Kanye – Kickolls

This weekend had a multitude of releases from Nike and Adidas and I’m here to help you keep track!

First off is the Nike/Jerry Lorenzo collaboration. The Air Fear of God 1 “The Question” released on February 28th.

I’m excited to see this shoe released as I’ve been a big fan of the model but not a fan of the bright neon colorways they’ve been releasing. A clean black, grey, and bone is easy to wear with anything.

They’re sold out and resell from $825-$2,000.

Next is the Lebron 17 Low “Tune Squad” released on February 28th.

This pair is a nod to the “Space Jam” sequel starring LeBron James. It’s colored like the jersey’s that Bugs Bunny and his team wear in the first film and has it’s swoosh covered in tufts of hair.

They resell from $205-$240.

From Kanye and Adidas, we have the Yeezy Boost 700 MNVM “Orange”. Released on February 28th.

Yet another Yeezy model, but for this one Kanye had influence. He brought in designers Stephen Smith and Christian Tresser. The orange coloring is unique as well as the reversed “700” across the shoe instead if the three stripes. The shoe was only released in Paris and Los Angeles in select stores.

It resells from $410-$700.

The Travis Scott SB Dunk Low PRM QS “Cactus Jack” released on February 29th.

One of his dozen collaborations with Nike, we get to see his take on the Dunk Low. The cool thing about this shoe is there are two swooshes, one black and one pink. The plaid can also be torn away to reveal elephant print underneath.

The shoe resells from $1,100-$1,350.

Finally is the Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG “Pine Green 2.0”. Released on February 29th.

It’s the colorway of the original Pine Green Air Jordan 1 but the same design as the original Jordan’s from 1985. It’s easy to wear and easy to hoop in.

It resells from $210-$300.

My favorite drop from this weekend is definitely the Air Jordan 1’s. I’m a sucker for them and they have a very wearable colorway. They’re in my size for $220 too so I might just have a pair next time you see me on campus.

As always, this is Robbie telling you to keep your laces tight!

Sneakers in Rap

Rap and sneakers go together better than peanut butter and jelly, Batman and Robin and even french fries and ketchup. There have been songs about shoes for a long time but is started around the 80’s. For this story about the collaboration, I made a playlist of songs that all pay homage to sneaker culture.

Run-DMC’s song “My Adidas” was really the song that started it all. Run-DMC was payed 1 million dollars in 1986 for their song and at the time that was unheard of. It was the first rap song used to advertise shoes and the first ever million dollar endorsement a rap group had ever received.

Jordans didn’t come out until 85′ so for the rest of the 80’s they struggled to fight Adidas’ influence.

In the 90’s once Jordan started to catch up, Sports Illustrated released a magazine titled “Your Sneakers or Your Life” which followed the case of a 15 year old boy murdered for his Jordans along with many other cases of crime similar.

This cut almost all rap and sneaker deals for years. No company wanted to endorse anything that wasn’t squeaky clean. Although the endorsements stopped, sneaker references did not. Hip-Hop has never cared what anyone thought and suddenly it was a lot more taboo to talk about sneakers so that’s what they did.

The 2000’s were the year of the Air Force One. Every shoe wanted to be it. Most shoe designs this decade were low-tops like Reebok who signed Jadakiss and Rakim in 2002. BAPE was also huge his decade. Although it was a huge seller, it eerily resembled the Air Force One lows. Every rapper also had a bar about their outfit which included a basketball jersey, big shorts or bootcut jeans, and Air Force One’s like in Nelly’s song, “Air Force Ones”.

Notice the similar logo, the bottom ridges and the back tab. Other versions of the air force one were even more similar.

The 2010’s were my favorite year for rapper shoes. It started off with Kanye West’s Yeezy line with Nike. In late 2009, Kanye brought everyone out of the Air Force One Era with his shoe, the Air Yeezy. These crushed the market before 2012 when he released the Air Yeezy 2. The 2’s now go for easily over $4,000. He switched to Adidas and made the Yeezy Boost 350 in 2016. These were so popular, not only does every single colorway sell for around $1,500, he’s released close to 20 different Yeezy shoes and since then and they ALL sell out. From there, Drake got his own line of Jordans. Travis Scott now produces with Nike and has had multiple shoes in the last 2 years.

As always, this is Robbie telling you to keep your laces tight!

What’s been your favorite shoe of the decade? As always, this is Robbie reminding you to keep your laces tight!