This Might Be The One For Me This Year
I was wrong about this release and I should have known better.
I’m often critical of sneaker brands in my writing, but I always intend to give constructive criticism. Especially because countless blogs, magazines, and Instagram accounts have become so drunk off of free sneakers that they’ve lost all ability to think critically about the footwear business, I get it, money coming in is more important than integrity for many.
That said, I firmly stand by the belief that pressure creates diamonds. Having the more challenging conversations isn’t easy, but I believe it’s the difference between good and great, especially when it comes to creative endeavors. Sometimes that means simply avoiding the easiest path to making money (see my recent post about Nike’s leadership challenges), and sometimes that means taking a stand in a more significant way.
In most cases, the result of those difficult talks is usually a better end product. However, for those working behind the scenes on a marketing plan, content strategy, or product launch, it can be challenging and sometimes even disheartening when consumers don’t understand the level of effort to create those hypothetical diamonds. I believe the efforts that go unnoticed are the biggest cause of employee turnover in business. I don’t think people want to go find a new job or new opportunity as often as they choose to. I think it comes down to a matter of being recognized and empowered to do things they can get excited about.
A recent example that comes to mind is the new Nigo x Nike collection. In all honesty, I was critical of the collaboration at first. Not in the color choices or the use of the Nike Air Force 3 silhouette, but rather, it felt like Nike was just taking a lazy approach to print more money from a well-known collaborator’s clout.
Then I saw the actual rollout of content for the partnership and I’m happy to say that I was wrong. The feeling that the imagery evokes is almost unexplainable to me. It’s like my childhood memories playing with Transformers and Voltron toys, and the persistent nostalgia for my teenage years that continues to bring me back to an obsession with Japan, somehow joined forces inside of me. So much so, that when I saw the music video and the anime…
I think this might be the sneaker of the year for me.
While my heartstrings are easily pulled with nostalgia and ephemera from a time I remember less and less as I get older, the amount of admiration I have for those who pushed through to make this entire project happen on a professional level is where this collaboration really hits home for me.
It’s not easy to find creative freedom within the confines of a business—especially a big business like Nike. It’s especially not easy when the apparent strategy from the outgoing CEO has been “cut spending and mass produce everything, even the grails.”
Yet, the Nigo collab is FUN. It’s everything that I would expect the higher ups at Nike to not approve in recent years. It clearly wasn’t cheap to have all of the artwork done. It’s also not an easy sell to pull a shoe form the vault that has clearly had its ups and downs, and lands well beyond the demographic cutoff line for your typical retro product releases.
I didn’t get a pair of these, nor am I in a place to be buying sneakers right now, but if I was, I’d have bought a pair of the Nigo x Nike Air Force 3s. I would have bought a pair just to support the creatives behind the scenes that worked to make this partnership feel exciting and new, when the responses to early leaked photos, mine included, were completely wrong.