Subscribe to The Kicks You Wear with Mike D. Sykes, a drill down on the red hot intersection between sports and fashion.
Good morning, friends! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading. Appreciate you giving me a bit of your time this morning. Hope my friends over in the UK had a nice bank holiday!
Thanks for the fun first week here at BoF! The newsletter was sent without (too many) hitches, and we’ve had some fun stories and content that you all seem to enjoy. A handful of you have hit me up on socials to tell me how much you’re loving the newsletter. My heart is full. Hopefully, we can keep the good times rolling!
HOUSEKEEPING: While you’re at it, make sure you subscribe to my friend Marc Bain’s monthly newsletter on tech and fashion. It’ll be sending on Wednesday, August 27!
Let’s jump in.
It’s Tennis Time
The US Open is finally here and so are all of your favourite brands.
What’s happening: It feels like every brand that might be just somewhat adjacent to the fashion world is diving in on the sport. The homie Dan Yaw-Miller put together an excellent primer last week that included several brands participating in the fanfare around the tournament.
The heavy hitters:
- Nike, Adidas and Asics all rolled out special tennis collections for the US Open, playing into the tournament’s special night matches. Adidas’ Y-3 collection takes the cake for me, personally.
- New Balance launched a new campaign around Coco Gauff, creatively directed by Joseph “Joe FreshGoods” Robinson.
- On held an activation with Pro Shop NYC called “Thanks for Playing” where it visited courts across New York City, bringing goodies along with it. Ben Shelton even made an appearance.
- Jack Draper made his debut for Vuori, unveiling a new kit for the brand as it makes its way in tennis.
There were also smaller brands with activations that popped up around New York City during last week’s qualifiers. Several jewellery brands, like Mejuri, also planted their flags in the sport. Even MSCHF dove in with a Racquet Magazine collaboration on a bag.
Why this matters: I think it’s a bit too cliché to say tennis is having a moment in fashion and culture. The truth is, tennis’s moment began years ago. What we’re witnessing today with this deluge of brands swirling around the sport is the apex of that moment manifested.
- A number of upstart fashion labels invested in the sport as its popularity continued to blossom.
- Tennis also reached its pop-culture zenith with more people playing tennis and celebrities like Zendaya backing the sport. Challengers was a legitimate spark for the sport and she was at the center of it rocking Loewe like it was nobody’s business.
- At the same time, brands with deeper pockets began to invest in tennis’ top athletes.
That all leads us to this moment that we’re in now. But there’s another step that goes beyond here.
What’s next: Naturally, everybody here won’t be able to come away from this as a winner. What I’m looking forward to seeing most is which brands will actually find a way to last in the space. Every brand listed here is competing for the attention and the dollars of the same audience.
There are some brands involved that are certainly more prepared to last here than others. For instance, Nike has the best two players in the game on the ATP in Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, as well as the No. 1 in the WTA in Aryna Sabalenka.
But then, there’s a competitor in On that seems to have a better handle on the cultural side of the sport and a solid mixture of an up-and-comers in Ben Shelton and Iga Swiatek, with an OG in Roger Federer, to go along with the strong celebrity backing of Zendaya.
A fashion brand like Hugo Boss has a deep roster with names like Taylor Fritz and Ella Seidel. But then a competitor like Gucci can make a statement by having one of the best players in the world, Sinner, use one of its bags for a tournament and stake its claim in the sport just as easily.
This is the nature of the game. It’s all cyclical. The it-players of today might not be the it-players in a year or two. Even if a brand has one of those players, another may still come along with a bigger bag to scoop the player up. Brands have to watch their backs in this sport constantly.
The big picture: What we’re watching here is a fashion arms race in tennis.
But you should pay less attention to everybody jumping on the bandwagon and much more to the brands that move as if they genuinely want to be there.
Pre-Ordering Is Coming to Nike Soon
After years of having consumers clamor for a pre-order system for its limited products, Nike is finally delivering. Just not in the way everyone wanted.
What’s new: The Swoosh debuted what it’s calling the SNKRS Reserve over the weekend. This is a pre-order system that the brand says will help it “make the best production decisions.”
The timing: Nike revealed its new pre-order system on August 24, also known affectionately by fans as Kobe day. (No. 8 and No. 24 are the numbers that NBA star Kobe Bryant wore during his playing career). Nike used SNKRS Reserve to allow fans to pre-order pairs of the upcoming “Christmas” Kobe 3 Protro ahead of its holiday season release.
How it works: Here’s the twist. While pre-orders are available for consumers who might want these shoes, the available reservations are still limited.
- Interested customers had to scan a QR code in Nike’s SNKRS app to access the program.
