6 Reasons Why Reebok Stays Losing

When I was growing up, Reebok was a worthy adversary to the almighty Nike when it came to sneakers and apparel. They found ways to keep up with Nike in terms of innovation (Pump, Hexalite, DMX) and style (Kamikaze, Shaq Attaq, Questions, etc).

However, since the turn of the century, Reebok has had quite the fall from sneaker grace. I never expect any brand to go toe to toe with Nike/Jordan forever, but I do expect competitors to find their niche and maintain a level of success the way Adidas and New Balance have. Reebok has tried gimmick after gimmick in trying to out do Nike and now they've dug themselves a hole that they may never climb out of.

Reebok is a struggle brand. Here are six reasons why:

6. Bad Storytelling/Execution

Pictured above is the Reebok Kamikaze retro in the Sonics and Thunder colorways. I get that Shawn Kemp played for the Sonics and that the Sonics moved to Seattle and became the Thunder. I like the effort to tell a story, much like the way Nike/Jordan does with countless releases. Memories and stories sell shoes more than the shoes do themselves in today's sneaker world. However, the execution on these non OG colorways is FUCKING ATROCIOUS.

 (Update: 3/23/13: I take back everything I said about the Sonics colorway above being trash. This pic doesn't do the shoe justice. You can't tell that there is a rain drop effect on the green portions of the upper that looks insane in person. You also can't really see the yellow speckles on the midsole or the nice texture of the white leather on the upper. This is a great shoe. That Thunder colorway is still absolute trash though.)

They butchered the Shaqnosis with a "Orlando vs. Miami" pack as well:

The stories are lazy, at best, and the execution is just awful. Enough about these, on to the next issue.

5. The ZigTech Bust

John Wall was a huge signing for Reebok when he came out of Kentucky as the top pick in the NBA draft. They had plans for a signature line but for his rookie season they had him be the face for Reebok Basketball and their new ZigTech basketball line. These shoes were not only hideous, but many suspect that they've helped cause some of the injuries that have hindered Wall's promising, career. 

Reebok went all in with the ZigTech. The brand also had Chad Ochocinco as the face of the ZigTech training shoe... 

The ZigTech hoops shoe was such a colossal bust that Reebok has rebooted their entire performance basketball line and let Wall join Adidas while Reebok basketball goes on an indefinite hiatus. 

4. No One Gives A Fuck About Tyga And Swizz Beatz

I kind of get why Reebok brought Swizz Beatz on board. He was their answer to Nike working with Kanye West. Swizz is basically a poor homeless man's Kanye to Reebok. In any case, he deserves some props if he's the one that convinced them to finally retro some of their classic 90s Basketball designs. Everything else he's done, however, has been complete trash.

And I still can't fathom how you give up on making performance basketball shoes, and then turn around and give a signature shoe to FUCKING TYGA! Look at this trash:

These shits look like lego man shoes. Is Tyga the first weed carrier/rapper to get his own signature shoe? Birdman Lugz and Game's 310 Hurricanes were better than this bullshit.

People don't even download Tyga's music for free, so why would they buy his sorry ass shoe?

3. No New Hoops Shoes = No Future Retros

Since Reebok is currently out of the performance hoops biz and they haven't had a retro worthy basketball shoe since the Answer IV (which are currently sitting on shelves everywhere), they have about a ten year window where they didn't produce a single shoe that they can retro. 

Nike, Jordan, and Adidas have made a killing off of retros because they have continuously produced quality shoes over the years. The well has been dry for Reebok and in a year or two they'll be in desperate need of a real brand ambassador and a classic design in order to continue the momentum that their recent retro binge has created.

