I know it’s easy to say ‘y’all wouldn’t want it if it wasn’t a collab’ and, even though that’s mostly true…I do think there’s a deeper reason for it, and I’m curious as to what that reason might be.
When I was a kid, I really got into rap music. After I scooped up the regular releases, I started diving into some of the more obscure stuff and soon found myself using ‘features’ as the qualifying measure of the quality of something I never heard before. Meaning I’d cop an album from a new rapper based off of the features on that album.
So, for example, if I was on an @e40 kick, I had likely already purchased all of e40’s albums, but was looking for artists that were similar enough that I’d also enjoy. And so I started seeking out albums in which he might be a feature on. And not only was that a great way to build up an extensive catalogue of e40’s blapppps, but it also exposed me to a bunch of new artists I likely wouldn’t have heard of before.
And so, I guess, that’s kind of where we get with the idea of the sneaker collaboration. Because, lord knows, if Nike never collaborated with ____ , we might have never even known that ____ existed, right?
For me, the ‘early days’ of the collaboration really resonated with those ‘unofficial’ Nike SB collaborations…like the Heineken, Carhartt, Homer, Jedi and eBay dunks…we *all* wanted a piece of those…not sure if it was because of the association or more the IYKYK sentiment, but it became clear that the winners from that era were the ones that went just a bit deeper than just ‘a cool color-way’.
I don’t suppose I have an answer for my own question, but I’m curious as to what others think…we all know ‘if I weren’t a collab we wouldn’t want it’, and I think I have a good idea as to what my reasoning is, but I’m curious as to what you think the reasoning is..
(Audio being another one of those artists I never would have heard of (@equipto_415 ) if it weren’t for one of my favorites ever (@officialandrenickatina ))