Tag: sneakerheads

Kobe Bryant’s signature shoes officially have a release date, but they may be hard to get

Kobe’s signature shoe is officially back.

Last week, the release dates of the first few pairs of Kobe Bryant signature sneakers being released since his death were leaked on Eastbay’s shoe release calendar.

For the first time in months, we actually saw proof that we’d be getting more Kobe shoes. There was worry that they’d disappear forever, but they were back. Still, though, there were worries that it might not happen shortly after the releases were removed from Eastbay’s calendar.

Kobe fans can set those worries aside — at least for a moment. Nike made it official on Thursday morning. They’ll be releasing multiple pairs of Kobe’s for what they’re calling “Mamba Week.”

From August 23 through the 29th, Nike is releasing five pairs of Kobe Protro 5’s as well as a Kobe “8/24” Lakers’ jersey.

The jersey sells at $120 and the shoes will retail at $180.

This is great news for Kobe fans. There are a lots of folks out there just looking to buy gear that reminds them of their favorite player.

They didn’t get that opportunity after he immediately passed away because shoe resellers bought up stock everywhere online and immediately moved to go flip them on aftersale market platforms like eBay and StockX for double the price. It was gross.

After that, it took months for official images of any Kobe shoes scheduled to be released to actually surface. And even when they did release again, there weren’t any official release dates.

This moment represents a bit of hope. Only a bit, though. Kobe fans looking to cop up should keep some of that worry with them.

Why? Because Nike might be limiting the stock on these releases. We know they’re doing it with the jersey, at least. And it’ll probably happen with the shoes, too.

If that happens, we’re going to see a lot of the same people looking for more chances to buy Kobe’s shoes at a reasonable price. Hopefully that isn’t the case and everyone who wants a pair gets a chance to get a pair. Only time will tell, though. We’ll see how it plays out.

In the meantime, it’s just good to see Kobe’s shoes back again.

Why Reebok’s First Pitch Program is a big win for sneakerheads everywhere

This is pretty dope.

At its core, being a sneakerhead is all about finding shoes that you love and wearing the heck out of them. Simple, right?

That used to be what the game was all about. Now, it’s changed. There are always challenges that come with all that.

Of course, there’s shortened stock that always gets in the way. Of course, there are the bots. And then, last but certainly not least, the pricing. Sometimes, you’re just not willing to pay that much for a shoe.

Reebok is giving sneakerheads everywhere a unique way around those very problems and they’re doing it in the most simple way.

Instead of creating a shoe, limiting its stock and then shipping it out to the masses for it to sell out in 0.5 seconds, they’re handing over the reigns of control to the people who actually want the shoes they create through their new First Pitch platform.

Through it, sneakerheads have more say than ever in the shoes Reebok drops and even how much they want to pay for it.

Wait, First Pitch? What’s that?

First Pitch is a digital platform Reebok is launching on August 10. They’ll produce a bunch of new concepts and sketches, post them on the platform and allow people to tell them if they want to buy them or not.

So what makes this different?

Instead of actually just producing the shoe and throwing it on a site, they’re including the people in their process.

They produce these concepts and allow users to commit to buying the actual shoe. Each sneaker’s price starts at $1 and each commitment they get from different users increases the price of the shoe by $1. They keep going until they get a commitment from enough users to sell 500 pairs of the shoe.

Wait, wouldn’t that mean they’d be selling $500 shoes? That’s a lot of money, Sykes

It would be a lot of money and that’s why they’re absolutely not doing that.

Instead, they have a set retail price goal for each shoe they produce. And once that goal is hit, the price of the shoe stops going up.

Here’s an example. Let’s say they have a shoe with a retail goal of $90. It’ll start at $1. With each commitment from a person to buy the shoe, that price goes up by $1. Once it hits $90, it won’t go over that retail goal anymore. And once they hit 500 pairs, they sell the shoes to each person who committed to buying a pair for $90.

Whoa, that’s pretty cool

Yup! It is. Guaranteed pairs. No abnormally outrageous prices. And lots of choice. It’s a great situation.

And the best part is that it restricts them from creating shoes that’ll just sit on shelves. Instead of creating something people don’t like and having it sit, they’ll just make a shoe people have already committed to buying.

That means less wasted material and a more efficient development process.

So when can I try this out?

It all drops on August 10, so in just over a week you’ll be able to give it a shot.

What is the first shoe dropping?

It’s the Classic Leather “Bee Keeper” and it looks pretty sick.

Ohhhh this is dope

Yup! Like I said, big W’s all around.

[jwplayer ozpeFbYe-q2aasYxh]

Nike’s SNKRS app had ‘Another L’ trending on Twitter again

Enough is enough.

The sneaker game is an absolute trap. There is no better proof than the back to back L’s sneakerheads everywhere just took on Nike’s SNKRS app.

On Saturday, they all peeled themselves up out of bed early to open approximately 10 different browsers to log in to 10 different Nike accounts in order to try and get the Off-White Jordan 4’s that released Saturday morning.

The results? L after L after L after L. There were so many — all with the same familiar feeling of despair that comes with every SNKRS app drop.

The worst part? A bunch of them came back to back. Most of the people who woke up for Saturday’s drop did the same thing for the Grateful Dead release on Friday.

Literally back to back L’s. Tragic. Twitter was fed up.

At some point, enough has to be enough. So many Saturdays ruined because of these shoes. The system is rigged, yo.

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[jwplayer Ba0Yn9eZ-q2aasYxh]