Leave Jordan alone

Collecting sneakers to me goes back to the age of being 16 and not being able to purchase the then released Nike Air Jordan XI White / Concords (sold out throughout Europe and every store that didn’t sell was ordered to send them back to the US because of the massive success they had over there).

Now, almost 12 years later, everybody and their mum seems to claim sneaker collector superstardom. And, as much as I understand it from a business point of view, cause that what Nike is and always will be, a business trying to make a profit to make the shareholders happy, I just cannot grasp it from a collectors point of view. A few years ago, sneaker collecting wasn’t defined by how many retro’s you were able to cop within the short timeframe in which they were released Back then, sneaker collectors, be it Jordan, Air Maxes or jusg random pieces of the broad Nike collections, everybody was feeding for OG’s (reads originals, the originally released shoe in its 99% of the cases higher production quality as the retro). Then, right about 1999, came the first batch of retro’s, the Nike Air Jordan II, II and IV were released of a broad space of time (maybe the I was included in those first retro’s as well, if you are sure about it, feel free to link me an informative link in a comment below). Not too much attention was given to them, especially not in Europe, let alone in my local foot locker in Brussels, I can even recall them being on sale for as close as 50 euro’s and still, nobody would bother picking them up. The 1999 retro’s were a very decent reproduction of the originals, not a 1 on 1 but still, a more then decent one. Fast forwarding to 2000, the Nike Air Jordan V was released in 4 colorways, the Nike Air Jordan VI brought 3 colorways including the highly sought after blk/infrared’s and the limited olympics and together with the VII, the best looking “olympic” Jordan to date. And then the bomb dropped on the sneaker collectors intrested or even semi-intrested in Air Jordans, in came the news of a presumed re-release of the Nike Air Jordan XI aka big time multiple pairs buying (5x white/concords just to be on the safe side). Not only did they release the concords, columbia’s and “breads”, but Nike also confirmed the release of the never released Space Jam’s (actually in such limited quantities that getting your hands on a pair was close to impossible) and the unreleased yet very stylish Cool Grey’s together with several lows (never got my hands on a pair of Citrus lows, sod)

Should I mention that Nike cashed in BIG TIME on that short time span of two years? Collectors stacked up all they could financially afford and for quite a few people they had achieved the status of having their grail on lock down in the closet. 

Resell prices went up day by day, and interest in sneakers grew accordingly. Now, as I said previously, Nike being a business wanting to make profit, they saw a new market, and they went hard on the retro releases. In came the ever recurring news of retro this retro that, and every possible pair passed the show together with a broad array of “new” colorways. Every possible Jordan passed the retro factory line, and some even got re-retro status with a touch of finesse (re-retro V with 23 on the sides, re-retro of the AJ IV).

Meanwhle, Nike went on to move the craze to many of their milestones ranging from Penny’s sneakers to running shoes like the Nike Zoom Spiridon (if you don’t have them, get’em, comfort comfort and moar comfort damned!) and went on to hype the Nike Dunk, with help to Ben Baller and his Air Macks crew who made Niketalk jump on the bandwagon of the Nike Dunk, and went on to create the exclusive Nike SB lines with some pairs up to today still being worth thousands of dollars (Unkle’s, Paris’, Pigeons etc….).

And then, all of a sudden, just like that, it seems like a part of the collectors just had had it, the quality of the retro’s were dissapointed, as much as every sneaker creases, ditching out 140 euro’s on a new pair of Air Jordan IV’s that comes PRE-Creased is a dissapointment.

And now, now that Jordan Brand has pressed out every single inch of retro available out of the line, they come up with 2 “great” ideas, one being the packs, the other being the Fusions.

The packs, myeah, I can live with them in a way, be it ’cause they have given me the opportunity to finally own a wearable pair of Carmine VI’s, Blck/red IV’s and Hare VII’s, on the other side, I hate Nike for making me pay for 2 pairs when I only really want one of the 2 pairs in the pack, everytime I purchased one, got it delivered at home and opened it, unpacking the “I come with it” shoe gave me a bitter money milking feeling from Nike *boo*

And then, there’s the Fusion…
God where to begin on the Fusion, explain you the concept? Fine.
Basically, I think the original concept from the Fusion came to live with the release of the Nike Air Jordan Dub Zero, a mix of laser design, vi’s, xv’s, iv’s, xi’s and other pairs I might forget.
Believe it or not, I love and own a few of the orignally released Dub Zero’s. Little did I know what was to come. After the dub-zero’s, things went quiet for a time around releases a-la Dub Zero.
But then, it seems as if Nike decided, hey we don’t have nothing to milk the cow anymore, let’s find something new, and the Fusion line was born, just type in Jordan Fusion on google, and be amazed at the things they are putting out there, every possible Air Jordan mixed with a Nike Air Force one, in sometimes the most HORRID colorways conceivable to mankind, makes you wonder how they even pass the high quality control at Nike. Together with that comes the Spizike, again, a mixture of lotsa Jordans, put that looks terribly clumpy on one’s feet if you ask me (props to the cool grey colorway though, looks fly!).

This may come over to you as a long rant, but to me, it’s just a shame, Nike is milking the cow of sneaker collectors and everyone claiming to be one all of a sudden, but don’t show them a shoe from the jumpman line or they’ll think it’s another fusionish shoe! No knowledge whatsoever, but still, copping every retro or Jordan labelled shoe in store for a couple of months, and BAM, I r sneakercollector kk!

And this is what aggravates me and brings me to the point to say, Nike, it’s bee enough, open your eyes, it’s reached a state where everything to milk has been milked to it’s barest possible state, go back tot he lab and bring us some fresh new releases, and stop touching the Jordan’s damned, you’re bringing them to a never seen low, I do not want a bloody air force one to look like a air jordan v, vi, xx, or whatever insane combo you might come out of your current drawers hands.

/end rant

~ by vashe on September 16, 2008.