Thoughts on GM, after discussion with my longtime friend who works at NIKE.
1. Never understand why people compare a retail version shoe against a GM pair? If I compared 2 retail pair against each other you will see a difference between the two pair. I would love to see an comparison with a recently restocked jordan 11 bred and release date version.
2. So did you guys ever think that all these restocks/B-grades releases are from the same factory as what we think is the GM?
3. Example; Jordan brand bids a contract out to a couple of factories to make 3,000 pairs of Jordan 12s. They have one factory make 2,000 pair and another makes 1,000 pairs. During production they go out and see which factory is making the best and if the shoe is coming out the way they want. If JB makes the visit early in the production and decides they don’t like something about the 12s, they will stop production and start making the “tweeks” to the shoe that JB wants, resulting in 100s of 12s that have minor flaws but not what JB wants(GM). The factories end up making 4,000 and 2,000 pairs each of the Jordan 12s just so JB can come and pick thru the shoes to grab the best 3,000 pair out of the 6,000 that was made. Whenever JB wants to do a restock or have a promotional release they know that they have 3,000 pairs of Jordan 12s(GM) sitting around in a factory and the restock isn’t going to be big enough for us to notice the flaws. The workers at the factory are taking some of those pairs and selling them on the side and if JB makes the call for the 3,000 they have templates in place to make the shoes on demand. Yeah some of them have flaws because JB left them for a reason, but some don’t......
We are all pointing our fingers at the GM but truth be told JB figured out a clever way to get rid of the flawed shoe that used to be known as factory “B-grades” and sold for 50% off at a Nike outlets. If Jordan Brand had an outlet release tomorrow for Jordan 11 black and red restock, and all of the pairs sold were flawed nobody would complain or even post about it.