Jordan III REIMAGINED “White Cement” -March 11th 2023

Lol at the majority of yall talking about Sneaker Culture was the same as it was in the 1980,s and early 1990,s, as it is right now. No TF it wasnt, I was around when all of this started from day 1 before Jordan was even signed to Nike. I was a kid back then, and got to have experiences with my older cousins and uncles lining up for OG releases at stores. Yes, other ethnicities were buying Jordans, Nikes, Reeboks, etc way back then. But us (African Americans were the people who wore them in abundance at the beginning, and we were the demographic of people who actually made Nike and these other Shoe companies what they are today.)

Jordans were frowned upon from 85 - 89 in my city and state, which is a popular big city, so I for sure know that it wasn't anymore different in smaller regions back then too. Jordan was a new NBA player wearing GOLD CHAINS with Red/Black (back then seen as weird to the masses, including Suburban people). Not to sounded racist, because im 100% not racist at all, but Jordans 1,2,3,4,5,6,s was a Black thing, urban people was the face of sneakers back then.

Then you had a small demographic of others who loved Jordans just as much, but they weren't the majority and the face of the sneaker culture like they are right now. This topic is funny, because alot of outsiders try to rewrite history as time goes along, just as how other races of people try to rewrite the narrative and storyline about who created Hip Hop/Rap nowadays.

The problem is that we're always accepting of others to hop in what we create and see as popular, because as a people, we're highly unliked on a personal level to the masses. But when we create and say something is cool, everybody follows and copies our opinions after the fact. Jordans were seen as threat and looked down upon in his first couple of years in the league.

He was fined, commentators along with the surburban community back then called them ugly overpriced tennis shoes back. Street Culture, Urban communities, along with Hip Hop culture got behind Jordans FIRST, then EVERYBODY ELSE followed suit afterwards.

It's not like how y'all are describing it right now. It was the complete opposite of how it is today. Fast forward to right now, and everything has changed because of how Jordan and Nike wanted to market his shoes after around the 1990,s were finished.

They didn't want his brand being highly associated with the hood, ghetto, urban communities, because they feel like that would've stunted the brands growth going into the future, especially after what he accomplished on the court.

The cold part about this is that same community is what helped his brand become what it was at the beginning of his career. Fast forward to right now, we have other ethnicities out here acting as if everybody played a part in what Jordans are today.

Nice try, but alot of us that were around at the beginning know what actually happened back in the mid 1980,s. Jordans were not a Suburban thing when he came into the league, it was PREDOMINANTLY A BLACK THING at the time.

None of us are saying other races didn't wear Jordans back then, we're talking about who was the face of it at the start. It's definitely the total opposite right now.

From social media pages, television, marketing, reselling, etc,WE'RE NOT THE FACE OF IT ANYMORE. This is why alot of people can feel comfortable acting like it was always like how it is today back in 85,86,87,88, in which it surely wasn't.

It was always FCFS back then at stores. There was no releases online, no reselling app,s and groups and communities of trust fund kids and adults who overpaying for alot of stock because of how sneaker culture is way more of a business right now than it's ever been.

Reselling was around, but it was a small community before 2005 hit. Now 50% to 70% of all of the releases are being bought up by people who just want to throw them up on StockX, GOAT, Ebay, Offerup, Ig, and other reselling platforms, just to sell for a way higher mark up price. Whenever we missed out on Jordan releases in 85- 97, we could find a store that still had stock of DS pairs to try on and walk out with.

Sometimes they would have left over stock from the last release during the actual new release. None of y'all can even compare to what's going on right now to back then. Shoes aren't even released to the public anymore at this point.

Employees, resellers, and friends get to eat up everything first, and then the majority of the people who actually want to wear the shoes have to pay resell, so resell is actually the new retail in the reality of things right now. From reselling stores to sneaker conventions, to where it is TODAY, it's a sh!% show for the people who actually want to wear the shoes outside on a daily basis.

People are buying these shoes to hoard for future value, collecting purposes, or for social media stuntin. Basically, because of how shoes are sold online/raffles/lottery system today, to the resellers, it's not even about wearing the shoes anymore.

The most crazy part about all of this is that this has gentrified and excluded a certain demographic of people to not even be able to participate in buying certain shoes such as these. There's alot of OG buyers 44 + years old, who have left and never looked back because of how sneaker buying has changed today.
 
