@@@ REEBOK @@@ SHAQ ATTACKS @@@

[vood99]

@vood99 hit the nail on the head. The OG c'ways don't even sell at retail for the bok heads. They could retail at $60 and bok heads would still wait for the discount! LOL

Amen on this.

Fila Canada has completely dropped their heritage line and I won't be surprised if Fila USA or Fila Global scales down on their retro catalog too. Having your product blown out at Sears for $20 has ZERO profit margin. Retailers WILL stop ordering your product - if I were Fila I'd go online only and drop ship your product going forward. Anyways where is the GH III/Fila '97 - that joint was supposed to come out about 3~4 months ago? KiddFuture is a hype man, dude is not paid to state things for what they are but it will be tough for them to bring 'new' retro product out. It'll just be endless '95s and '96s.

Likewise for Reebok, the Answer III was scrapped along with some other models and we're getting some super basic (easy to manufacture) Shroud & Rafter next year.

Contrast that with Nike/JB, who can move one piece/seamless, plastic shoes for $150+ and the same old re-retros with lesser materials for $200+. From a business point of view, it's clear to see that Adibok & Fila are struggling.

 

[trentbg]

The 97/GHlll is out on a lot of sites, just not on the official FILA site. As for the rest, we are revisiting the same subject every month, and I think we can all agree, that nothing will change, till this hype train moves on, and kids find another hobby or possession to flex with on IG. 

 

[whathehadassole]

@vood99 you know the truth. Those Fila retros are basically being given away. They've had retros like the FX-100 at Big Lots....Big Lots...and they still weren't moving. What's the point of retroing shoes that are going for more than 50% off of it's retail price. They can't possibly be making any profit. The same for Reebok. It's getting harder to find the retros in stores. Going online only will be the best option

 

[allhailmegatron]

Shaq ivs 40% off at reebok with STAYCLASSIC coupon..picked up a size 12 for 60$ shipped

Amen on this.

Fila Canada has completely dropped their heritage line and I won't be surprised if Fila USA or Fila Global scales down on their retro catalog too. Having your product blown out at Sears for $20 has ZERO profit margin. Retailers WILL stop ordering your product - if I were Fila I'd go online only and drop ship your product going forward. Anyways where is the GH III/Fila '97 - that joint was supposed to come out about 3~4 months ago? KiddFuture is a hype man, dude is not paid to state things for what they are but it will be tough for them to bring 'new' retro product out. It'll just be endless '95s and '96s.

Likewise for Reebok, the Answer III was scrapped along with some other models and we're getting some super basic (easy to manufacture) Shroud & Rafter next year.

Contrast that with Nike/JB, who can move one piece/seamless, plastic shoes for $150+ and the same old re-retros with lesser materials for $200+. From a business point of view, it's clear to see that Adibok & Fila are struggling.

I see what you're saying and I agree. But Nike/JB have a deeper catalog, but they also have a ton of sneakers that don't sell well either. A lot of their non-Sig, basic retros and re-retros can be caught on deep discounts as well. But it seems like their established player sigs, reach a certain price point, then it's "return to vendor", then shuttled off to outlets, where they only get a modest discount. I see LeBron XI's still sitting at my local Footlocker for $169-199. Some are showing up at outlets for $129-149, which at an outlet is still outrageous to me. But they can afford to. I think Reebok is still doing a better job with quality, but they should scale back a bit on the quantity they release. In a Nike/JB world, you don't even have to wait long for price drops on a lot of Reeboks. I've bought, Rails, FOTP Shaq Attaqs, Kamikaze Is, D time pumps, Stash Questions, First Ballot Questions,all for less than half of their MSRP. But I can say the same for a ton of Nike retros as well. Command Forces have hit $115 on some European sneakers sites and they'll continue to drop. Jordan's, you only needto wait a few months before resellers figure out they won't get what they're looking for anymore. And I can find those any day of the week. But for me to find a decently priced pair of Remember the Alamo K2's, "Practice" Questions in my size has been a chore. A lot of the Reeboks I like , I can't find. All in all I like what Reebok is doing. I have far less wtf questions with Reebok than I do with Nike and JB.

 

[beanman]

The easy answer for reebok would be to take a page out of nike/JB and release limited numbers of these retros to get the hype train moving (much like they did with the Shaq Attaq 1 OG White CW - there seemed to be a decent amount of hype back then for Reeboks). 

Truth be told, I'm just disappointed (for nostalgic reasons) that we probably won't see the Attaq 3 (and 2 for that matter!).  The Attaq 1-3 are the reason I love sneakers. 

 

[allhailmegatron]

^That would be the best and obvious way to do it in my opinion too. I know I''ll never see a pump vertical retro.

