Nike Ja 2 - October 3, 2024 for Stargazer

Man Nike's regressing with some of these kicks. While these overseas brands are making shoes that look more and more futuristic, some of these new shoes for like Ja and Giannis and even Bron feel like they have somebody in a basement knitting together shoe patterns from an old sewing catalogue.

It feels like Nike is trapped in thinking that if anything is going to expect to be massed produced for large amounts of purchases by the public, then it has to be grandma's cookie cuttered. They have the Ipsa and Terrascapes and other cool designs, but those are like one-off type stuff they expect few to buy.

I don't get it. I mean I get what they're doing, and I get why it could be the case that they are slow to pivot as an absolute unit of the performance basketball footwear market, but it's just starting to feel like they're scared to change even the feel of shoes. Did they decide to go modern-retro or something? It's not working. Lebron 21s are horrific visually. Watching people posting shoes that literally look like what would pop out if I gave the shoe to a grandparent and acting like they're fire.... yikes. The Freak 6s.... cheap garbage. These Ja 2s... 51/49 okay.

The Zions are going nowhere - dunno why they can't make him a shoe with the current look that actually has cushion and performs well. Lukas look decent, but are just weird to be weird, like the Tatums.

It's almost like the overseas brands innovated and what they came up with is so visually appealing that Nike decided to just stay out of that space for fear of producing product and then getting called copiers. The other thought is that perhaps they're going to pull an Apple, and wait and then introduce their own futuristic designs that are old news with the overseas brands, then act like they did something fresh (like Apple does with features).

To mis-paraphrase the great Chuck D "I like Nike but wait a minute"......
 
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