What’s up blogosphere! It’s your friendly neighborhood Othello a.k.a Ari “40 oz. Gold” back with another entry. The last time we last met, I was talking about sneakers and the rap game. I would like to continue talking about sneakers and in particular about Nike. The Nike Brand for the past few years have been fascinated with the whole concept of the Hybrid. They would combine shoes like a Jordan V with a Nike Air Force One. But Nike has this problem with a fresh idea…..they completely go overboard with it. They have been so Hybrid crazy, that many loyal sneaker fans have been showing their disgust. I’ve read many articles and blogs complaining about the design of these sneakers. When will this Sneaker-gene-splicing stop?
The first couple of Nike hybrids were cool. The first Hybrid I could remember was the Nike Air Max 90/360 pack. It combined the sole of the AM 360 with the entire AM 90. The concept was pretty cool and it wasn’t too harsh on the eyes. The Dub Zero and Spiz’ike dropped from Jordan soon after that and had mixed feelings from sneaker heads (personally, I only liked and bought the Spiz’ikes.) This was the turning point of the Hybrid fad. A million different combinations were being released by Nike every other week. IT WAS AND STILL IS HORRIBLE! It truly is a waste of materials and labor hours from Nike. Why not come up with a new design? Why so many combinations of shoes? Who is actually buying the majority of these shoes?
I can’t speak for all sneaker heads or Nike consumers, but this is just my extremely STRONG opinion. I just hate seeing a brand that I’ve fallen in love with disintegrate at the hands of a bunch of greedy and lazy designers. These hybrids are almost a play on our emotions. They won’t release another cement Jordan III but come up with the hybrid. Do we buy these shoes because they remind us of another shoe we love but can’t obtain? Perhaps this is the main reason why these kicks are still doing so well.
What should be done? That answer I don’t think anyone can give. But I believe Nike needs to seriously address these issues because the Hybrid fad can only last for so long. The sad thing is a lot of great NEW shoes have been released that I feel are being overshadowed by these hybrids. I’m sure we pay attention to these shoes, but the way Nike has its display set-up in these stores are distracted by the Hybrids. Blame it on marketing, blame it on greed or simply blame it on a company that has trouble reinventing itself. All I can say is, as a loyal Nike Consumer, I am less compelled to give them my money these days, now more than ever.