2. Losing The Exclusive NFL License to Nike and New Era

I have no concrete numbers, but I think it's a safe bet to say that the vast majority of Reebok's apparel sales came from their exclusive licensing deal with the NFL. As soon as Nike and New Era took over in April, they hit the ground running. They brought fresh ideas, designs, and marketing strategies that Reebok was sorely lacking in. The gap between Nike and Reebok will only become more apparent as Nike begins to overhaul some of the poorly designed team uniforms that were made by Reebok (Cardinals, Vikings) and update some of their pre-Reebok designs (Broncos, Buccaneers) that Reebok was too lazy to change during their tenure as the NFL's exclusive license holder. You can also see Nike's superiority in how much better they have integrated cleats and gloves into team uniforms.

1. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?

This is Reebok's signature shoe for MMA Fighter, Rampage Jackson. This is the worst shit ever. First off, you discontinue basketball shoes to make a shoe for an athlete who plays a sport where you don't wear shoes? What the fuck?! I get that these are trainers, but that doesn't change the fact that the way athlete's shoes get sold is consumers seeing the athlete wear them in action. 

I guess this shoe could be a success if Reebok's target market is dudes who wear Affliction shirts and beat their girlfriends, but they aren't going to attract the common consumer or sneakerheads with this bullshit. 

It makes me sad to see Reebok struggling so hard. I hope that they are able to hire some fresh thinkers and up and coming designers to kickstart the brand. Maybe even poach someone from Nike with a huge offer. I'm down for anything that keeps Reebok from putting this kind of garbage out.

When Limited Actually Means Infinite

So yesterday I did a post on my experience with New Balance's custom program,  I copped two pairs, so as you would imagine, I spent a good amount of time experimenting with the colors and materials that are available.

As of late, I've noticed a lot of boutiques have been doing NB collabs using the 574, which is dope to me because I love 574s. However, I didn't think it was very dope when I realized that every single one of these collabs can be made on New Balance's website. These stores have all passed these off as "Very Limited" usually to 50 pairs, which is unfortunate because I've already seen some of these pairs going for double retail on forums, eBay, etc. I'm not that mad at the stores because they're all charging about what it costs to make your own pair on NewBalance.com. 

My beef is how there will surely be someone who overpays for a pair on the secondary market. Fuck that. I know some will argue that if someone overpays it's their own fault for not being informed, which is somewhat true, but that doesn't make this whole thing any less shitty. So that's why I'm writing this post, so if any of you were thinking about copping any of these, you can just build your own through New Balance. 

Walters x DJ Mars "Holiday Pack"

I fucks with these. Love getting into the holiday spirit. I like supporting local shops, but fuck these dudes out here trying to sell these joints for $200+

and this fuckyberg too (shouts to @Dallas_Penn )...

I encourage all of you to go troll these two if you wish to do so. Here's a screen cap of how you can make them both on NewBalance.com :

Fuck that limited bullshit. If you copped at Walter's in ATL to support local shops, salute. If you copped to flip...

Other stores that have done the same shit recently include Ubiq in Philly:

Concepts in Boston with their "Home Vs Away" Pack:

And Kith with their Grand Opening 574s as well as their USA pack:

All of these are dope shoes in their own right and props to whoever designed each pair. I just with these shops would be upfront about the origins of these shoes and not pass them off as collabs, because that only fuels the hype machine that these resellers try to turn a profit off of. 

That's all I got on the topic, just doing my part so that we all stay informed and don't get caught out here overpaying for kicks.

Peace.

Nike Solarsoft Rache Woven

WOOO SHIT! MOTHERFUCKER GOT DAMN!

If you know me or have followed this blog at all, you know I'm a sucker for weird woven shit like this that incorporates Nike's more innovative tech.

This is that wake up early and jog on the beach with your dog type of shoe. I fucks with this.

This is that doin' the dougie on the playa in a dust storm at Burning Man type of shoe. I'm bout it.

Matter of fact, this is that naked high five to the moon (pause) at Burning Man type of shoe. Gotta cop.

In case you haven't noticed, I like weird woven shoes almost as much as I like Burning Man.

FUCK YEAH!!!

