JB Quality?????

[poonsaloon]

Aside from some glue stains on the Playoff XIII's, all of the Retros I've gotten my hands on have been on point.

 

[rcjbbp1313]

Originally Posted by jumpmankb

Originally Posted by memphisboi55

best quality ever

Is your avy a gif or just a still picture optical illusion? I've always wondered

looks like a kaleidoscope

 

[jordanjayyy7]

I rrmember a bunch of quality issues back when the cdp were releasing

 

[terx]

Better or worse the shoe is going to sell . I actually think the quality has been good recently , but thats just me ?

 

[al bundy5]

Originally Posted by AdamKarvounakis

Originally Posted by Al Bundy5

I retract what I said about the olympic VIs being average quality wise. They suck. The first time I tried them on and felt them was in isolation. When I tried on the VIs, uptempos and shox bb4 together, the quality gap between jordan and nike products was astounding. The shox were by far the best of the lot, even though they could be better. The uptempos were a distant second, the "leather", or should I say plastic, was very hard, and unpliable. Certainly not ideal for playing. The VIs were an even further third. They take cheap plastic leather to a whole new level. Of course I didn't buy them, not that it matters, everybody else did so jb will continue with this BS quality until consumers start to wise up and not hand Jordan their hard earned cash for cheap plastic basketball shoes that are NOT SUITED FOR BASKETBALL.

i didnt get the bb4 from the pack but how to they compare from the OG version. I still have the Black and red BB4

Only had the OG version for a week before I returned it, but the retros are pretty decent, although no monkey paw

 

[balkiny03]

Originally Posted by Pinero354

The Olympic VI quality was great in my opinion

My motorsports 6 disagrees with you.

 

[mobbyluii]

JB has its manufacturers produce the shoes too fast.. thats why they look so sloppy sometimes. imagine, they show the pics 5 months before release and in those 5 months, they have to produce more than 50,000 pairs or even more! And think about how many other shoes they have to produce on top of that! So they are constantly rushed and that is why the shoes come out looking crappy.

 

[fazar89]

Originally Posted by FutureDHughes

They are inconsistent.

Chicago Xs were good.

White/Red 14s were not so much.

Overall, not terrible.

not sure about the 14sm but the chi 10s good quality??????? i compared them to my steel grey 10s and it felt like cardboard. quality is dead. 

 

[mobbyluii]

I love the quality on the Chicago 10's! the quality on the white cement 4's is cheap!

 

[vood99]

Why are you guys paying full retail and/or reseller prices on the junk that has dropped in the last 4 years? There is absolutely NO reason for any quality to increase so long as Nike/JB product keeps flying out of stores.

Skip out on some launches, have the product hit outlets and maybe then you'll get some increases in quality. Until then Nike/JB will keep cutting corners as they will aim to increase their profit margins.

 

[soleaddict34]

Its not about inconsistency or factory quality control or material supply sourcing. The simple fact is that the sales guys and number crunchers at JB have figured out what shoes they need to invest more in and which ones they don't. For example, take the recent IVs. Why would you use two completely different material qualities for basically the same shoe(wht/cmnt vs militaries)? JB knew that the white/cements would sell regardless of what type of material was used on the shoe and in that case it was a synthetic, pleather that costs them less money to source. And for those kids yelling, "it doesn't crease, it must be better", the real truth is real leather, that creases, is a more expensive material to source. I've worked in the clothing business for a long time, so I deal with manufacturing companies on a daily basis. We're always looking to cut costs and maximize profits. On the other end, look at the military IVs, JB looked at their past sales figures and saw that these didn't perform as well(2006) so they used better quality materials in the hopes to increase sales.
All these people complained about how bad the quality of all the recent XIs were, simple fact is they don't need to be, they all sold out anyways. You wonder why most of the newer models have better quality than the recents, those need to be better because there is no selling history for them.  JB has their game on lock, as an overall brand, quality isn't going to get better, because there's no money in it.

 

[el bro]

Its definitely at an all time low now. Olympic 6's and 7's were horrible in person. I honestly cant believe how people are paying retail plus tax for them. The VII's felt like rubber and the VI's Blue Pleather felt like plastic. In addition, Nikes Olympic pack felt just as bad. Rubber pleather. I mean got damn, how much more cheaper can you get Nike/JB?   

I remember thinking this in 06, then 08.  Now those years look leaps and bounds better than the crap of today.  The shoes feel like a piece of cardboard attached to a midsole.   Its like they decided padding doesnt matter on the inside for 90 percent of their shoes.  

 

[rone air]

it's going to get worse before it gets better

 

[skudoodle232]

i got the 2012 cements and was hyped but then i saw the material and sold fast

 

[felixriley]

The Obsidian 12's that i got were actually pretty good, no glue stains, no loose ends on stitching, etc.. but the Olympic 6's had some yellow on the sole DIRECTLY out of the box. SoleAddict34 pretty much made the same point i was going to make. The Military IV's were well made as were the Obsidian 12's. If you took a minute to try out the AJ 2012's, Melo 8's or CP3 V's (or whatever the latest is depending on when you read this) you'd see where the quality is. As for retros were gonna buy them because we know the history, younger kids are gonna buy them because us soon-to-be old heads are rocking them so hard. Jordan Brand knows we'll pay for the nostalgia and live with cheap leather and poor craftsmanship.

