Similar story to a lot of people ... Pended on SNKRS for I don't know how long. After 20 min, I went back to sleep for two hours LOL. Woke up expecting to see the GOT EM, and instead got the sold out in your size message. I was actually a bit surprised. Oh well, got up, drove to pick up my FTL pair. Only wanted one pair, if that, but figured a second from SNKRS would let me pick the best two shoes from each.
FTL pair is alright, though, relatively speaking from all the pairs and reports we've seen and heard about the QC, materials etc. The leather is basically crap, and there are a couple tiny little marks on the leather between the two shoes, but nothing you can see without holding them in front of your face. The cuts of the rands on the sides are, as expected, not identical between the two shoes, which is annoying. But the good news is, the actual toes/toe boxes match, and neither is nearly as egregious as some of the pairs we've seen. No real pre-creasing, somehow, either. Still, I'm going to have to take the iron to them this week and get rid of this ongoing cliff-toe foolishness. After I saw how easy and doable it was with the black/cements last year, I may as well.
After originally planning on buying these, then changing my mind after seeing the early-drop pics, then changing my mind again just to at least check them out in person, I guess I'm going to keep them but it's almost solely just for the nostalgia of it, since (as I've probably said too many times by now) this model and colorway was the first Jordan I ever had. But this is a very mediocre release overall, at best. I know it could be worse just because the previous retros of these WERE a lot worse, and I skipped them all, but that's not saying much. It's just a shame the leather is about as basic as it gets, the overall cut and shape is meh, and then there's the inconsistent heights and cuts and geometries to the upper's various panels.
In the end, I am simultaneously happy to have my first Jordans back after 31 years, yet more than a little disappointed. Congratulations to Nike/JB for being able to cause such conflicting feelings in its lifelong fans and customers, it's quite a feat
