It's not about the shoes

[ironchef]

Been thinking about the whole hypebeast/reseller movement that has really made it hype and difficult to cop a fresh pair of retros, and have come to the conclusion that whoever is running the JB marketing department is a genious.

Theres no doubt that there has always been a strong link between hiphop and footwear starting from Run DMC, but it wasn't until the last couple years that daily posts on sneaker blogs update readers on what who in the hiphop community is wearing. It's obvious Nike is sending these guys releases well ahead of thier release because they know they will show up on sneaker blogs, music videos, concert appearances and whatever public appearance that may be covered by the media, providing free advertising.

How brilliant was this move? For the cost of production of one pair of sneakers JB is marketing to the whole world.

People look at these stars and want to emulate the fashion, so while us heads that want to cop because of nostalgia reasons, or because they are part of our generation, we have to come to the realization that our hobby/style has been jacked and for me ruined by all these people coming out of the woods coppin the" white space jams" or the "grey concords".

Not happy about the current state of affairs.........

 

[bballermarkie]

I was at the release for the playoffs today and basically shocked. Out of the the 40-50 people there there was probably 10 people, including myself, that wanted the shoe for the simple reason that they loved it. All these wanna be gansta kids showing up that didn't even really know what they were buying and were already talking about who they were gonna sell it to. As a matter a fact while I was chilling in the mall afterwards and was approached by several people offering me their shoes. I don't know but it bothered me, I can't claim nostalgia or anything like that but by seeing all these fake people i know that I'm a sneakerhead.

 

[ccastro02]

Not sure if it's intentional or not, however might want to correct the names of the two shoes you referenced in your 4th paragraph or put some quotation marks around them before you get bashed.

 

[ironchef]

^good point, although I thought the sarcasm was obvious.

 

[asilva23]

Originally Posted by ccastro02

Not sure if it's intentional or not, however might want to correct the names of the two shoes you referenced in your 4th paragraph or put some quotation marks around them before you get bashed.

i believe he was being sarcastic.  sometime sarcasm is hard to read.

 

[KMante]

Nike has always done this though, lowkey.

 

[coldcity]

Originally Posted by KMante

Nike has always done this though, lowkey.

 

[gry60]

Originally Posted by KMante

Nike has always done this though, lowkey.

Remember Nelly's "Air Force Ones"?

 

[KMante]

Originally Posted by Gry60

Originally Posted by KMante

Nike has always done this though, lowkey.

Remember Nelly's "Air Force Ones"?

Even before that, again lowkey.

 

[Deleted member 42060]

its about the marketing behind the shoes. "It's gotta be the shoes" like blackmon said. nike simply and brilliantly took advantage of creating popularity behind the rise of michael jordan during his professional career since the 1980s. No other player has been hyped, glorified, popular, and more desired. He was the model that nike wanted to reproduce for just about every other player on their company, albeit with some tweaks. kobe comes close and look at lebron. some worked out some didn't. Nike doesnt want negative publicity only respected and profitable publicity. Like others have said Nike wants exclusiveness and popularity as the number one brand. many companies want the same.

I think I would place the blame on the behavior of the people. We have regular consumers and then we have opportunist consumers. The older heads are probably 90% regular nostalgic consumers who want the retro feeling, and then we have this newer younger generation that want something that looks "hot", "fly" because their favorite rapper or actor are wearing them or because they want to fit in with literally the older crowd who wear them. I would think the opportunist ones are the unfamiliar young dudes who cant get a decent job, same type of people who would exploit other services or products.

 

[midnight hype]

unfortunately, Its about reselling and making profit. I was at the aj 12 release and before i landed a spot on the line, I notice some people standing on the sideline of the sneaker store had multiple bags of js. Im like two pairs i could understand, (one to rock another to stock) but these group of kids are diffrent breed. They all had atleast four pairs of js. On top of that one of the individuals placed his lady friend, infront of the line to get another pair. One dude awaiting to get his pair,called him out and they got into a verbal altercation, the quarrel finally ceased and my size was sold out.( GO Figure) So i ran to the mall, there was already a long line so i patiently waited till 9. A couple of minutes go by and guesss what the same dudes with multipule pairs tryed to cut the front of the line. Mind you this was for the playoffs , imagine the olympic 6's.   

