My Open Letter About The Yeezy II
“Most rappers taste level ain’t at my waste level”….
Unless you have lived under a sneaker rock for the past year you have heard about the Nike Air Yeezy II. Without an unanticipated Yeezy III being released before year end this was probably the most hyped shoe of the year from the most prolific artist in the music industry today. The shoe has been an inescapable force with every media site on the planet covering it in some way. Since Nike released the official photos and media information on the shoe two weeks ago Twitter and any other social outlet can’t stop talking about it. Whether it be people looking for a connection from another connection who has another connection that used to be a Nike Representative and could possibly reach out to someone to hold a pair for you but they can’t guarantee it or its people making sarcastic jokes about all the attention the shoe is getting. No matter what the buzz has been building to today’s release of the product and I can’t help but think about how much the shoe game has changed.
This isn’t another I can’t stand hypbeast’s post, in fact hypebeast’s I love you. You make the game fun and at times worthwhile. This also isn’t another I hate resellers posts. In my mind make your money the best way you can! While I don’t love you by any means sometimes you provide me with an opportunity to purchase a product I couldn’t obtain because of availability in my area. I will say I hate that the product is going into the hands of the wrong people at times but who am I to judge who has what shoes and who does not? This also isn’t another article about how I hate limited shoes and how companies should make more pairs. Simply put: NO THEY SHOULD NOT. If they stopped limiting products there would not be any special releases because everyone would have them.
What this post is about, is how we, as sneakerheads and sneaker media; value our products and releases. The reality is that in less than 72 hours the Yeezy II will be old news. You will rarely see photos on the major sneaker and fashion websites. Tumblr and Twitter won’t be flooded with new celebrities wearing them. The people that have them will precisely pick their time and event in which they will unveil them in all their glory and then they will go back in their box because you don’t want to get them too dirty, they have to stay fresh because lord knows you couldn’t afford two pairs. So these have to last!
The problem I have is our attention span. Part of being dope is being ahead of the curve and moving on to what’s next before it’s next, this is natural. But this shoe had too much of a significance for it to be old already. Take into the fact that this shoe has no performance value to Nike at all. No matter what story they try to come up with, it is simply an avant garde shoe that is a fresh take on material and form. The closest this shoe has ever been to being athletic is when Kanye was sprinting around in them at the Watch The Throne tour. This type of product release is unheard of by Nike! Their entire product line is created to enhance you as an athlete and make your game better at whatever sport you partake in. The only enhancing this product does is boost ego; which there is nothing wrong with that. But, none the less; this release changes how product has been sold and created by Nike in the past ten years.
It’s hard not to say that Nike’s focus on their product has shifted from concentrating on the selling of performance to the selling of cool. One could argue that it has always been this way but it has become dramatically more apparent as of late. Take if you will the Foamposite One Galaxy that released in February over NBA All-Star weekend. The hysteria that followed that release culminated in riots and one man willing to trade his overly used car for a pair. And what is the relevancy of this shoe now four months later? It isn’t important because the same people that were fiending for those were after the Nike Lebron IX Miami Vice last weekend, the Jordan IV Cement in March and so on. At this point it is hard to value what this shoe is worth because it is as little about performance or even fashion, it is simply about having them now.
It is so much about having them now that Nike has completely changed how they release product. Now you can’t even wait in lines anymore because of fear of rioting and unruly crowds because 3,000 people turn out for a shoe that the store only has a maximum 60 pairs of. Now you have to RSVP to have a chance of getting a pair via Twitter or get in line to buy a raffle ticket to have the opportunity to potentially own a pair. My favorite quote that I read in the past two weeks was “I am thinking of opening up a store and hoping I become a tier0 Nike supplier so I have a chance of getting the Yeezy.” The hysteria has gotten so large that I don’t know how it can be contained. I will give major, major kudos to Nike for changing how their online process works. Thank god once the product is in your cart it is actually yours instead of having someone essentially steal it from your cart while you type in your credit information.
Part of me wishes this shoe had never released, still created but never released; because of the fun and excitement it has brought to the footwear game. To an extent, a big extent; it felt like it was circa Niketalk 1998 when weeks and months would go between sightings of samples and catalog photos that only amped up the first initial viewing of the shoe. Now that the Yeezy has released it has lost all significance because it is no longer being coveted and now longer being sought out.
If this shoe could influence any type of change it is bringing back excitement. The Internet is the greatest tool we have in the world today but at the same time it creates little to no anticipation. The value of a product is determined before it is even held by the consumer’s own hands. I would love to see Nike take a risk and just release the shoe with no announced date similar to how they are releasing them on their online Nikestore. That was the coolest news of the week. While it does nothing to gain me a pair, at least it puts the thrill of the hunt back in it for me. I will never forget the times when I go into a store and I see the pair I have been looking for just chilling on the shelf because waiting in line to buy a shoe that has the excitement die once you own it, sucks!
To the people that get a pair, I salute you! Value them, cherish them and study every detail they have, they are a beautifully crafted shoe that deserves more than just sitting in your display or in their box. You know what would be a crazy idea? Wearing them! And then wearing them until you can’t wear them anymore.
B
Amen!
Thanks for checking it out Clyde!!!
Thi$ article is great..it help$ me get over the pain of not owning a pair..kudos and thank ¥ou..:))
Thanks for checking it out! I am sure you are not the only who is in pain this weekend. Lol.
