The Sneaker Savant

Always remember - there is money in chaos 😂

Shortly before the @warrenlotas x @jeffstaple debacle...the pics on top came through my social media account in China... comparison pics

From what I’ve heard - a few well known fake manufacturers in China have purchased the last remaining pairs of deadstock dunk SBs from the early 2000’s on @stockx for those absurd asking prices…$24k Paris’...$5k Heinekens’...etc. Why? So they could deconstruct and recreate them to exact specifications that Nike built them with. What’s $5k to a dude who is going to make a couple thousand pairs and sell them for $150 each? Easy flip.

If you’re one of those guys holding onto your pairs in hopes that Nike is going to ‘protect the legacy’, I wish you luck.

Again - I feel like a broken record. There is no ‘protecting the legacy’ if Nike is just going to sit back and pretend the demand for these mythical pairs doesn’t exist. The demand for these pairs existed 15 years ago in a MUCH smaller marketplace and that demand has increased at least 100x since then. The demand isn’t going to go away.

What’s that saying? ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.’ I have no vested interest in what Warren Lotas does or doesn’t do. Call his shoes whatever you will - ‘reps’, ‘unoriginal’, ‘cheap copies’, (I call them ‘tributes’) - just know that whatever he is doing is ‘protecting the legacy’ more than Nike is. He’s not deconstructing nor hoarding existing pairs. He’s not flooding the market with fakes. He’s not limiting his release numbers. He’s not trying to pull one over on anyone. If anything - the price and demand for these grails is going to INCREASE. While the rest of the people who want to wear these shoes are wearing Lotas’, those who have the original Nike releases are going to STILL be sitting on a mint.

If Nike intends on ‘protecting the legacy’ of these highly desired pairs, they need to do more than ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.