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Shout out all the on feet folks
These dont deserve to be in a box
 
Lol at the majority of yall talking about Sneaker Culture was the same as it was in the 1980,s and early 1990,s, as it is right now. No TF it wasnt, I was around when all of this started from day 1 before Jordan was even signed to Nike. I was a kid back then, and got to have experiences with my older cousins and uncles lining up for OG releases at stores. Yes, other ethnicities were buying Jordans, Nikes, Reeboks, etc way back then. But us (African Americans were the people who wore them in abundance at the beginning, and we were the demographic of people who actually made Nike and these other Shoe companies what they are today.)

Jordans were frowned upon from 85 - 89 in my city and state, which is a popular big city, so I for sure know that it wasn't anymore different in smaller regions back then too. Jordan was a new NBA player wearing GOLD CHAINS with Red/Black (back then seen as weird to the masses, including Suburban people). Not to sounded racist, because im 100% not racist at all, but Jordans 1,2,3,4,5,6,s was a Black thing, urban people was the face of sneakers back then.

Then you had a small demographic of others who loved Jordans just as much, but they weren't the majority and the face of the sneaker culture like they are right now. This topic is funny, because alot of outsiders try to rewrite history as time goes along, just as how other races of people try to rewrite the narrative and storyline about who created Hip Hop/Rap nowadays.

The problem is that we're always accepting of others to hop in what we create and see as popular, because as a people, we're highly unliked on a personal level to the masses. But when we create and say something is cool, everybody follows and copies our opinions after the fact. Jordans were seen as threat and looked down upon in his first couple of years in the league.

He was fined, commentators along with the surburban community back then called them ugly overpriced tennis shoes back. Street Culture, Urban communities, along with Hip Hop culture got behind Jordans FIRST, then EVERYBODY ELSE followed suit afterwards.

It's not like how y'all are describing it right now. It was the complete opposite of how it is today. Fast forward to right now, and everything has changed because of how Jordan and Nike wanted to market his shoes after around the 1990,s were finished.

They didn't want his brand being highly associated with the hood, ghetto, urban communities, because they feel like that would've stunted the brands growth going into the future, especially after what he accomplished on the court.

The cold part about this is that same community is what helped his brand become what it was at the beginning of his career. Fast forward to right now, we have other ethnicities out here acting as if everybody played a part in what Jordans are today.

Nice try, but alot of us that were around at the beginning know what actually happened back in the mid 1980,s. Jordans were not a Suburban thing when he came into the league, it was PREDOMINANTLY A BLACK THING at the time.

None of us are saying other races didn't wear Jordans back then, we're talking about who was the face of it at the start. It's definitely the total opposite right now.

From social media pages, television, marketing, reselling, etc,WE'RE NOT THE FACE OF IT ANYMORE. This is why alot of people can feel comfortable acting like it was always like how it is today back in 85,86,87,88, in which it surely wasn't.

It was always FCFS back then at stores. There was no releases online, no reselling app,s and groups and communities of trust fund kids and adults who overpaying for alot of stock because of how sneaker culture is way more of a business right now than it's ever been.

Reselling was around, but it was a small community before 2005 hit. Now 50% to 70% of all of the releases are being bought up by people who just want to throw them up on StockX, GOAT, Ebay, Offerup, Ig, and other reselling platforms, just to sell for a way higher mark up price. Whenever we missed out on Jordan releases in 85- 97, we could find a store that still had stock of DS pairs to try on and walk out with.

Sometimes they would have left over stock from the last release during the actual new release. None of y'all can even compare to what's going on right now to back then. Shoes aren't even released to the public anymore at this point.

Employees, resellers, and friends get to eat up everything first, and then the majority of the people who actually want to wear the shoes have to pay resell, so resell is actually the new retail in the reality of things right now. From reselling stores to sneaker conventions, to where it is TODAY, it's a sh!% show for the people who actually want to wear the shoes outside on a daily basis.

People are buying these shoes to hoard for future value, collecting purposes, or for social media stuntin. Basically, because of how shoes are sold online/raffles/lottery system today, to the resellers, it's not even about wearing the shoes anymore.

The most crazy part about all of this is that this has gentrified and excluded a certain demographic of people to not even be able to participate in buying certain shoes such as these. There's alot of OG buyers 44 + years old, who have left and never looked back because of how sneaker buying has changed today.
I’ll put this aside and read it later. I gotta read The Bible first.
 
