In the interest of keeping things kind of palpable (and interesting), let’s look at a few more numbers.
(The following section might be slightly inaccurate. In order to find what I was looking for, I simply typed the term in the search bar on GOAT - I didn’t account for the differences between mens, womens, kids models, etc.)
The other day, an old shop owner wanted me to swing by to look through his inventory to see if there was anything I thought I could move for him…the first box of shoes I pulled off the shelf had nothing but Lebron & KD sig’s. Each of which I figured I could get about $35/pair for. Quite a departure from the $150-$210 retail of each. (Yea, I know, StockX shows that DS pairs are selling for $200+. I call bullshit. Market manipulation is REAL in these streets. I’ve heard that potential sellers put up a full size run without actually owning any and if any sell then run around trying to scoop up the pair that sold in order to fulfill the transaction - manipulation at the very least.) Go to any consignment shop in America - they aren’t moving ANY pairs of Brons or KDs for $200+. Matter of fact, if you bring them 99% of just about any Bron or KD sig with prices like that, they’ll likely laugh you out the door.
Has any pair of signatures athletes’ shoes aged worse than the KD 7? I mean, who is buying this stuff?
So…sigs….all these dudes in the NBA with signature shoe deals. It’s become a bit much. They are creating so many different models and versions of these shoes that none of them mean anything to anyone anymore. Can anyone pinpoint the shoe that KD sank the Cavs with? Can anyone pinpoint the shoe that Kyrie sank the Warriors with? Can anyone name the shoe that Bron Bron was wearing when he pinned Iggy? If you can, I commend you. But I don’t even know what MODEL they were wearing, let alone the colorway. To put this into further perspective:
GOAT shows that Bron Bron had 120 different colorways of the Lebron 18 (that’s like 1.5 colorways per regular-season game). And that doesn’t even include the take-down models (ie: Soldier’s, Witness’s, ).
GOAT shows that Kyrie had 179 colorways of the Kyrie 7. Kyrie could change his shoes into a new colorway at halftime of every single game of the season (and EVEN into the finals) and still not get every single colorway on his feet!
As if anyone in the world cares - GOAT shows 83 colorways of the PG 4 (enough for a different colorway for every regular-season game and ONE playoff game - kind of ironic if you know anything about Paul George’s history in the playoffs).
And KD had 73 colorways for the KD 13. THAT’S MORE THAN DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF GAMES KD PLAYED IN FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON!
A couple of non-Nike athletes:
Damian Lilliard had 101 different colorways of the Adidas Dame 7
In a more modest offering - Under Armour released (only) 33 colorways of the Curry 8…and…I dunno about Anta and Klay. Anta and Klay seem to have a much bigger following in China than they do out here and I can’t find any reliable information on them.
We haven’t really even touched on the most popular shoes out there - Retro Jordans - I have a feeling I could talk about those for hours. So…we’ll ignore those for now.
I was a bit surprised to learn that Reebok has released only about 200 different colorways of ‘The Question’, considering it seems it’s the only shoe in its ‘retro’ arsenal.
And to dig even deeper…from ball players to rappers…what about Yeezy 350 V2’s? The first pair of V2’s dropped in late 2016 and they’ve dropped 118 colorways of that shoe in the past 5 years. And half of them look the exact same. That’s approximately 24 pairs a year. That’s 2 pairs per month.
And what about Virgil Abloh? In my head there’s like a good ten memorable Off-White x Nike shoes (still, only a couple that’d I’d actually wear). In doing a bit of research for this article, I found this one where ya boy Matt Welty ranks more than 60 Off-White x Nike sneakers from his personal best (which I agree with) to his personal worst (I’d say like #11+ can all be considered the ‘worst’). Off-White and Nike have officially collaborated on more than 100 shoes since 2017. 100+ shoes in 3 years! That’s almost 3 per month!
How many different versions of the Jordan XVIII came out in 2003? Five.
How many different versions of the Lebron I came out in 2003? Eight.
How does that stack up to 2020? We just listed more than 750 different versions of roughly 10 signature shoes. When did things go off the rails?
To be continued…