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- Jun 26, 2008
Getting to John's questions.
Question #1.) What are your thoughts on this story? If you were Nike how would you handle this?
I have a lot of thoughts on this. In no particular order:
- I've been told that this will likely not be the only arrest stemming from this investigation. The - ahem - other shoe is yet to drop.
- Despite being cool with a number of (mostly earlier generation) "brand name" A-list collectors, I've never been shy to say that most of these people's talks about "hook-ups" (especially the guys who are new to the super expensive shoe scene) are really nothing more than them paying through the nose to somebody (or middleman) who is essentially a criminal. Not saying this makes you a bad person, but it's more evidence for the young kids who actually look up to these dudes with incredible collections that the sausage doesn't get made in the super cool way you imagine. If interpreted properly, this story is another piece of evidence that should be used to tear down sneaker idols in the minds of the young and thirsty.
- Sample theft : Nike :: card counting : Vegas - - Nike can come down on this legally, but in their heart of hearts they know that this is actually good for them - just like how Vegas claims to hate card counting, but actually loves it because for every one person who does it successfully, it grows the legends and spawns 20 more who think they can do it to, then try, but fail, and lose more money than they would otherwise. These shoes and the glamour collectors who own them and share them via social media are part and parcel of Nike's hype machine. The hype they've "bought" through these losses exceeds their financial hit - which is essentially zero because unless these shoes hit the black market, they have no monetary value to Nike. ...In fact, they only have ANY value to Nike IF THEY DO hit the black market, and that value is eyeballs and hype.
- Nike notoriously pays their employees crap. I'm not talking about the sweatshop stuff, but people in corporate, etc. as well. I know personally that there are people who only continue to work there because of the side money that is made through stuff like this. So, this has been essentially an unregulated "benefit/bonus" system for certain employees for a long time - employees who may very well choose not to work there any more if this well dries up because Nike itself isn't compensating them competitively enough on their own. ...And, as we've said before, the best way for a business to prevent inside theft (and incompetence) is to treat their employees well so that they highly value their jobs.
- I'm sure that if pressed, none of these employees would hesitate to "snitch" on their clientele. Will anything come of that?
- If I was Nike, how would I handle this? ...As implied above, I'm not sure that I would! I'm not convinced it's a net negative for them at all. The real problem here is that the flow of shoes and black market money seems to have gotten highly concentrated into a few hands. Perhaps the best way to do it would be allow employees to sell samples privately through a regulated forum. Set up some sort of system where employees earn the rights to sale of different samples via some meritocratic review of their performance. If an employee wins a shoe he/she can either keep it or choose to sell it. Nike would set up their own sample auction pages through NDC and the employee who won the rights to that shoe will get its sale price processed in his/her check in the form of a traditional "bonus."
EDIT - I think they'd have to force the employee to sell it vs. keep it, because it they allowed the latter, the employee could then just sell it privately subsequently and skirt the system.
Question #2.) How do you feel about the fact that sneaker blogs aren't covering this story at all? Do you think there is some type of agreement to keep this under wraps?
I don't know whether the concerted silence is the product of some kind of collusion, but it's certainly telling. It also shows how unqualified these sneaker "news" sites are to report anything that is actual "news." But, these sites are complicit in building the illusion that the "shoeperstar" is some cool dude with awesome hook-ups, etc. And, these kinds of stories aren't compatible with that narrative, so they'll avoid covering them.
Question #3.) If you were Nike SB and you could create a SB to represent a member of this thread would it look like? Describe what the Dunk SB would look like using the format I've provided. (You can do as many different SB dunks as you want)
FORMAT:
1.) Name of dunk and is it a dunk high or dunk low?
2.) Nickname of dunk?
3.) Brief description of materials used and coloring on side panels, toe cap, heel, tongue, laces, sole and insole. (I will accept Photoshop canvas picture.)
4.) Explain the inspiration behind the Dunk SB.
5.) How would it be released?
I'm going to choose Black Thought/John as well.
I don't really know enough about John personally to feel like I can choose a design to best represent him, but I do have a cool (and unrealistic) way of releasing the shoe.
Since John is the ultimate hooker upper, pay it forward kind of dude. Here's how the release would go. ...All pairs are bought as gifts, you can only receive a pair if somebody else buys them for you and In turn, you are obligated to buy them for somebody else. So, you pay for a pair, but not technically "your pair" (CCs, shipping addresses, emails can't be duplicated - and all that stuff.) It starts by Nike sending John 5 personal pairs and 5 pairs numbered 0, 00, 000, 0000, and 00000. Nike "buys" those pairs for John. Then he determines who gets them. Those five people pass the invite on to one other person and pay for that person's pair, and so forth. Pairs are individually numbered up to the year of John's birth. The last five people to receive pairs wind up paying for John's pairs.