The New Balance Custom 574 Review

I recently ordered two pairs of custom New Balance 574s from newbalance.com and I could not be happier with the results. For those of you who aren't familiar, New Balance offers a custom program (just like Nike iD) on their website for two classic models, the 574 and 993.

New Balance's customs have a great selection of colors and are priced very well. The 574s are $114.95 and the 993s are $174.95. You can almost always find a 10% off + free shipping discount code to get these down to about $110 shipped including tax.

I ordered two pairs on Tuesday, Nov. 20th and both pairs arrived by Tuesday Dec. 4th. This is an incredibly quick turnaround when you consider that I live in California (They're made in Massachusetts), and that NB and UPS are both obviously closed for Thanksgiving. 

Right off the bat, I was impressed with the quality. The suede and mesh are on par with the materials you see on many New Balance collabs. The leather was also high quality, worlds better than what we're used to seeing on Jordan retros. The craftsmanship is also great. The stitching is all on point, no glue stains, and the shape is perfect. Overall, the quality is much greater than what anyone in the sneaker community expects to get for $110 these days, which is refreshing. 

I'm a huge fan of Nike iD, but this is a better product. I've never had any real quality issues with Nike iDs, but the price point + 6 weeks wait are too much to deal with when a competitor is offering a similar experience with better quality and shorter wait time. I must reiterate that the quality on all of my Nike iDs has been very nice and I'm always very pleased, I'm just trying to state how New Balance goes above and beyond on these customs.

Enough about the experience, let's get to the kicks and what inspired them:

The New Balance 574 Custom "Weekend @ Bernie's"

These were inspired by the movie "Weekend At Bernie's". I wanted to make a shoe based on Bernie's outfit because I felt like I could use another summer-type sneaker that's more toned down than all the bright ass Nike Basketball stuff I like to rock in the summer. For those of you that are unfamiliar with "Weekend At Bernie's", cheek it out. Shit is hilarious. I loved it as a kid. Here's a pic of Bernie and the fit that inspired the colors on this shoe:

New Balance 574 Custom "Ultra Travolta"

"So yeah, at the Grammys I went Ultra Travolta. Yeah that tuxedo might have been a little guido."- Kanye West on "The Glory"

That lyric set up my frame of mind when designing this pair. I just wanted to show out with these and give them a colorway and feel you don't typically get with New Balances. As far as the colorblocking goes, I was inspired by the "Red Devil" 670:

I didn't want my shoe to be a total ripoff of the "Red Devils" so I thought to go with the black midsole and add some more colors to the mix. Every sneakerhead has a ton of black/red shoes just off Js alone, so I chose to add some green and a touch of yellow to give them that Gucci colorway. I went with Green and yellow because I'm a big fan of the 24 Kilates Asics Gel Saga:

I love that shoe, but it's one of those pairs that I don't love enough to pay the silly resell prices for.

So far, I've rocked the Ultra Travoltas and they're incredibly comfy. I really love both pairs and I highly recommend customizing your own pair. You won't be disappointed.

LeBron X iD: Substance Beyond Southbeach

The LeBron X iD might be the most popular model on Nike iD right now for one reason and one reason only; The ability to create a South Beach LeBron X.

The first wave of LeBron X iDs are starting to pop up online and I'd guess that at least 60% of the photos I've seen are of South Beach inspired colorways. People can order whatever they like, but as a huge fan of Nike iDs, people all ordering a colorway we might see later is lame to me. Nike iDs are meant to be an expression of individuality, so to see a whole bunch of people with the same iDs makes me really question where sneaker culture is headed.

It's a shame that the South Beach colorway has gotten so much hype because it has overshadowed the fact that the LeBron X iD has some excellent options that lend themselves to some really great colorways.