 

[trentbg]

Limited is not the answer, and never will be. Look what happened with Nike/JB and the limited game, re-sellers get half of the release in there hands, huge numbers are made by the grey market productions to cover the rest of the hunger. 

It really needs one person in the top management that loves and cares about the brand at least half of my love and care, with enough power and vision to turn the things in the right direction. The todays marketing tactics are simple, flood all the hype sites with your product, tell the story to the young kids, pay and bring back some legendary athletes, send everyone and their dog free pairs on YT and call it a day. 

 

[trentbg]

^That would be the best and obvious way to do it in my opinion too. I know I''ll never see a pump vertical retro.

We can pretty much forget about anything that is a landmark Above The Rim model, so Verts are not happening. 

 

[allhailmegatron]

Limited is not the answer, and never will be. Look what happened with Nike/JB and the limited game, re-sellers get half of the release in there hands, huge numbers are made by the grey market productions to cover the rest of the hunger. 
It really needs one person in the top management that loves and cares about the brand at least half of my love and care, with enough power and vision to turn the things in the right direction. The todays marketing tactics are simple, flood all the hype sites with your product, tell the story to the young kids, pay and bring back some legendary athletes, send everyone and their dog free pairs on YT and call it a day. 

Gotcha. I just think over saturation if the market is a catch 22 with Nike/JB. Everyone wants them, but along with that not only do resellers pop up, so do the fakes. I don't know if Reebok will ever get over the hump, but if it does I don't want it to go down that same path. The Question may be the only true bridge in the gap between young and old. Most kids associate Reebok with cross fit, and the zig tech. Nike/JB control the masses and NBA, NFL, and MLB. Adidas should be 2nd the NBA, followed by Under Armour and so on. I know of 1 NBA player who wears Reebok, Jason Terry. Reebok can learn from Nike's success, but also their failures like staying away from hybrids. They can also learn from other sneaker companies who do relatively well in their retro market like Ewing, Asics, Saucony, and New Balance. I also agree with better management, but that's neither you or I. Right now Reebok has a decent cult following. A lot of the collabs are cool, but so is sticking to the basics.

 

[dc30]

I agree with trentbg as in "limited" is definitely not the answer. Granted the K2 Alamo's and OG Shaq Attaq's were limited...but I honestly don't think that was the intention to get them sold.

All of the Pump 25 collabs are supposed to be "limited" (500 pairs per collab?) and they can be had pretty much at any boutique who carries Reebok and all on sale at a $150-$175 price point...which IMO, might be high for what many of us are used to paying for a Reebok around these parts...BUT the quality on any of them easily outshines many sneakers on the market that many people will plunk down retail price for without even thinking twice.

The change, if there is to be any, needs to come from the top. Reebok will clearly continue to have it's share of Cross Fit and the Zig Tech fan base, and that's fine as profits of any kind continue to fuel their business as a whole, but there does need to be some care in the Classics line, whether it's better marketing for the Retro stuff, athlete endorsements, or simply choosing better models/colors to drop.

Most of the Champs, Foot Lockers, Foot Actions, and even Finish Line by me has stopped carrying adult size Reebok's, and that bums me out, but you know what? At this point the younger Nike/JB crowd is NOT going to be swayed...just won't happen. A lot of us say just wait...but it's a losing battle. Unless as Trent stated...start putting free product out there to YouTubers and the like to review, wear, and push product. Maybe that's how you can start the revolution, lol. But IMO the strength of the brand continues to be with the older crowd like the majority of us here.

While hunting down a lot of the collabs I have recently purchased I walked into, called, and visited the websites of a lot of the more well known botiques...and I gotta say...the amount of Reebok product they carry is pretty impressive. Even if they do go on sale, product is still moving. So while the bigger chains might have let the Vector go by the wayside, the brand still pushes along, and at a better pace than I think some of us give credit for. I might be wrong, but that was just my perception as I was shopping around. And if I want a shoe, I'll still pay retail for it, even if I know discounts can be had later. Sometimes that is brand loyalty as well...

 

[trentbg]

I think Reebok are already starting to make more limited quantities than lets say last year, just recently I was thinking to get the White D-Time and over the Thanksgiving with the 30% off I was set to go, but than my size was gone, soon all sizes were gone and now I think only 2 sizes are available, so I was not able to cop and that has not been a case since a very long time. Luckily Bait had them too, so I was able to grab at least one pair over the Christmas time, but I didn't pay even close to what I was waiting to pay. Anyway most of you know me well by now and you know I probably have one of the largest Reebok collections out there not to mention that most of my videos on YT are about Reebok products, but you can clearly see how low is the interest just by the number of views and subscribers. 

I said that before, but even if Reebok pulls the plug on the classic models, I am still grateful, few years back I couldn't even dream about seeing some of my all time favorite shoes retro-ed, let alone to have them in my collection in double and triple numbers.  