Question #1.) What are your thoughts on this story? If you were Nike how would you handle this?
I have a lot of thoughts on this. In no particular order:
- I've been told that this will likely not be the only arrest stemming from this investigation. The - ahem - other shoe is yet to drop.
- Despite being cool with a number of (mostly earlier generation) "brand name" A-list collectors, I've never been shy to say that most of these people's talks about "hook-ups" (especially the guys who are new to the super expensive shoe scene) are really nothing more than them paying through the nose to somebody (or middleman) who is essentially a criminal. Not saying this makes you a bad person, but it's more evidence for the young kids who actually look up to these dudes with incredible collections that the sausage doesn't get made in the super cool way you imagine. If interpreted properly, this story is another piece of evidence that should be used to tear down sneaker idols in the minds of the young and thirsty.
- Sample theft : Nike :: card counting : Vegas - - Nike can come down on this legally, but in their heart of hearts they know that this is actually good for them - just like how Vegas claims to hate card counting, but actually loves it because for every one person who does it successfully, it grows the legends and spawns 20 more who think they can do it to, then try, but fail, and lose more money than they would otherwise. These shoes and the glamour collectors who own them and share them via social media are part and parcel of Nike's hype machine. The hype they've "bought" through these losses exceeds their financial hit - which is essentially zero because unless these shoes hit the black market, they have no monetary value to Nike. ...In fact, they only have ANY value to Nike IF THEY DO hit the black market, and that value is eyeballs and hype.
- Nike notoriously pays their employees crap. I'm not talking about the sweatshop stuff, but people in corporate, etc. as well. I know personally that there are people who only continue to work there because of the side money that is made through stuff like this. So, this has been essentially an unregulated "benefit/bonus" system for certain employees for a long time - employees who may very well choose not to work there any more if this well dries up because Nike itself isn't compensating them competitively enough on their own. ...And, as we've said before, the best way for a business to prevent inside theft (and incompetence) is to treat their employees well so that they highly value their jobs.
- I'm sure that if pressed, none of these employees would hesitate to "snitch" on their clientele. Will anything come of that?
- If I was Nike, how would I handle this? ...As implied above, I'm not sure that I would! I'm not convinced it's a net negative for them at all. The real problem here is that the flow of shoes and black market money seems to have gotten highly concentrated into a few hands. Perhaps the best way to do it would be allow employees to sell samples privately through a regulated forum. Set up some sort of system where employees earn the rights to sale of different samples via some meritocratic review of their performance. If an employee wins a shoe he/she can either keep it or choose to sell it. Nike would set up their own sample auction pages through NDC and the employee who won the rights to that shoe will get its sale price processed in his/her check in the form of a traditional "bonus."
EDIT - I think they'd have to force the employee to sell it vs. keep it, because it they allowed the latter, the employee could then just sell it privately subsequently and skirt the system.
Question #2.) How do you feel about the fact that sneaker blogs aren't covering this story at all? Do you think there is some type of agreement to keep this under wraps?
I don't know whether the concerted silence is the product of some kind of collusion, but it's certainly telling. It also shows how unqualified these sneaker "news" sites are to report anything that is actual "news." But, these sites are complicit in building the illusion that the "shoeperstar" is some cool dude with awesome hook-ups, etc. And, these kinds of stories aren't compatible with that narrative, so they'll avoid covering them.
Question #3.) If you were Nike SB and you could create a SB to represent a member of this thread would it look like? Describe what the Dunk SB would look like using the format I've provided. (You can do as many different SB dunks as you want)
FORMAT:
1.) Name of dunk and is it a dunk high or dunk low?
2.) Nickname of dunk?
3.) Brief description of materials used and coloring on side panels, toe cap, heel, tongue, laces, sole and insole. (I will accept Photoshop canvas picture.)
4.) Explain the inspiration behind the Dunk SB.
5.) How would it be released?
I'm going to choose Black Thought/John as well.
I don't really know enough about John personally to feel like I can choose a design to best represent him, but I do have a cool (and unrealistic) way of releasing the shoe.
Since John is the ultimate hooker upper, pay it forward kind of dude. Here's how the release would go. ...All pairs are bought as gifts, you can only receive a pair if somebody else buys them for you and In turn, you are obligated to buy them for somebody else. So, you pay for a pair, but not technically "your pair" (CCs, shipping addresses, emails can't be duplicated - and all that stuff.) It starts by Nike sending John 5 personal pairs and 5 pairs numbered 0, 00, 000, 0000, and 00000. Nike "buys" those pairs for John. Then he determines who gets them. Those five people pass the invite on to one other person and pay for that person's pair, and so forth. Pairs are individually numbered up to the year of John's birth. The last five people to receive pairs wind up paying for John's pairs.
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lol ).