I can see where you might have this interpretation of what sneaker culture was and is now but I think ethnicity has nothing to do with that. Maybe I can speak on behalf of some Asian including Pacific Islander friends in here but as I recalled, some of us saved our lunch money growing up to head over to our local mom n pop shop as soon as we got word hoping we had a chance. The culture was and will always be a “business” whether it’s flipping shoes back then to obtain a grail, buy a Rolex, or to save up for a car. What has changed is accessibility…putting in work today is raffle signups & being on a computer/bots as opposed to camping out & hoping not too many heads show up to a lowkey joint. As they say, the early bird gets the worm. Hating or loving the old or new way of accessing sneakers is a whole different topic. Point is that it was a business back then as much as it is a business now, regardless of race.

Now? Who you think was buying Jordans in 1988???

Who do you think was on Niketalk in 1999/2000 when it first started?

I was probably one of the few “inner city” dudes that was on NT when it first launched

The suburbs been a part of the culture but they also are the reason for the destruction of the culture, so I understand your point of view

Ethnicities have always been a part of the culture but my emphasis was more so on the suburban part. Sure they used to buy kicks back in the day but go look on these Facebook groups, it’s all 15-20 year old kids using mommy and daddies credit cards to buy multiple pairs of everything. It wasn’t like that back in the day or at least not to this extent. Same with all these consignment/resell shops you see popping up, younger people using family money to open them up with no consequence or business sense. That’s why most of them go under. There’s so many shops getting lawsuits on them now because these clowns think they can just sell a few shoes to pay all the bills when a business is way more than that. And it’s true people have always flipped shoes but you weren’t making anything near what you make today. Flipping a pair of shoes for like $30-$50 over retail back in the day was a huge thing. There’s stuff now you can make hundreds and sometimes thousands on right off the bat.

Me personally, I couldn’t care less who is into kicks anymore. If I don’t get a shoe I just move on. When I see people copping multiples more power to them because we all would if we could, no reason to hate on it. The culture is more mainstream than it’s ever been and spread to the masses. I don’t think Nike is making less product, there’s just way more people and way more intricate ways of going for that product now.

When you got suburban moms wearing dunks and things like that, that’s when you know it’s spread big time. There wasn’t as much social media or advertising back in the day for stuff like kicks and street wear. You had to go out of your way to look things up. Celebs were rocking kicks but nothing like we see today and it damn sure wasn’t covered in the media as much.
 
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Elaborating on sneaker culture…I think part of it also has to do with what different generations (6 BC, 80s, 90s and so on) define as “putting in work.” Wish I could hit a button on an app at 7a & go back to bed rather than having to be stuck in traffic at 7a on the way to work.

 
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I remember back in the day when everyone would wear their kicks.

Had a pair of OG Infrared VI I beat to DEATH. Only sneakers I wore for like 2 years straight.

I can't recall anyone complaining about yellowing, creasing, etc.

You'd buy them and walk out the store wearing them.

I was young though, like 7 years old so maybe the older crowd was different.
 
Lol at the majority of yall talking about Sneaker Culture was the same as it was in the 1980,s and early 1990,s, as it is right now. No TF it wasnt, I was around when all of this started from day 1 before Jordan was even signed to Nike. I was a kid back then, and got to have experiences with my older cousins and uncles lining up for OG releases at stores. Yes, other ethnicities were buying Jordans, Nikes, Reeboks, etc way back then. But us (African Americans were the people who wore them in abundance at the beginning, and we were the demographic of people who actually made Nike and these other Shoe companies what they are today.)

Jordans were frowned upon from 85 - 89 in my city and state, which is a popular big city, so I for sure know that it wasn't anymore different in smaller regions back then too. Jordan was a new NBA player wearing GOLD CHAINS with Red/Black (back then seen as weird to the masses, including Suburban people). Not to sounded racist, because im 100% not racist at all, but Jordans 1,2,3,4,5,6,s was a Black thing, urban people was the face of sneakers back then.
I stopped reading this foolishness right here. Man I'm white af and grew up in Alabama. I was 12 in 1990. My mother stood in line at Champs the night of the release bc my bday was the next day. The next day I was the only kid in school with the Metallic 5's on. People were interrupting my class to see them. So maybe in your area y'all slept but MJ was a thing by 88 in most of the country. Mars Blackmon and the 4's were like the biggest commerical of 1989. Stop with this foolishness that it was black thing until 1992. That's just wrong.
 
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