Everything You Missed In Sneakers This Week
A handful of things that caught my attention recently.
I don’t want to bombard people with newsletters, so this may or may not be something I do here in the future. (Please let me know if this is something I should do every week in the replies or comments.)
As my Friday winds down and I start looking towards the weekend, I’ve been making a habit to remind myself of the interesting things I found in the week. With the speed at which the content machine moves, it’s helped me remember a little bit more. (Shameless plug, I blogged about this the other day as well if you want to hear about non-sneaker things from me.)
Here’s what’s happening that I think is worth paying attention to this week:
PUMA Lost A Patent Because of Rihanna’s Social Post - Not a recent post, but from when 2014 when she signed with PUMA. Not a good look for #TeamEarly.
CEO’s Are Out All Over Footwear - This year has been a crazy start for the footwear industry, and while layoffs have impacted a lot of the people that carry the load for brands, it’s nice to see that some companies are also aware of that change at the top of the org chart is necessary sometimes. Shoshy Ciment wrote a great piece for Footwear News on all the major changes at Allbirds, Brooks, Under Armour (more thoughts on this to come), and other brands that you may want to know about.
Anthony Edwards “First” PE - Player exclusives have always been fascinating to me and at one point I was chasing them down and writing about them regularly (if that’s something you would want me to write more about, let me know in the replies or comments!) They began as something as simple as a number or a player’s initials, evolved into something completely mind-blowing and got a bad rap from illegal productions and sales, but seeing the the story behind Anthony Edwards “first” PE is really cool. I hope they continue to do well with the adidas AE1.
The End Of The Reptok Era - Mike brought up an interesting point on this week’s KYW about TikTok’s platform driving sales of fake/rep sneakers and what this potential ban could mean for the sneaker game in the future.
Vans Is Laying Off More People - It seems inevitable that more layoffs will continue to come for the footwear business as it slows from the insane profits of 2021 and 2022. I don’t think this is the end (of the layoffs or of the industry), we’re just in one of the regular cycles of the business where people change their buying habits.
Justin Timberlake Talks Jordan Collabs and Upcoming Golf Shoes - I have to admit, there aren’t many people left in the world that I could think about wanting to see on Sneaker Shopping, but Justin Timberlake is definitely near the top of that short list. Props to JLP and the team for continuing to keep this show going with interesting sneaker stories (like those Super Bowl Air Jordan 3 PEs!).
From the Discord:
How many times has a hybrid been better than any of its components?
The upcoming release of the Nike Air Max DN (affiliate link) sent us down a rabbit hole of conversations about hybrid sneakers and more.
That’s it for this week. Don’t forget to tell someone you like their kicks this weekend!
-Nick
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