Is NIKE RUNning out of ideas?

Nike x WTF?
(RANT WARNING)

I’m really getting tired of all of these Hybrid kicks that seem to drop like every other day. Every sneaker name is something like “Nike Air Max 95 x Air Max 360” or some other odd mash-up. NIKE can’t come up with anything new/better? Don’t get me wrong , I know NIKE is still making new designs for their their other markets, like Performance Basketball, Track, etc. so I’m mainly referring to their casual/Sport Culture markets. I have to admit that I really would like to get back into the sneaker game, but nothing but crap has been coming out for the last 10+ months. Just look at how wack some of these joints are:
Nike Air Max 95 x Air Max 360 x Halloween?Nike Air Wildwood x Huarache x DunkNike Air Max 95 x Air Max 360 x WTFCourt Force x Neon Air Max 95Air Trainer Huarache / Air Max 360Air Jordan XII x Air Force 1

Even Jordans are coming out with Hybrids of its sneakers for instance the Jordan 14.5 which is a medium of the 14’s and the 15’s. GARBAGE. And even the Kanye’s (whch I love) seem to have the sole from the Jordan 3’s.
Jordan 14 x 15

I don’t know if its just NIKE getting lazy or if they are really just trying to capitalize on the culture, but either way this seems like they’re running out of ideas. I guess it started with the retro movement of the early 2000s. All of those shoes that we had back in the 80s / 90s came back and people really dug in and loved it. But now it’s like their vault is almost empty and instead of creating new classics(oxymoron) they’re creating bastardizations of their original classics. I mean, 10 years from now (which seems to be the retro cycle) who’s really going to be wearing a Nike Air Retro x Retro x Retro sneaker. Not I. So I’m really hoping that NIKE puts on their thinking caps soon — this is really getting ridiculous.

Actually, I will probably just grow out of the sneaker game in 10 years which makes this post totally useless. Dah well — a rant is a rant.

Also, I hate that nike.com is all Flash.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Wear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  1. Gureala

    You hit the nail on the head: their capitalizing on the culture.

    I haven’t seen a knockout, non-retro Nike shoe in a minute, and that’s pretty sad. I actually feel bad for a lot of the kids growing up these day. They don’t have too many landmark, signature shoes to choose from like we did as kids in the 90’s. No shoe identity whatsoever.

    I hope that Nike gets the ball rolling soon. but then again, its gonna be pretty hard to ween folks off of their regular diet of retros and onto more original designs…like the Air Kanye’s! lol. all jokes aside, I actually think he could produce a decent signature shoe for Nike. seriously.

  2. Allan Cole

    Yeah man, It’s like the kids today have nothing nostalgic to hold on to. Their nostalgia WAS our old nostalgia. It SUCKS. Yeah I agree Kanye’s no Tinker Hatfield, but I feel like his style could definitely bring something new to the NIKE table. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

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