  

 

[dankenstien88]

KMante wrote:

---

Originally Posted by Gry60

KMante wrote:

---

Nike has always done this though, lowkey.

Remember Nelly's "Air Force Ones"?


Even before that, again lowkey.




Yep.

Tupac usually got the New Jays and hot Nikes as soon as they were manufactured, months before they released.


Lots of other companies do this too. Most high profile celebs get shipments of clothes, shoes, Jewelery/watches and even cars on occasion direct from the manufacturer to show off and build hype before the item publicly releases.


Its sad but true but... Those who are in a position to be able to afford whats hot in the streets, almost never need to pay for it themselves.

 

[bip roberts]

Welcome to 1991, OP.

What about all the jockeying to have other brand sponsored track stars tape over their other logos and put on a new pair of shoes on their way to the blocks. Read "Swoosh," for starters.

 

[ironchef]

^91??? When did you ever see the Wu, Mobb Deep, Nas, Bigge all trocking the latest kicks months before they dropped at the same time.

As corny as Nelly is I bet AF1s was an unsolicited commerical that he made for Nike

Every relevant hip hop artist today is showcasing Nikes upcoming catalogue, you can't tell me this is how it used to be....

 

[dreday79]

Originally Posted by IronChef

^91??? When did you ever see the Wu, Mobb Deep, Nas, Bigge all trocking the latest kicks months before they dropped at the same time.

As corny as Nelly is I bet AF1s was an unsolicited commerical that he made for Nike

Every relevant hip hop artist today is showcasing Nikes upcoming catalogue, you can't tell me this is how it used to be....

There was no Internet and sneaker blogs back then but it happened . Matter fact one of the PAC being alive theories back in the day because he was wearing a pair of Penny's in the Toss It Up video that hadn't been released yet.

 

[ironchef]

^You ever remember watching Yo! Reading the Source or Word Up, and being like damn where did they get those? Those were the equivalents for that time.

 

[dreday79]

^^^ yeah it just morphed into the blogs and stuff . I was just saying this has always happened especially in hop rappers have always been walking , talking commercials . Remember Rae with the yellow Tommy pullover everybody on my block wanted that .

 

[ironchef]

^ Good point but you think Tommy hooked that up? Around that time I remember TH coming out with some racist statements when questioned about how his clothing was hot in urban fashion.

 

[dreday79]

The racial statements were Urban legend . Don't think tommy hooked it up . I'm thinking around 98 -00 is when rappers started really really being used as marketing tools we're they got hookups or free stuff . But it always happened

 

[muzikfrk75]

Read where tommy would personally hook grand puba up with clothes

Y'all remember the tommy polo snoop wore on snl?

Rae and the Snow Beach Polo jacket....mannnnnnnn

 

[loshirtsandretros]

Originally Posted by muzikfrk75

Read where tommy would personally hook grand puba up with clothes

Y'all remember the tommy polo snoop wore on snl?

Rae and the Snow Beach Polo jacket....mannnnnnnn

I had copped that blue & yellow Snow Beach jacket a few years back on ebay for $260. I remember as a kid seeing the Chef wearing it & wanting it. Remind you I was like 7 or 8 at the time.

Hip-Hop has always promoted clothing brands & what's hot. I believe Nike is capitalizing off of this, by now actually using these guys for the free marketing. Some of these rappers may not even realize they're being used like this. 

 

[lbcol]

it is a pretty smart way of marketing, pretty much like a grassroots campaign.

 

[anshaniuk]

I've said it once and I'll say it again: Nike knows how to manipulate people and make them want a product. Good job on their part though...

 

[lbcol]

welcome to nikecomplaint.com

 

[al bundy5]

Personally, I don't really care what the latest rapper is rocking. If anything it makes me less likely to buy