HOLIDAY 2021 - Cool Grey 11

[str8cashhomie]

I turned 41 last year, and my love affair for Jordan’s started when my older (by 8 years) cousin rocked a fresh pair of a military blues back in the 89’. His much younger (by about 20 years) brother introduced me to “reps”, he has a mix of retail and “Reps”. He stocks his retail pairs and rocks his reps. Some of his reps are superior to the retails.

This reminds me of a documentary about art forgery that I was watching recently. Basically there was a scene with an art dealer openly talking about ultra wealthy clients buying paintings for hundreds of millions (e.g. Picasso, Basquiat, etc) then putting it right in storage. The one they would hang on the wall was a reproduction that they would also commission, but no normal person can tell the difference.

 

[ozboi]

At the mall yesterday trying to find some street hockey twigs for my boy….

 

[Girl Thats Jules]

Since we're talking about quality and manufacturing:


What's the technical difference in the Jordan 1 and the Dunk? (manufacturing-wise)

- Air sole
- Sometimes a little more padding inside the ankle collar?

What else am I missing? The Dunks are $110 retail and 1s are $170.

It has to be because of hype, right?

 

[shawndavinci]

Since we're talking about quality and manufacturing:


What's the technical difference in the Jordan 1 and the Dunk? (manufacturing-wise)

- Air sole
- Sometimes a little more padding inside the ankle collar?

What else am I missing? The Dunks are $110 retail and 1s are $170.

It has to be because of hype, right?

MJ effect

 

[206to813]

Buying real shoes for your closet and fakes to wear is beyond weird to me

 

[kidstaten]

Buying real shoes for your closet and fakes to wear is beyond weird to me

so is walking on your heels to try and make one pair of low quality sneakers last 10 years

(Not saying you specifically)

 

[HellRazor1978]

My cool greys also have the blue stamp and the odd table on the bottom of the insole that Str8cash showed. I just have no idea at this point. It’s probably safe to say that reps have the same quality as official pairs and are in essence the same shoe. Crazy.

 

[Jordanbball]

 

[James_O]

whats up w these cheap auctions, saying this 0 feedback seller sold 21 size 12.5s for $250 ea. which i refuse to beleive. Is he actually getting away w this, i thought ebay holds the money until the shoes are authenticated?

If that’s your size, buy. If it’s not authentic, they will reject it and give you your money back.

I think eBay holds it until they are authenticated. If they are legit, the money goes to the seller. If they are fakes, it will get back to you.

 

[skaterplayer808]

The rep vs real conversation is a good one to have. Personally never bought reps or been compelled to buy one, but I can see how people who strike out and don't wanna pay high resell price would. Like others have mentioned, the real problem is when people try to sell the fakes at the price of a real shoe (i.e., buy ow chi reps and try to sell them as real which usually go for upwards of 5k). You would hope that resell markets like goat/ebay authentication program/sx would catch it, but you never know.

I'm curious if people ever just say eff it and move on because they know a shoe's been out a long time and that reps might be way too good. That's partially how I feel about if I ever coughed up the money on ow chi's. Last year I bought a pair of my grails (yea I know, people use that word lightly), which came out back in 2016 and was worried it might've been fake since it was purchased on sx. Used check check, compared online pics of reps and real versions and everything looked good, but you never know. It was for FTB Kobe 11's btw.

 

[skaterplayer808]

One last thought, goat does mess up as well. I purchased a pair of court purple 1.0's and they were taking forever to ship so I contacted support via email and had asked what the hold up was. Soon after, they shipped out my pair, but low and behold, when it arrived, it was the court purple 2.0. Paid like 500 bucks for a shoe going for 200 less. Took pics, contacted them, and they acknowledged they messed up, but I don't know how they don't catch that. Think the only thing they offered me was 20 bucks and free return for Goat Credit lmao

 

[misha]

whats up w these cheap auctions, saying this 0 feedback seller sold 21 size 12.5s for $250 ea. which i refuse to beleive. Is he actually getting away w this, i thought ebay holds the money until the shoes are authenticated?

Def fake guy can easily cash out 300 on stock x or goat plenty of fakes going around he careful

 

[rainking]

Who’s going to arrest them? China’s government gives no damns unless you're bribing them to protect your brand.

