B GRADES........how bad are they

[taggpoppernj]

They are all right. B-grades are just cosmetic flaws. When Nike is mass producing these shoes, they all have to be inspected by someone before they are ok to sell in the retail market. The person might find something thats visually wrong with the shoe. example: (air bubble not even, some paint chipping, excess paint or glue, bad stitching, ect.) I assume these shoes are on a conveyor belt, when they are being inspected I doubt the person doing that job has enough time to really get a great look at each shoe he inspects so a lot of times you'll find "b-grades" that have nothing wrong with them, well thats what we think cus we are the consumer. The inside people working at the factories know how the shoe should look, so they might catch something we might not catch. Nike has a reputation so they don't want to put nothing on the shelves unless it meets their standards. Jordan Brand seems to be different cus a lot of there "A-grade" shoes look like B-grades..lol. A lot of times its just some minor flaws you might catch yourself and just shake your head at. Either way, there is really nothing wrong with b-grades. They sell for less and the value isn't the same as A-grade but its not by that much, especially if you have a flawless pair. Hope this helped.

 

[yusuke420]

B-Grade CDP III. Notice the stitch in the toe. It's not even noticable when I'm wearing it.

 

[swingshot]

when a shoe is found to have a cosmetic defect a set number of shoes produced before and after it are pulled. There's no pattern to this. I have a grade shoes that are more like a b and vice versa.

Btw: every time i post in a b grade thread i get msgs from people asking if i have any to sell. I dont.

 

[luvtheshoe]

Honestly, the b's I've seen have always been better compared to my a's. I don't know what makes it a b, but I have plenty a's with tears, scratches, mis-threads, color spillage, offcenter etc. JB hasn't put out a shoe that looks like an a in years.

 

[duke4005]

Wearing B-grade XV's from 1999 right now. Except for being XV's and a big Marks-alot B on the production tag, there is no difference. Bought them in '99 form a factory store for $89.99.

 

[rareair45]

b grades bought from the outlets are perfectly fine
b grades bought from overseas early sources...thats a whole different story

 

[air23jordanxiii]

^^ Exactly. Not all b-grades are equal.  Some outlet b-grades are horrible too though.  I've seen some really REALLY messed up b-grades at outlets.

 

[angonas]

Originally Posted by dcortes23

most of the time you can't tell the difference besides the b-grade stamp.

 

[sam206]

i bought b grade 7s and all they had was a little glue stain that is barley noticeable

 

[fats73]

u can barely tell the diffrence unless u just examine the whole shoe for bout 30 min

 

[agent0024]

Are you aware of Nike's <50> quality control protocol ? ? ? ?

Minor, cosmetic flaw is found on production line. Rather than manually inspect all pairs for similar defects, Nike pulls the 50 pair before and the 50 pair after the flawed pair and they all go as B's. So out of 100 B's that hit outlets, its entirely likely that 99 pair are perfectly sound and 1 pair may have a minor flaw or defect. But as many others here have mentioned, the line between A-grade and B has blurred if not disappeared altogether....

 

[lildawgryan]

Originally Posted by nublee

Most "A" grades have B grade-esque quality to begin with, so the difference shouldn't be too severe

No, that just means B grades are actually C grades. What they once would have thrown into the shredder gets sent to the outlets.

 

[jimmy051702]

true yea those IIIs and XIIs dont even look bad im gonna cop whenever i can because your right the quality of most releases now are B grade quality it seems

 

[stayfresh]

did you want a A in school or a B you want a class A title on your car title or B b grades =no good imo

 

[stayfresh]

my homie got b grade dmp 11 that are like his grails he would always give me this quality over quanity crap every time i bought shoes then i found out his where b grade clowned his ##% i could never purposely by b grade shoes and cliam them as my best homie fakin the funk btw got 2 pair dmp 11 not b grade just to show him whats up and whats real

 

[justcallmeeric]

Originally Posted by dcortes23

most of the time you can't tell the difference besides the b-grade stamp.

where would the stamp be? sorry for the neeb question.. just never actually saw a b grade stamp...

 

[frijo sneaker]

Que?

 

[cubbiefan08]

Originally Posted by GottaBdaShoes

I go to the nike outlets and see J's in orange boxes marked with "cosmetic seconds"aka B grades. However, I rarely see anything wrong with them. For example, the orlando 7's from the dmp. I inspected the #@$@ out of a few and I couldn't find any flaws. I failed to ask any employees though, maybe I should have just to satisfy my curiosity but, I believe that B grades are just shoes that have some type of minor flaw, hence "cosmetic seconds". I'll probably ask next time I pop up at the store.

I hand inspected each of the size 11's, They all had something wrong like excess glue or the toe box midsole was greyish/crooked or the leather was cut wrong. I even saw a pair that had JORDA with the N missing on the tongue

. Then again I passed and went to buy the pack for $180 at finishline and one of the shoe's toe box was crooked

. Anyway I exchanged that one shoe and the lesson is that even shoes you buy at a regular store are b grade quality.

 

[swingshot]

Originally Posted by justcallmeeric

Originally Posted by dcortes23

most of the time you can't tell the difference besides the b-grade stamp.

where would the stamp be? sorry for the neeb question.. just never actually saw a b grade stamp...

Usually a "B" scribbled in black marker over the tags.

Note: Some less than honest people may put a "B" on fakes to pass them off as something else.

 

[cubbiefan08]

Originally Posted by justcallmeeric

Originally Posted by dcortes23

most of the time you can't tell the difference besides the b-grade stamp.

where would the stamp be? sorry for the neeb question.. just never actually saw a b grade stamp...

It's on top of the shoe box or the side. They also write B in blue marker on the tag inside the shoes.

 

[ehbball88]

One time i was at an outlet and they had the white blue vii from the dmp pack and said they were only b grades/at the outlet becaise the origional box was messed up.

 

[vilardi724]

a lot of times, they may also just be dirty or something small like that...went to my outlet and they had all white air force 1 lows for 45 dollars...only thing was they would have a little smudge of dirt on them, usually either the midsole or the toe box...nothing a little cleaning wouldnt fix

 

[janniely]

i have a pair of b grade shadow 10s aint nothing wrong with em

 

[agent0024]

Where are all you guys finding Orlando 7 B's at ? ? ? ? I'm a somewhat experienced hunter and I've come up empty-handed with these thus far.... PM me bros I need those

EDIT: B's also occur from being incomplete....

 

[adi934liife]

Originally Posted by cubbiefan08

Originally Posted by GottaBdaShoes

I go to the nike outlets and see J's in orange boxes marked with "cosmetic seconds"aka B grades. However, I rarely see anything wrong with them. For example, the orlando 7's from the dmp. I inspected the #@$@ out of a few and I couldn't find any flaws. I failed to ask any employees though, maybe I should have just to satisfy my curiosity but, I believe that B grades are just shoes that have some type of minor flaw, hence "cosmetic seconds". I'll probably ask next time I pop up at the store.

I hand inspected each of the size 11's, They all had something wrong like excess glue or the toe box midsole was greyish/crooked or the leather was cut wrong. I even saw a pair that had JORDA with the N missing on the tongue

. Then again I passed and went to buy the pack for $180 at finishline and one of the shoe's toe box was crooked

. Anyway I exchanged that one shoe and the lesson is that even shoes you buy at a regular store are b grade quality.

B-grades aren't necessarily b-grades, they can be perfect, but the reason they are so called b-grades is because they were most likely made in a batch where some of the other sneakers were messed up so they throw them onto another side and call them b-grades. Some may have cosmetic defects and some may not. I love b-grades especially the price.