 

[vood99]

Originally Posted by El Bro

Its definitely at an all time low now. Olympic 6's and 7's were horrible in person. I honestly cant believe how people are paying retail plus tax for them. The VII's felt like rubber and the VI's Blue Pleather felt like plastic. In addition, Nikes Olympic pack felt just as bad. Rubber pleather. I mean got damn, how much more cheaper can you get Nike/JB?   

I remember thinking this in 06, then 08.  Now those years look leaps and bounds better than the crap of today.  The shoes feel like a piece of cardboard attached to a midsole.   Its like they decided padding doesnt matter on the inside for 90 percent of their shoes.  

El Bro, you and I've been buying sneakers for too long and you're 100% on the money. You go back to '05 when they were blending full grain leather with pleather on the X retros and everything after. The Stealth Vs in '06 had tumbled leather while the Grape and Fire Red retros had smooth pleather. They were picking and choosing what got good materials and what didn't then. Now they don't give a damn, it's a race to slap the cheapest possible materials on everything.

What irks me is that JB is supposedly Nike's premium brand but their retro product is borrowing from the same page as Nike Sportswear (NSW). Every single 'Olympic' shoe is a borderline knockoff and the worst has to be the Huarache 2K4. The flea market variants from '04 are 10X better than those.

 

[sthebest]

Originally Posted by SoleAddict34

Its not about inconsistency or factory quality control or material supply sourcing. The simple fact is that the sales guys and number crunchers at JB have figured out what shoes they need to invest more in and which ones they don't. For example, take the recent IVs. Why would you use two completely different material qualities for basically the same shoe(wht/cmnt vs militaries)? JB knew that the white/cements would sell regardless of what type of material was used on the shoe and in that case it was a synthetic, pleather that costs them less money to source. And for those kids yelling, "it doesn't crease, it must be better", the real truth is real leather, that creases, is a more expensive material to source. I've worked in the clothing business for a long time, so I deal with manufacturing companies on a daily basis. We're always looking to cut costs and maximize profits. On the other end, look at the military IVs, JB looked at their past sales figures and saw that these didn't perform as well(2006) so they used better quality materials in the hopes to increase sales.
All these people complained about how bad the quality of all the recent XIs were, simple fact is they don't need to be, they all sold out anyways. You wonder why most of the newer models have better quality than the recents, those need to be better because there is no selling history for them.  JB has their game on lock, as an overall brand, quality isn't going to get better, because there's no money in it.

as much as i love the feel of real leather, most grades dont hold up well over time. for instance, go look up used pairs of Jordan 5s and 6s from 1990 and 1991. when they crease, they crease UGLY. basically what was used on Jordans back in the day really felt no better than cheaper take down models like Solo Flights.

 

[hi5red]

JB USED to be looked at as the pinnacle of the sneaker business and now it has been reduced to cheap gimmicks and the same stories told over and over to rely on sales. Furthermore, they trick consumers. I mean they knew the 20th ann of dream team was coming up. Did they HAVE to release those wack flotg oly 7s a couple years ago. NO. They knew they were gonna do 60+1 pack. Did they have to release bred 1 straps? NONO. But they did. Og Color 9s in cdp then in 2010. Its upsetting but you just have to look to other shoes.

 

[resist]

retro's aren't worn to play basketball, mostly fashion. So why use top tier equipment for walking shoes lol, if anything we are to blame because of this decline. You can't expect jb to use top of line materials for people who most likely will wear the shoe 1-2x a week, for 1-2 hours of walking. I don't mind the quality, however, what I do mind is the ratio of price:quality which I cannot deny, it's quite horrible.

 

[al bundy5]

As vood99 said, the main problem is that consumers keep buying at this crap quality level, not only that, they fight, stab, kill, and pay 2x retail for this junk.
Nike supposedly doesn't condone all the violence over their sneakers, but I promise you every single exec at nike gets a hard on whenever he sees a story about someone getting whacked over some pair of cheap plastic nikes. They would rather that than people coming in calmly and buying without lining up or creating chaos.
When people go this nuts over some cheaply produced facsimiles of something that was once a quality product, they have no reason to increase quality.
Things used to be better when they were marketed as basketball shoes.
Now they're just marketed as recording MJ's milestones, as if his ego isn't large enough. Get the VIs, he won his first championship with those, get the flu game, get playoff XII even though you get better quality at payless these days

 

[jay-mula 23]

^^lol @ better quality at payless. Kinda true though. JB needs to talk to their marketing team and set up a bogo system for these crappy retros their sellin us.