“I don’t watch the NBA anymore, not since the glory days of
Jordan and Bulls passed. Those were the
good ol’ days” This is the same rhetoric
you hear from many people, interestingly enough, people who were only kids in
those days. I’m talking the late 90s
here, where the rise of the NBA superstar became very much apparent with
marketing and especially sneaker deals.
Larry Johnson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Gary
Payton, Shawn Kemp, Shaq, Penny Hardaway, Tim Hardaway, Chris Webber, Latrell
Sprewell. These are just a few names I
can rattle off the top of my head that had sneaker deals. Nostalgia is an interesting phenomenon and is
cause for much of this big retro sneaker hype that we are experiencing today. Nostalgia is why walking into Finishline or
Champs or Footlocker often feels like you stepped into a time machine and
visited your childhood fantasy regarding sneakers.
I always ask the question of why and am not satisfied until
I have answered it in some way, which leads me to ponder the psychology of a
retro sneaker. Why is it that the 90s
sneakers have made this huge emergence and not only sold well, but done so at
an ungodly price hike compared to the original price?
I grew up during this basketball “golden era.” Just to clarify, I think the NBA is at its
peak in terms of talent and marketability right now, so I don’t really buy into
the golden era of basketball, nostalgia also makes everything look better in retrospect. While we are here let’s define
retrospect. According to the great World
Wide Web a basic definition is this: a survey or review of a past course of
events or period of time. A retro
sneaker is just that, a review of a period of time expressed through a sneaker
being re-released to the general population.
Nike is a very very smart company.
I’m not sure if you knew this but Nike now has the contract for all NFL
apparel. Nike has taken innovating
sports to another level with technology like the fuel band and NikePlus as
well. Nike also owns Jordan Brand. Nike used to own ColeHaan, but in order to
focus on the sports side of things sold it off to a holding company. All that to demonstrate Nike knows what they
are doing. I grew up in the inner city
with not very much. Like most kids in
that environment I idolized these basketball players who came from similar
circumstances to make it in the NBA and become millionaires. I wanted to walk like them, talk like them,
smell like them (yep, remember when Jordan released that awful cologne?), and
most of all I wanted to wear what they wore.
There’s an entire generation of us, we grew up wanting to be
Jordan. Macklemore’s song about sneakers
hits home for many like me (if you haven’t heard it, check it out). Again, most of us who idolized these figures
and wanted to wear their shoes also grew up poor and were not able to afford
these luxuries. Let’s fast forward a
bit. While fast forwarding keep in mind
none of us wanted to be poor and some of us grew up and found a way to not
repeat socio-economic habits and break the cycle of poverty and make our ways
to success. We now have money. We now have means to that end, to grab that
sneaker we so coveted growing up, we can now touch what seemed unattainable. Again, Nike is smart, Nike knows and has
probably been studying this generation for quite some time. Knowing that we have cash they began
unloading all the sneakers we yearned for as kids. Nike is extremely innovative so it makes zero
sense that they would release retros because they’ve run out of good
designs. Retro sneakers are a cash cow
aimed at taking advantage of the opportunity a bunch of previously unfortunate kids
all grown up with cash now apportion them.
I’m not trying to demonize Nike or the idea of retros in any way, I have
been eating them up, even though my style doesn’t really support casually
wearing sneakers.
I wanted to be like Mike, but couldn’t afford it back then,
now I can, you can call me a sneakerhead.
That’s how it goes. Kudos to Nike
for noticing opportunity and kudos to all of us who can finally get The Glove, Kamikaze
II, Elevens, and Air Max Ones.
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