I turned 41 last year, and my love affair for Jordan’s started when my older (by 8 years) cousin rocked a fresh pair of a military blues back in the 89’. His much younger (by about 20 years) brother introduced me to “reps”, he has a mix of retail and “Reps”. He stocks his retail pairs and rocks his reps. Some of his reps are superior to the retails.

I miss the days of walking into the store and trying on kicks to see which size I prefer. Currently, you cop and hope they fit. I have the SJs in a 12 and they fit perfect. Got the 2019 bred 11s and Cool Grey in a 12 and they are too tight. I tried to get a 12.5 and a 13 in both, no luck.

Oh I know China is the land of counterfeiting and that nothing will likely happen to those people. It's just interesting to see blatant flaunting of an illegal business.

but I don't know how they don't catch that.

Because any time human beings are involved, mistakes can and will occur. There isn't any way an authentication service--be it SX, GOAT, eBay, whatever--no matter how great its employees are, will never get duped by fakes or let some fakes through. Some of these places are dealing with hundreds if not thousands of pairs per day. Go sit at a table for 8 or more hours of a work shift and do nothing but stare at sneakers all day, and try to believe you eventually won't get lazy or tired or have a bad day and just not care much and you end up letting a bad pair or three past you. It's inevitable.

 

[Raji Lowenthal]

Buying in an actual store is sketchy too with all the staff switching out fake pairs for real pairs.

 

[dakidbanks]

I've been extremely paranoid that I received a UA/rep from Kickscrew based on this thread and a few comparison videos on Youtube. My Cool Greys had the blue stamp inside the shoe and the weird table debossed on the bottom of the insole. I got out my 2018 Concords (purchased directly from Nike) and those also had the blue QC stamp (see photo) and the debossing. The insole on the left is from the Concord. The insole on the right is the Cool Grey from KC. FWIW, my Cool Grey box also had a small round QC sticker, which I've heard people say is a red flag.

I also used a black light on the Cool Greys and confirmed there aren't any "tracing" lines visible which basically was the final peace of mind I needed. There were multiple times during the process that I questioned whether the Real vs UA/rep debate is even relevant anymore. I do think that if people are fraudulently selling them, thats a problem, but if fans just want a rep to enjoy and wear around at a reasonable price then more power to them.

I think for people who started collecting decades ago, 'fakes' carry a huge huge stigma, largely because their quality was so poor. So I know this can be a sensitive topic. Realistically, I dont think the quality gap is that wide anymore, if it even exists. If Nike's QC and supply chain are this lacking, I don't necessarily think 'fakes' = inferior (though many obviously are). As someone with a background in manufacturing, I can see certain reps actually having higher QC standards because they know they will be scrutinized that much more closely on resale platforms. I actually think the real risk is reps eventually work their way into the retail supply, meaning employees of sneaker stores are swapping them out prior to release date (either on a one-off basis or in a very broad organized way). I'm sure at a high level Nike has protocols to prevent this, but once deliveries arrive at retailers they have very little control. Essentially, at that point, there would be no reliable "source of truth" for what qualifies as a "real" pair. Sorry, I didn't intend to get philosophical.

TLDR: if you have the weird table on the bottom of your insole, that doesn't mean your pair is fake.

i had the pair that said QF-8 on the insole and had a blue stamp under by the hole. Idk what’s going on but I’ve been building my collection for years to be unsure about a pair so I sent them back to Goat

 

[Girl Thats Jules]

My cool greys also have the blue stamp and the odd table on the bottom of the insole that Str8cash showed. I just have no idea at this point. It’s probably safe to say that reps have the same quality as official pairs and are in essence the same shoe. Crazy.

I've seen some shoes with that insole table before but I can't remember which one. This was a year or two ago.

 

[skaterplayer808]

Oh I know China is the land of counterfeiting and that nothing will likely happen to those people. It's just interesting to see blatant flaunting of an illegal business.

Because any time human beings are involved, mistakes can and will occur. There isn't any way an authentication service--be it SX, GOAT, eBay, whatever--no matter how great its employees are, will never get duped by fakes or let some fakes through. Some of these places are dealing with hundreds if not thousands of pairs per day. Go sit at a table for 8 or more hours of a work shift and do nothing but stare at sneakers all day, and try to believe you eventually won't get lazy or tired or have a bad day and just not care much and you end up letting a bad pair or three past you. It's inevitable.