- Once they gained access, they had to move fast to claim a reservation spot.
- If their reservation was successfully confirmed, the customer’s card would be charged. They’d then be provided with estimated shipping details after check out.
Why this matters: Consumers begged for pre-orders in the early 2020s because of how limited everything was, from the latest hyped up Jordans to regular pairs of Panda Dunks. Folks thought a pre-order system could’ve been a potential solution to the problem. Despite Nike’s biggest fans begging for this, the system never materialised.
Five years later, the pre-order system people have been begging for has finally arrived, but the brand is still manufacturing scarcity through limited reservation spots.
Here’s why: Nike learned its lesson from the last few years. While consumers like us love it when the market is flooded with the products we want, it’s better for the brand’s reputation when supply isn’t meeting demand.
- Nike flooded the market with retro Jordans and Nike Dunks over the last few years — styles that have traditionally worked wonders for the brand.
- That decision resulted in the brand losing the “cool” image it’s traditionally carried, which made way for challenger brands to find their way in spaces Nike dominated.
The bottom line: Pre-orders are here. This can still be a good thing for the everyday consumer who doesn’t have the time to enter into dozens of raffles and chase limited goods around the internet.
But don’t be shocked when you see mean tweets about this system, too.
The AE 2 Still Works
Following up on the success of NBA superstar Anthony Edwards’ first signature shoe was always going to be difficult for Adidas. The way people naturally gravitated towards the AE 1 was something no basketball model had seen in years.
Naturally, the AE 2 has a pretty high bar to clear. And considering how poorly the rollout for this sneaker has gone prior to this point, the job has only gotten harder.
What’s new: But after seeing Edwards, himself, wearing the shoe, I have to say, this at least looks like a strong follow-up.
- Edwards presented the shoe for the first time during a fan session while on tour with Adidas in China.
- The shoe itself looks like a close relative of the AE 1 and the James Harden Vol. 7.
The problem: There’s a lack of excitement around these sneakers because of the leaked photos online and a poor overall marketing job by Adidas. The first official look consumers received of the shoe was just a photo of half of it unveiled during an earnings call. Certainly not the way nor the spot you want to give fans a first impression of one of your hottest products.
Yes, but: Edwards solves that problem himself by just being a big ball of charisma. The first thing he said to fans attending the event over the weekend? “Ni hao. What’s hannin.” This guy is unbelievable.
That’s why, no matter what it looks like or how poorly its marketed, this shoe will work.
Corteiz Runs NYC
After so many years of seeing so many things in the streetwear world, there comes a point in time when you feel like you’ve seen it all. Then Clint Ogbenna — aka Clint419 — and Corteiz take over an entire train station in New York City to open up a pop-up shop and you realize how foolish you are.
Reporter Corner: BoF’s Lei Takanashi got a bit of time to stop by the pop-up in NYC. I asked him to share some of his thoughts on the experience, and Corteiz overall. Here’s what he had to say:
“I’ve either reported on or have been present for nearly all of Corteiz’s pop-ups in New York City. Ever since Clint 419’s label debuted in the United States with a with a pair of “Pink Beam” Nike Air Max 95s that were shock-dropped inside a Corteiz-branded bodega in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I’ve been fascinated by how Corteiz has brought a distinct feeling back to streetwear and sneaker culture.
That “feeling” being in-person releases that come off as larger cultural moments or experiences to remember, rather than another random line-up for a hyped drop. And how Corteiz thinks out-of-the-box with experiential retail and gamified drops is what draws so many (particularly young Gen-Z) consumers to these pop-ups in the first place. It feels more like a must-see event rather than a long trip to the register. And what Corteiz pulled off in New York on Friday only upped the bar they’ve set by being hosted inside a decommissioned subway platform out of all places. It’s something that I believe has never been done before outside of runway shows hosted by designers such as Tom Ford or Jeremy Scott for Moschino.
The only question that I’m left with after witnessing Corteiz build out these distinct experiential pop-ups in Los Angeles, D.C., New York, and Atlanta is if a brick-and-mortar will ever be in the cards. Pop-ups, being inherently temporary, are conducive to this brand’s ever-changing retail expression. While opening a permanent brick and mortar is traditionally a point of maturation for most streetwear brands, Corteiz has bucked tradition in so many ways that I wonder if they aspire to ever open a proper store.”
What’s Droppin’, Bruh?
This is a dedicated section detailing upcoming sneaker releases for the week, and sometimes other interesting drops you might care about.
That’s a wrap, gang. Thanks so much for reading today. Hope to see you again on Thursday.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to hit me at michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or tap me on the socials @mikedsykes.
Until next time. Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