Respectfully, were you around in the 90s? I see your NT join date is in 2016.
I was 14-23 in the 90s and an avid sneaker enthusiast. 3s through 8s were all generally loved. The gold standard shoes for anyone who considered themselves a hooper. The buzz on the 9 and 10 was different and lesser because MJ wasn’t playing, yet still like. Then he came back and the 11-14s were all instant hits as well.
The 15s were the 1st AJ I remember that got some sideways looks, including from me.
I don’t post much and when I do it typically is prefaced with a reminder to be financially thoughtful and not buy 2-3 pair of shoes at resale, leveraged, at the expense of your future financial self (open a brokerage account instead and buy a share of vti, schd, voo rather than the idiotic “double up” and thank me later).
But I logged in just to address your post.
I was in high school in the 90s in the dc area. As I recall Boyz 2 Men didn’t save Concords. Boyz 2 Men didn’t have that type of influence amongst the male crowd who wore Js. Also the fluidness, effectiveness, and then the reach and scope of communication was phenomenally different back then. The Boyz 2 Men thing was more a phenomenon after the fact that history attributes a little too much significance to.
I’d go as far as to say that Busta wearing Concords in “Woo hah” had more influence because that video circulated hard on mtv and bet.
For a high school student to see Boyz 2 Men wearing the Concords it would have had to have been during the awards show red carpet, MTV News, or in a hip hop magazine.
With that in mind, I worked at a book store (Walden) in 1995-1996 and people would buy a magazine (Source or Vibe as I recall) with a number for the Concords on the back. That was before anyone except maybe Mike was wearing them. We would be at my job calling the number prior to the release because it was an evolution of information on the shoe (or we thought it was at least).
During the blizzard of 96 they closed City Place Mall. A group of 8-9 of us were there every morning to see if they were going to open so we could buy the Columbias. Later than the Concords for sure. But just reinforcing that the hype had built. And for me, that was the origins of the camp out.
Also, not long after the 11s dropped, other companies (Grant Hill 2 and Af1s) rode the wave of the patent leather motif. This was within a year or so of the 11s release. That also buttresses my claim that the 11s didn’t need any runway or popularity incentive. They sold themselves and other companies noticed it early enough to conceptualize, model, manufacture, and bring to market successive shoes based on what they [presumably] saw as a hit. I wouldn’t think you’d have that kind of immediate copycat-ism on a poorly received shoe.
Reasonable minds can different on the same subject for sure. And thinking about it more, geographic dependency likely plays a big role. Seeing Raekwon and Ghost on Rap City’s “The Basement” wearing Concords might not have hit in the dirty like it did in the dmv. Ironically, it may have taken more time to heat up down south.
So maybe in your area code the circumstances were different. But in 202/301/703, before you had to dial any of those prefixes to make a phone call, the 11s didn’t need any celebrity support.