I read somewhere on reddit that sx has a quota to meet per hour of how much shoes/stuff to authenticate, which can definitely contribute to less time spent doing a proper LC. I don't think resell platforms have authentics in a case somewhere where workers can go to do an LC side by side with a real product since that's just not feasible with the time constraints. Although you would hope so for at least the super expensive stuff like Mars Yards or anything over 1k really.

I get the human error point, but seriously, how does one person get a print out sheet or however the hell they do it, saying that I ordered 1.0 CP and they are LC'ing a 2.0 CP. That would be an immediate flag that the seller sent in the wrong shoe. Same thing as when people send in the wrong size by accident, but this is way more obvious. Color blocking is totally different.

 

[Deleted member 107398]

Buying in an actual store is sketchy too with all the staff switching out fake pairs for real pairs.

I take it a step further, one real, one fake shoe in a box, and hope that if the buyer does LC the pair, they LC the real shoe and draw up any inconsistencies between the two to QC/craftsmanship

 

[dakidbanks]

My cool greys also have the blue stamp and the odd table on the bottom of the insole that Str8cash showed. I just have no idea at this point. It’s probably safe to say that reps have the same quality as official pairs and are in essence the same shoe. Crazy.

Mine had the same thing. Had a Nike sticker in Chinese under the box. I have no clue. I sent them back and I’ll try my luck again.

I mean what do you do? Just miss the release entirely?

I saw a few ppl making comments about the ones forced to got the resell route. If retail is $225 before tax and my resell price was $270 before shipping I ain’t lookin at it like I’m severely overpaying… especially if this a release I’ve been waiting on but I do have an issue ordering from “reputable” sources and being skeptical about if they’re real or not. The game is messed up

 

[rainking]

I get the human error point, but seriously, how does one person get a print out sheet or however the hell they do it, saying that I ordered 1.0 CP and they are LC'ing a 2.0 CP. That would be an immediate flag that the seller sent in the wrong shoe. Same thing as when people send in the wrong size by accident, but this is way more obvious. Color blocking is totally different.

Because people just eff up sometimes, or get confused, or something got mixed up in the process. Who knows, but it's bound to happen. A year or two ago, I ordered some shorts, size L, from NDC. Package arrived and not only was it not even close to being the correct pair of shorts, the pair Nike sent me was an XXL. I'm no fan of SX or any of them, and I have no idea what really goes on there and/or if they're really that terrible at authenticating or are participating in intentionally shady practices. Certainly there are a fair amount of stories, and also about how crappy their customer service is. All I'm saying is, no matter who it is, things are going to happen. You just hope it's the exception and not the norm.

 

[truenike81]

Truth be told we all are wearing reps

 

[KanyIZZY]

When you get a decent pair.. these are fire. Been checking out my pairs for days since the release.. and the way these fit is a game changer.

 

[keepemfresh]

I must be blind then. Cause they look SPOT ON.

Apologies if I sounded brash lol. It looked obvious to me as the giveaways I saw was based off of the 1st shoe shown in the video. I’ll admit it’s harder to tell looking at the pairs shown at the end.

From what I could from the video, the back heel/sock liner is dark and shiny compared to the legit pair as if they used acrylic polyester.

Nike pair:

Overall shape with the collar being too high as well as the straps looking thinner than normal and the jumpman symbol being so high too.

Nike pair:

Anyways, just be careful out there yall. Especially buying from ANYWHERE other than known retailers at retail.

 

[85ROY]

Kicks Crew finally responded to my e-mails and said the damage is due to "the original manufacturing process" and offered me a $10 discount as a "gesture of goodwill."

This is what we're up against.

That 4:29 mark is where your pair got messed up.

 

[HellRazor1978]

Apologies if I sounded brash lol. It looked obvious to me as the giveaways I saw was based off of the 1st shoe shown in the video. I’ll admit it’s harder to tell looking at the pairs shown at the end.

From what I could from the video, the back heel/sock liner is dark and shiny compared to the legit pair as if they used acrylic polyester.

Nike pair:

Overall shape with the collar being too high as well as the straps looking thinner than normal and the jumpman symbol being so high too.

Nike pair:

Anyways, just be careful out there yall. Especially buying from ANYWHERE other than known retailers at retail.

Well, mine looks closer to the pair on the bottom in terms of shape and jump man placement, so they probably good.