I've been tinkering with plenty of colorways inspired by past LeBrons, other classic sneakers, and other random inspirations. Here's what I came up with:

LeBron X iD "Red Carpet"

LeBron X iD "Entourage"

LeBron X iD "Hardwood Classics/Knicks"

LeBron X iD "Space Jam"

LeBron X iD "Miami Hurricanes"

LeBron X iD "Mardi Gras"

As you can see, I've wasted plenty of time and I still haven't been able to pull the trigger. However, a fellow sneakerhead who I know through a sneaker related Facebook group did order and received his pair this week. Here are some pics of his iDs:

These beauties were made by the homie Sergio Ortiz. He was inspired by a pair of Nike Air Trainers that he was wearing when he designed them, as well as the Miami Nights LeBron 9. He said that he was very happy with the product. He mentioned that the quality was on point and that his only complaint would be the speckles on the midsole. Apparently the finish on the speckles is not glossy and has a sloppier look, as if they actually slashed paint on them. 

Sergio also mentioned that the turnaround time from order to delivery was only four weeks, which is pretty good when it comes to Nike iDs. 

If you have any questions for Sergio or simply wanna give him props for the dope iDs, you can hit him up on Instagram at eeks323, or on twitter: @urewacktoo .

Much thanks to Sergio for sharing his iDs. I'm strongly considering ordering one of the designs that I posted so feel free to hit me on twitter @juicemanji and let me know what you think, or better yet hit me with any of your Nike iD creations. I love seeing other folks iDs, so never hesitate to hit me up.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate the support.

Shouts to the Kicks-RX fam and $FU.

The Juicemanji Guide To Surviving Holiday Sneaker Season

This holiday season will feature an insane amount of big releases from Nike and Jordan Brand. In my opinion, Nike and JB have gone way overboard and should have staggered these releases over a longer period of time. In any case, most sneakerheads will do what they can to cop everything they can over the next month and a half. I'm here to hopefully relieve some of that holiday shopping stress by offering my advice on how to cop some of these releases with minimal effort.

Let's start with some of the general release Jordans that will be dropping:

Jordan IV "Bred" 11/23 (Black Friday

Jordan IX "Olive" 11/17

Jordan XI "Bred"  12/21

Jordan IX "Cool Grey" 12/15

All of these can be had fairly easily online, except for maybe the XIs. Other than the initial releases on the major sites, you can always count on a restock or two on Finishline. I also find it very easy to cop GR Jordans on a lot of the euro sites like Crooked Tongues, Sneakers N Stuff, etc. If the Bred XIs are a must cop for you and you can't leave it up to chance going online, I suggest you start making arrangements now.

As far as some of the more limited releases go, (Doernbecher IXs, Thunder IVs, Galaxy Zoom Rookies, Galaxy BG Hyperdunks) they'll all be available online and/or twitter RSVP. Start calling in favors if you're not trying to deal with too much bullshit.

With the Nike Basketball X-Mas lineup, I would just play it by ear. Those will all be easy to come by, just like they were last year. There doesn't appear to be a standout, classic colorway like the Grinches from two years ago.

Also remember that most Nike and JB shoes end up in the outlets anyway. Don't be afraid to play the waiting game. If they don't hit the outlet, the resale market will always cool down with the hyped shoes of the moment. The Dunkman and Floridian LeBrons and Tiger Camo Hyperposites won't be tough to come by after they drop and you won't have to break the bank either.

I know there are countless releases coming in the next few weeks, but don't let that stress get to you. Focus on the tougher releases (Bred XIs, Thunder IVs, and DB XIs) because those won't come cheap after they sell out. Anything else will be much easier than you think. Just be patient and keep stacking!

WHAT THE SHIT?!

YOOO! What the fuck is this? These camo foams are atrocious. Gentry Humphrey can't be serious with these shits. Who is in Gentry's ear?

This looks like some shit Master P would rock in the late 90s, bruh. Stupid ass paintball camo shoes, man. Man if they're gonna make Master P-camo Foamposite, why not make a Foam with one of those ugly ass Master P album covers on it?