 

[beanman]

 
Limited is not the answer, and never will be. Look what happened with Nike/JB and the limited game, re-sellers get half of the release in there hands, huge numbers are made by the grey market productions to cover the rest of the hunger. 

It really needs one person in the top management that loves and cares about the brand at least half of my love and care, with enough power and vision to turn the things in the right direction. The todays marketing tactics are simple, flood all the hype sites with your product, tell the story to the young kids, pay and bring back some legendary athletes, send everyone and their dog free pairs on YT and call it a day. 

While I don't think limiting releases is necessarily a good thing, I do believe it builds hype.  Basically, when you limit a release it becomes more valuable, then it shows up on celebrity's/pseudo celebrity's feet, which fuels the hype and then the beasts and everyone who wants to be up on the newest things buy them.  Just using the OG Shaq CW for an example, because it's the last time I really saw reeboks showing up on people's feet on the shoe websites/twitter, etc.   If you flood the market with new CWs that don't mean much to anyone and aren't limited they are destined for bargain bins.  Then the company's bottom line drops and they are less likely to retro any other shoe that we actually want to see.

I do agree that if Reebok wanted to get back in the game they would need to up their athletes and start marketing some new kicks (that are aesthetically pleasing) and get some people to wear them. 

 

[allhailmegatron]

^I agree with what you both say wholeheartedly. Let me rephrase though, when I say limited, I wasn't referring to say 500 pairs of each sneaker. I should say retailers should be limited. Boutiques sell well, as Dc30 pointed out. My Footlocker also only has moved on from Reebok, with First ballot Questions at retail being the only thing left. I drew more of a buzz and a ton of questions in that same Footlocker during Xmas shopping about my Packer Shaq Attaqs than any Nike/JB product I own, because you see Nike everyday. Reebok has more of a shock and awe factor going for them, keep rolling with that. My og answer iii's had one kid staring at them so much, until his mom asked me where I got them and are they Jordan's? Told them they were Iversons made by Reebok. They were in shock. They wanted to know where I got them, and told them eBay and they are originals. It may be just me, but street buzz has always been where it's at with me. Hell, they could skip YT and all other social media outlets and give em to me lol.

 

[vood99]

While I don't think limiting releases is necessarily a good thing, I do believe it builds hype.  Basically, when you limit a release it becomes more valuable, then it shows up on celebrity's/pseudo celebrity's feet, which fuels the hype and then the beasts and everyone who wants to be up on the newest things buy them.  Just using the OG Shaq CW for an example, because it's the last time I really saw reeboks showing up on people's feet on the shoe websites/twitter, etc.   If you flood the market with new CWs that don't mean much to anyone and aren't limited they are destined for bargain bins.  Then the company's bottom line drops and they are less likely to retro any other shoe that we actually want to see.

I do agree that if Reebok wanted to get back in the game they would need to up their athletes and start marketing some new kicks (that are aesthetically pleasing) and get some people to wear them. 

The issue with limiting product is that you might not hit the intended market, i.e. resellers will grab everything and the people who actually want a pair will not end up getting one. I'm from the camp that will not buy some variant looking retro+ colourway just because the OG colourway sold out. Similarly I'll only pay MSRP on a sneaker if I really want it but I won't pay a cent over.

That said, some hype is necessary but with Nike/JB controlling the market and dropping 'desirable' stuff daily if not weekly - does the consumer have enough of a budget to add a half decent NON-Nike/JB product to their collection?

I personally think Adidas needs to sell Reebok and focus on their own brand as they are doing a piss poor job getting their product out there.

 

[hollahollygrove]

Footlockers here in MS have all of last year and this year's Reebok retros for $29.99...

 

[allhailmegatron]

The issue with limiting product is that you might not hit the intended market, i.e. resellers will grab everything and the people who actually want a pair will not end up getting one. I'm from the camp that will not buy some variant looking retro+ colourway just because the OG colourway sold out. Similarly I'll only pay MSRP on a sneaker if I really want it but I won't pay a cent over.

That said, some hype is necessary but with Nike/JB controlling the market and dropping 'desirable' stuff daily if not weekly - does the consumer have enough of a budget to add a half decent NON-Nike/JB product to their collection?

I personally think Adidas needs to sell Reebok and focus on their own brand as they are doing a piss poor job getting their product out there.

Thats just it. Nike retro/JB/Nike sigs drop too often, too fast, and too much in thousands of colorways. It's annoying. If it were Reebok going up against just Melo and Chris Paul's line only, then it wouldn't be a problem. I thought Isaiah Thomas could do something with helping brink Reebok back, but he folded too.

I like both Adidas and Reebok, but they need to sever ties.

 

[vood99]

Footlockers here in MS have all of last year and this year's Reebok retros for $29.99...