Do you think that the drop off of hype or buzz around a shoe, once it’s out, is due in part to the fact that they are in many ways a disposable product? I say that in the sense that, you can resole old boots or reupholster an old chair or even restore a classic car, but the sneakers don’t have this sort of post purchase longevity. Once that rubber is stained or a crease shows up, it’s “ruined” while an 50 year old baseball glove that’s aged and broken in is viewed as gold compared to an unused mitt. I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on that.
Also, this idea of putting product on the site unannounced will lead to obesity and schizophrenia lol, I can just see people refreshing their browsers every single second and waking up ten years later and wondering where their lives went!!!
B- Not a big fan of the whole hype machine but these are some beautifully crafted shoes. As a designer I could only imagine the chaos caused by one of my shoes (kids outdoor shoes don’t really drive the masses crazy).
As for the overall message of the post though, WEAR YOUR SHOES! Unless you have a museum where people visit no one is going to walk into your bedroom and sift through your boxes to appreciate what you have, wear them and share them with the world. You will get more appreciation and satisfaction by doing that then keeping them locked away…plus that’s what they were made for.
Keep up all the good work man.
GOOD LOOK!
“Thank god once the product is in your cart it is actually yours instead of having someone essentially steal it from your cart while you type in your credit information…”
I’ve had this happen to me numerous times…Dam you EASTBAY! I’m not sure that most people buying this product are snearkerheads, but people looking to make a profit off the shoes on some auction site. Do you think Nike has a different approach to selling shoes, because they know people will buy up their inventory and just flip them on an auction site? Some of these shoes are outrageously priced!
Thanks for all the replies guys! This is a great conversation.
PD, I understand your comparison for the drop off of the product but I think the drop off is caused by an over saturated buyer. The reality is they are constantly filled with new product, pretty much daily at this point; so becomes an element of on to the next instead of appreciating the quality they just picked up. I feel its like they buy and flaunt it for a week put it away and months, sometimes a year or more; come back and re-appreciate it as opposed of taking it in at the time they get. Basically the market has created a very short attention span.
Trevor, you are spot on; WEAR YOUR SHOES!
B
I wish people really were excited about the actual design of the shoe moreso than the coolness or noteworthiness that comes with them.
Like you said, this a beautifully crafted shoe. The materials and design remind me of shoes that used to come out in the early 90′s, before Nike went to all the synthetic plastic flywire hyperfuse. Mesh + suede + snakeskin + rubber = beautiful
That’s the upsetting part to me as well. I appreciate the fact that Kanye brought new fans to the game but I want more people to be hyped about the product and not just because the name Yeezy is in it.
To continue down that path, I feel like if these were to have released on their own without the history of the first Yeezy’s or the fact that it is Kanye’s name backing it, they’re would be an entirely different reaction. For example look at all the quality JB basketball shoes that have released (and continue to) that get hated on because they’re not part of the legacy.
Forget the fact that they’re built for performance, because to most if they don’t have a Roman numeral at the end of the name their worthless. Think about it, how many times have you seen comments on blogs saying “JB should just stick to retros and not this garbage”?
I appreciate the fact that people love the retros because they represent great moments in our past when we saw a superhero take flight and do things no one had ever seen. But there is so much more coming from JB, and every other brand for that matter. Its time people wake up and appreciate the lesser known items on the market. Im a firm believer in “buy what YOU like, wear what YOU like.” It’s time for people to stop letting others influence what YOU like. Be an individual, if you like an upcoming retro get them (and wear them) and if there’s a shoe on the shelf at the outlets get them too. Who cares what others think?
The fact that so called ‘hype’ constitutes where the market is driven is somewhat disappointing. Its time to get off the hype train and be individuals again.
Obviously individualism is a huge problem in all areas of life and not just shoes but the fact that people so desperately think they “have” to have this shoe is dramatic. It is not about being cool anymore it is about having as many as possible. I was perusing Twitter this morning and one well known shoe collector wore his Yeezy’s to the club last night and apparently destroyed them and now he is never wearing them again. I think its awesome he wore them and used them for their purpose, basically looking dope; but he followed up his tweet with “#ontothenextone”. That attitude, whether right or wrong; is the exact issue that I have currently have with the sneakerhead community. It is not about appreciating what you have or the quality of the product, it is about obtaining the latest, greatest and most hyped product and instantly moving on.
It has been exactly one week today to the release and no one is talking about this shoe anymore (besides us, lol) because they have already been obtained and the hype is gone.
Sneakerheads need to gain a little more appreciation but at the same time thats not the world we live in.
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B-
the hype you talk about reminds me of the people that buy performance cars but never drive them unless its to go shop melrose, or even ‘collecting toys’ leaving them in the package instead of playing with them, its a disconnect between the passion form the people and culture that creates these great things and the people the buy them for status reasons. I always played the hell out of my toys, drove the hell out of my cars and wear the hell out of my shoes, because thats what they are for in my world.
no disrespect to people who are on ‘the other side’.
I completely agree AI, your car analogy is spot on. I never understood having something that just sits there, personally I think in the performance car world they are only driven on Melrose because most of those buyers don’t know how to drive what they have. I have always had the mentality of if you have spent your money on something you might as well use it, especially shoes! I understand appreciating things in different ways, like maybe you love it for it is sculptural element and it is like a work of art to you but don’t keep something hidden and away because you live in fear of it becoming dirty.