! It’s only right. Get on it, Pattinson.
What’s droppin’, bruh
Nike Dunk High “Michigan” — Wednesday, September 23
Kasina x Nike Dunk Low — Thursday, September 24
Ruohan Wang x Nike Air Max 90 “Flyleather” — Thursday, September 24
Bodega x New Balance “Better Days” — Friday, September 25
Air Jordan 10 “Dark Mocha” — Saturday, September 26
That’s a wrap for Monday! Thank y’all for rocking with your boy this morning. I appreciate your time, as always! See you on Wednesday for the thread!
Make sure you’re subscribed! We’ve got a pair of kicks waiting on a couple of y’all soon. The road to 2,000 continues! I’ll also keep y’all in the loop on this merch coming!
Y’all know the vibes. Peace and love. Be easy. Be well. Be kind.
Signing off.
—Sykes 💯
since you brought it up:
1. Affleck
2. Keaton
3. Bale
4. Kilmer
5. Clooney
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