Obviously our whole concept of a ‘signature sneaker’ comes from MJ and how they rolled out the Jordan line…even though most of his signature sneakers DIDN’T release at the beginning of the NBA season (for some reason I feel like February was a big month for debuts), we still kind of expected J’s to drop according to the NBA calendar.
That set the precedent, and a lot of Nikes athletes have followed that same format - each signature athlete gets a new signature shoe every new season…right? Or…maybe not? Seems like when you name each shoe with a numerical suffix, seasons would make sense…right?
I think it’s interesting to watch the way the AE1 is rolling out…it initially dropped in December of 2023 and they’re telling us the AE2 will get here around October of 2024. Almost 2 full years. Which, I kinda like. Because everyone likes to say ‘(these companies) need to get better designers so they can drop more classics’ and I’m always like ‘imo classics don’t become classics overnight’.
I think anything hitting the cultural zeitgeist needs time to marinate, time to settle, time to fit in. I think it’s a much better scenario for something to settle in over time than it is for it to hit the races off the bat. Besides a few exceptions, almost anything that has staying power seems to have had a slow start…and that’s ok.
I like what adidas is doing with the AE2…it seems they’re waiting and they’re not rushing into our conventional idea of ‘putting something on the table’ according to some vague timeline…they’re letting things simmer before moving first. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get everyone else to start doing something like that?