Official Reebok Kamikaze II Thread AKA "Reignmans"

I'll probably cop a pair of the black/white colorway and i would like to see some more pics of that new school Sonics colorway the white/green/yellow.
 
Still no buying/selling/trading.

Also to the guy who got his shipping confirmation from karmaloop, what shipping method did you choose?
 
Dat Dude Chris said:
Yo to the ppl who already got their pairs in person, are these comfortable enough to ball in. Might cop the regular black & white cw for balling in if thats the case and theyre not hard to cop which I highly doubt they will be
Hope everyone eventually gets their pairs tho
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these are most definitely one of the most comfiest midsoles I've ever tried on.

The Hexalite is INCREDIBLY soft and cushion-y.

Might just make you BOUNCE like Shawn Kemp lol
 
Damn i got lucky and got 2 pairs , if u live in los angeles area check out shoe palace in lakewood they have a couple pairs left
 
After wearing these today i must say :REEBOK IS BACK!!! The comfort of the shoe is amazing and the way they handled this release was the best way to get back on the map in this new digital age where attention spans are extremely short. I'm definitely anticipating the shaq attacks and the shaqnosis this year as well as my all time grail shoe from Reebok : The Answer 1. Nike better step their game up. 
 
AXELROD said:
After wearing these today i must say :REEBOK IS BACK!!! The comfort of the shoe is amazing and the way they handled this release was the best way to get back on the map in this new digital age where attention spans are extremely short. I'm definitely anticipating the shaq attacks and the shaqnosis this year as well as my all time grail shoe from Reebok : The Answer 1. Nike better step their game up. 
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but then again, how much longer will it last? Reebok has only so many classics...their new models are straight garbage and unappealing
 
Unreal. Ordered my pair off reebok.com yesterday at 8 am. Selected the free ground shipping. They were delivered to me this morning at 9:30 am. I will be ordering a lot more from reebok.com. Never had shipping that fast for free
 
bucknuteagle said:
I'm sure that any and everyone who comes to this board is well aware of Nike's strategy of limited releases. I think what the person you quoted is saying is that Reebok had a chance to differentiate themselves from Nike instead of trying to imitate them. The hyper limited quickstrike strategy does work, but it is far from the only possible course that they could have taken. If you have a beloved colorway of a model it makes sense to make it widely available and then to limit production of newer colorways to draw attention to them. This is what Nike does with most of their retros. Most original colorways are relatively easy to get if you're in any way persistent about acquiring them, but some retro+ colorways are surprisingly limited.

What Reebok chose to do is what Nike does with its signature models (Kobe's, KD's, Lebron's). The highly sought after colorways are also the most limited. Granted at this point it's hard to separate limited availability with someone actually liking the sneaker, but I digress. The basic home/away colors of the sigs are widely available, but the especially vivid and loud colorways draw attention to the line overall with their exclusivity.

I think that at this point I'm not sure if Reebok made the right choice of marketing strategies. They could have mass produced this colorway (which people were clearly champing at the bit for). To help bring attention to the new colorways that most people, to be blunt, couldn't give a **** about. The lone exception in their current Kamikaze II lineup that will be released later is the Black/Red. That is one LOUD sneaker. I would have put a full force marketing campaign behind it and released it in highly limited fashion, and then let the rest of the Kamikaze II releases sales ride off of that.

I think Reebok's mistake here might be underestimating just how much nostalgia (and the feigned nostalgia for a time that you weren't born for now popularized by hipsters) can drive the sales of a release like this. I'll use myself as an example of this. I never watched Shawn Kemp play, I'm not from Seattle, and I'm not a Sonics fan. I also never bought Reeboks as a kid; for me it was generally Jordan's or some Shaq's from payless with nothing in between. But this is undoubtedly a ridiculously great looking sneaker. Knowing that this is an OG colorway and being able to see Shawn Kemp on cards and watch videos of him in these, makes me want this colorway specifically. All of the retro+ stuff I can take it or leave it because it's nice, but there's no history there. Ultimately what I'm saying is that Reebok could've easily let history sell large numbers of this sneaker, and put a great marketing and hype campaign behind their new retro+ colorways.