Nike sportswear puts out some real garbage from time to time. Fix this shit, Gentry.

Finally Back

After going on a month long road trip, moving to Los Angeles, starting a new career and getting settled in my new home, I've finally found some quiet time for me to post on the blog. There has been plenty going on in the sneaker world and I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts on all of it. LET'S GO!

The Shoezeum

This past Friday, I started a road trip that will take me from L.A. to Miami, with stops in Indiana, Memphis, New Orleans, Austin, and a bunch of other places of interest. While I was in Vegas, I stopped by the Shoezeum. Some of you might remember last year, when Jordy Geller started the Shoezeum in San Diego. If not, here's a vid:

Well now he's moved his amazing Nike collection to Las Vegas and I recommend that anyone who loves Nikes and Jordans take the time to check it out.

The pic above details the different displays in the Shoezeum. A lot of them are themed, while some are simply organized by shoe, like the Foams, Air Maxes, etc.

One of the first displays is the "Back To The Future" display. You got your Delorean 6.0 Dunk Lows, Air Mags, McFly Hyperdunks, and McFly Hypermax. 

This was a pretty impressive collection of Jordan Retros. This wasn't all of them, but it was pretty dope to see the way these were set up.

A display featuring different variations of the Nike Air Max 1 and Nike Air Safari, two of my favorite shoes of all time. Notice the CLOT Air Max 1 in the lower right hand corner. This is the only shoe with see thru panels that I've ever liked.

They had pretty much every Nike Tennis shoe with historical significance, including the Nike Air Oscillate. The Air Oscillate was Pete Sampras' signature shoe during the prime of his career. This is a forgotten classic, as most of today's sneaker community tends to ignore any non-Agassi tennis retro. 

The 'Posite collection was very dope. They had more than just Foam Ones and Pros. They had Flightposites, Clogposites, etc.

They had the Converse x Jordan Brand pack, commemorating the 30 year anniversary of Jordan hitting the jumper that won the national championship for North Carolina. This is 1 of 30 in the world. It's tough to see in the pic, but the pack also includes an autographed Carolina jersey.

There was plenty more, but this is the last pic I'll leave you with. The Air Max 97s. My favorite shoe of the Air Max series and a very underrated shoe in the US. These are much more popular in Asia. They know what's up.

The Shoezeum is a must visit for Nike/Jordan lovers. I only have two complaints, the first being that the Shoezeum is pretty much only Nikes and Jordans. I remember seeing maybe three non Nike related shoes in the entire place. I would have liked to see Adidas, Reebok, and New Balance get some shine also. 

My second complaint is that there aren't any plaques or signs detailing the significance of each display. I knew everything, but I found myself basically giving a tour to my fiancée. Any non-sneakerhead would have no real way of knowing the significance of some of the very rare shoes on display, like UNDFTD Jordan IVs, or Paris SB Dunk Lows. Jordy, the owner, and the very cool staff are around to chop it up and answer any questions, but I feel like it could be a better experience for the non-sneakerhead if there were plaques with information on each display case.

In any case, I had a great time at the Shoezeum and they're open until midnight in Downtown Las Vegas, so go check it out when you're in town.

Back To Posting, Sort Of.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I've been incredibly busy lately, packing up all my shit and moving from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It's been eight incredible years in the Bay Area, but it was time for me to move back to my hometown of Los Angeles. I'm pretty excited about carving out my place in the L.A. sneaker scene.

I am on a month long road trip across the US of A with my fiancée and we are currently visiting some of her family in Bloomington, Indiana. I will have some time to post over the next couple of days and I hopefully can post some of my sneaker related sightseeing during our stops in Miami, New Orleans, and Austin. 

I'm about to post on my trip to the Shoezeum, in Las Vegas. Sorry for the lack of content lately, but thanks for still checking in and I'll continue to bring the kind of original content that made you check this blog out in the first place. Thanks for the support.