I was having a conversation with a few self-described sneakerheads earlier this week and we were discussing the state of the sneakers. Now, let me preface this by saying that I've been passionate about sneakers since 1983, and I know alot about sneakers and their importance towards fashion, but I'm always up for learning more.
The conversation began when a young man by the name of Chuck said that he was really excited and looking forward to the King's County Jordan Spiz'ike's (pictured left) released today, Sat., August 18th. His boy Juan, who happened to be wearing some classic Puma Baskets in white and navy blue, was quick to say that he liked the colors, but the Spiz'ike, to him, appeared to be a "thrown together" sneaker that was made for people that were not into sneakers before 1999, or made to "throw people off".
As someone that looks at all sneakers with a critical eye, I, too, think the entire Spiz'ike line is thrown together and doesn't possess an ounce of creativity. In it's rudimentary styling, my 7-year old daughter could have come up with a better mash-up of the Air Jordan 3, 4, 5 and 6. Yes, I'm that confident in her skills!
Chuck argued that the Spiz'ikes showed Jordan Brand's creativity and the good folks at JB continue to "bless us with hot kicks in great colorways." He continued to gush that the releases thus far, the retro 11 low LS's, the retro 1s and the 5s, were "on point and show that Jordan Brand is paying attention to what the streets want." While Juan agreed that he liked the 1s and the 5s, he said that the Jordan 11 Lows were, "straight up garbage and the colors are whack!"
"If Jordan, himself, is involved with picking the colors, I have to question his taste in colors", said Juan. He continued by saying, "maybe his divorce and the loot that Juanita is gonna get is messing with his eyesight?" Chuck quickly retorted loudly stating that, "Dawg, MJ is the king of fashion and brought flavor to basketball sneakers!" "He's the one that told the peeps at Jordan Brand to put patent leather on his kicks...,and what happened after that? Every motherf**cker copied Jordan. Shoot, look at what DADA and AND1 did? They dropped kicks with patent leather!"
While it may be hard to argue with two sneaker-fashionistas as Chuck and Juan, they know what they like and while some folks will have already run out and bought themselves a pair of the King's County Spiz'ikes, there's always a thing called buyer's remorse that seems to have afflicted the culture as online stores such as Vintagekicks.com and eBay.com are filled to the gills with a plethora of sneakers.
Well, rest assured that things have to get better before they get worse. Just like the stock market, what goes up.....must come down.
When a good thing goes bad!
