I’ve always loved Nike’s ‘What the’ concept - mismatched shoes have always been my shit...I’ll post a pic later proving to you that I been ‘bout it, ‘bout it.    As for today’s ‘sneaker of the centur

I’ve always loved Nike’s ‘What the’ concept - mismatched shoes have always been my shit...I’ll post a pic later proving to you that I been ‘bout it, ‘bout it. 
 
As for today’s ‘sneaker of the century of the week’, I won’t lie and say I’m some big P-Rod fan...I owned the Mexican Blankets and I NEVER wore them...but I can appreciate the heritage. If I saw these like 15 years ago, I would have probably sat there for a few minutes looking at them...trying to figure out a strategy for getting my hands on them. 5 years ago I might have tried if there were a NDC release. But now that it’s 2021 I just scroll right on by. A dope shoe, sure, but with only 8.5k pairs produced, what’s the point of even pretending they exist? It’s like staring at pics of @badgalriri or @beyonce or @ecambage or any number of celebrity babes I’ll never date. Just a waste of time and energy.  
 
Earlier, I came across these pics of some incredible fakes (swipe) and...shit...this is where my mind breaks. Because as soon as I saw those fakes, I thought ‘I should share these pics with EVERYONE who is steadily bitching on my timeline about the absurdity of this whole thing.’ 
 
<rant>At this point - I’ve probably seen more pics of these shoes than Nike even bothered to produce. And that tells me that they know exactly what they’re doing. They’re purposefully selling us the hope of ownership of a product that most people will never even see in person. They’re dangling these shoes in front of us...and...again...you want me to respect that? Nah, I’m brainwashed but I’m not THAT brainwashed. How exactly do I ‘pay homage’ to the ‘designers’ or ‘culture’ when my neurosis for sneaker consumption has been hijacked? </rant> 
 
As a collector, you just have to accept that’s how it works. But as a commodity, what they’re asking us to do is borderline insulting. We are somewhere in the middle. If we’re to believe Nike at their word - their value prop being ‘accessibility, innovation, customization and brand/status’ - I’d say that ‘accessibility’ and ‘brand’ really don’t line up. Where do you stand?