TL;DR

Reebok should've made more of these because those retro+ colors are probably going to sit HARD.
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THIS. I couldn't agree more with this comment - the black/red colorway ABSOLUTELY should've been the one to be chosen in a hyperstrike. The only reason the OG colorway was chosen in the end to me is Reebok 1) did not bother to do any market research or 2) flat out wasn't sure about their retro strategy, especially related to release/sales forecast.

After all, Rbk did hold back on the original Kamikaze (which imo is a much more attractive shoe and much more sought after) so that in itself sends plenty of signal about their uncertainty on their own retro strategy.

At the same time, I must admit this "unforeseen" success isn't so counter-intuitive - when your run-of-the-mill Jordan retros (3's 13's 5's or 1's for example) cost $165~185, a pair of $100 decent-looking Reebok retros suddenly look pretty darn attractive.

On top of that, when you can get them at a discount with free taxes/shipping, there's now room to make a quick buck. If it doesn't work out, all you have to do is pay a $10 penalty (and in Rbk.com's case, FREE) to ship them back and recoup that minimal loss in the next limited release.

Inevitably I'm suspecting Rbk will re-release them in the longer time frame although the smart thing to do is to have a 2nd release of this OG colorway. There are only so few models in Rbk's history that may sell in the retro market to be honest - any of the Answers is going to be extremely volatile, as are the Questions. TBD on the Shaqnosis, they've probably got all they could out of the pumps ( w/ Nique and Dee Brown's) so Shawn Kemp's Kamikaze 1 & 2s really ARE somewhat of a silver bullet for Rbk imo.

This means it really was a suboptimal decision if they really are going with just this 1 run for the OG colorway. Now people are just gonna use this "pant-up" momentum and scoop up the black/red colorway with maybe some residual sales going the way of black/white and white/navy (ASGs) and let other GRs sit until they find their home in TJMaxx's across the country.

Not quite sure this is how Rbk would like people to remember about this release nor am I sure this is how they want to make $$$ because they would've learned nothing they don't already know and they have just left a bunch of $$$ on the table...
 
got my conformation from reebok they should be here thursday....
did anyone get there conformation from jj's
im glad i jumped on packers preorder, i knew these were going to sell out, they are geared towards the older cats and the resellers took full advantage of that.
 
jhobson5 said:
Unreal. Ordered my pair off reebok.com yesterday at 8 am. Selected the free ground shipping. They were delivered to me this morning at 9:30 am. I will be ordering a lot more from reebok.com. Never had shipping that fast for free
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:wow: damn
 
I think the lack of stores carrying these has more to do with the stores and less to do with reebok. If you go watch his sneaker watch videos he talks about it and says people need to go to these retailers and let them know there's a demand.
 
jhobson5 said:
Unreal. Ordered my pair off reebok.com yesterday at 8 am. Selected the free ground shipping. They were delivered to me this morning at 9:30 am. I will be ordering a lot more from reebok.com. Never had shipping that fast for free
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You sure those came from Reebok.com? You didn't pre-order a pair anywhere?
 
these fit big...so dissapointed...i bought my normal size 9.5, and they fit like 10s...but overall quality and comfort is outstanding as usual with Reebok
 
I got a size 10 for $102, a free $30.00 shirt when I bought them from YCMC, and I'm getting them on monday. Damn i feel good.
 
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funny story

Me and my boy from Seattle went to Major in DC to cop these and they had a few pair left. Im a 9.5 and he is a 10.5 and he got the last 10.5. So as we are chillin and talkin to the employees in walks in Trinidad James and he goes right for the kamikazes. The employee asks him what size he needs and he says a 10.5. My boy has the last 10.5 LOL...so they tell James that hes out of luck unless my boy doesnt buy them. As i said my friend jsut moved to DC from seattle and there was no way in hell he was giving them up. So we both walked out of there happy as hell while Trinidad James was cussing under his breath haha. But he was cool tho we took some pics with him
 
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