Goes back to what I was saying earlier about the retailers losing money. Hell, Reebok.ca is trying to hustle some 2 year old Answer IV retros for $140 CDN...

 

[vood99]

Thats just it. Nike retro/JB/Nike sigs drop too often, too fast, and too much in thousands of colorways. It's annoying. If it were Reebok going up against just Melo and Chris Paul's line only, then it wouldn't be a problem. I thought Isaiah Thomas could do something with helping brink Reebok back, but he folded too.

I like both Adidas and Reebok, but they need to sever ties.

Nike is cut-throat - it is in their best interest to kill off Adidas, Reebok, UA, etc... The reality is that the aforementioned are necessary in order to keep Nike/JB in check.

I'll wait for some of the others to chime in here, but a strong Reebok was what kept Nike innovating in the late 80s, 90s and early 00s. Likewise the same for Fila in the mid 90s & Adidas in the late 90s and early 00s.

Right now we're seeing some of the laziest crap ever from Nike - just minimalistic designs with BS storytelling and nicknames attached to it.

 

[allhailmegatron]

^Exactly. It's the gimmicks "special" colorways that are killing me. To me simplicity is paramount.

 

[beanman]

Nike is cut-throat - it is in their best interest to kill off Adidas, Reebok, UA, etc... The reality is that the aforementioned are necessary in order to keep Nike/JB in check.

I'll wait for some of the others to chime in here, but a strong Reebok was what kept Nike innovating in the late 80s, 90s and early 00s. Likewise the same for Fila in the mid 90s & Adidas in the late 90s and early 00s.

Right now we're seeing some of the laziest crap ever from Nike - just minimalistic designs with BS storytelling and nicknames attached to it.

I'd agree to a point - 95% of what nike releases is lazy CWs aimed at the masses...but they've also released some (in my opinion) great and innovative stuff this year.  The fact that most of the great stuff is extremely limited is the real problem. 

 

[dc30]

While I agree to an extent that Nike has been very lazy in some of the designs etc over the last year+, the laziness isn't so much what bothers me...it's the fact they are charging PREMIUM prices on way LESS THAN premium shoes, whether it's materials or craftsmanship.

I do like the LeBron line, and they are build very well IMO...but in essence all this Hyperfuse, flywire nonsense...it's plastic...but they wanna go and charge $200+++ for it? And then Elite versions for upwards of $300??? And they don't even bat an eye doing it. Some of it is just because, and the other is, there are plenty of people who WILL buy at any price. I guess because it's Nike.

Most if not all of the Reebok Shaq Attaq's, Kamikaze's, and the Pump 25 Collabs outshine ANYTHING Nike is putting out whole heartedly, yet people scoff at full retail prices on them because "it's Reebok". Not sure exactly when Reebok became a joke to many dieheard Swoosh addicts, but they would change their tune if they put some of the best Reeboks head to head against their favorite Nike's.

I am also a huge Li-Ning/Wade fan and their shoes are taking a leak all over what Nike continues to put out as well.

For whatever reason though, Nike has this stranglehold on the business. At some point, and for no plausible reason, many kids see the Swoosh as a "status symbol". Until nonsense like that changes...don't expect many so called "sneakerheads" to change their tune.

 

[allhailmegatron]

Dont like Wade, but his Way of Wades are dope. I like Tony Parker's Peak TP1. I don't like where LeBron, KD, Kobe's lines are going, largely because none of their models hold any nostalgic weight with me. Plus, the price point is ridiculous now. That and I've got 2 teen boys. I take a cue from my daughter and rock whatever, as long as I like it.

Nike/JB has gotten to the point where it is a status symbol. New "sneakerheads" don't have a clue of what the culture was like back then. NBA on NBC was where it was at back then. No funky special edition colors for every holiday/celebration. Just dope stuff all around from all brands. I love those days. Resellers were unheard of. You wore your ish until they fell apart.

 

[trentbg]

^Straight out of my mind there sir, we are in the same boat. I totally dislike all the Bron/Kobe/KD hype plastic crap, all of those joints have 0 nostalgia factor and meaning for me and I only buy kicks strictly on a nostalgia base. All those "New" and "improved" materials and designs mean nothing to me, I am not a basketball player, I dont care about the performance of this and that model, only the stile of the old silhouettes and the instant time machine effect that they have on me. 

 

[whoisthisguy]

Got these in today! Can't wait to wear em soon. Now onto the Brick City Attaqs

 

[whathehadassole]

@trentbg you and others may not like it but they are Basketball shoes. They were originally made for performance, the retros and new models. I like the old materials too but I do see why the new fuse/plastic is used. The players move faster and are quicker in todays game. They need shoes that complement this. We complain about the price but do we really expect New tech shoes to retail cheaper than years past?