MentalKicks, Sole-Up (Air Randy), Kicksole, or Marqueesole for Concords - Page 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by FutureDHughes 

Don't know what to believe, seems weird that 2 people, unrelated, would call him out recently...

lol at him pulling out those preset cement ivs...also the paint on those raptors is horrible look at the triangles towards the front the points are all rounded...dude is garbage.

^^^totally agree.

thanks for the insight..Ive been honestly contemplating whether to buy early and save myself grief and sleep over these huge releases. After outweighing the pros and cons i found that atleast the shoes aren't fake.  On the contrast the quality is not up to standard. Now if you wear your Jordans casually(more for style and when you go out) and don't indeed wear them on the ball court then purchasing b grades may be worth it. These flaws sound very minor in terms of how noticable a flaw is from the best quality shoes so on average 1/50 people will notice your shoes are B-grade. 

With all that said its up to you how you treat your shoes. So pick your poison!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SenorRoboto2k5 


I agree that the lines have been pretty blurred for a while. I bought the Flint XIII in '05 from Eastbay, and the things were such LQ that the "leather" toebox was already creased just from being positioned in the box. And I know damn well JB hasn't stepped up their quality standards since then. So if it's shoddy quality you're worried about, it's not like you can worry much less buying from Footlocker. The shoes will be "shoddy" either way, just some (off-shape XI retros) more than others. I'm sure there's holes in my view but that's what I think.
As for MentalKicks, KickSole, etc. websites:
It sounds like they get their shoes from a variety of ways. It's some combination of: paying off factories to produce extra pairs, stealing them, nabbing pairs that didn't pass QC, nabbing early production pairs, etc. More or less they're made in the same factories with the same materials by the same people, but the different ways of acquring them mean different levels of quality.
So you can draw a pair that is exactly like you'd find in Footlocker (they were probably stolen or shady extras made and sold off)
Or you can draw a pair where the shape is slightly off and other details are subpar (they were probably early production pairs or didn't pass quality control)

100% agreed.  

Now as for the issue of authentic vs. fake, it really depends on what your definition is.  

In regards to all the tangible aspects of the shoe, they are essentially of the same flesh and blood as an authentic pair (for those made in the same factories as authentic pairs that is)

If you have a shoe that uses the exact same materials and is constructed in the exact same factory, with the only difference being that the shoes weren't authorized to be manufactured by Nike, then is the shoe truly fake?  

Now I'm not really sure how the aforementioned "shady" websites work, but notice that there are absolutely no colorways in their inventory aside from authentic ones.  More often than not, we get early release pictures from those websites and get a general idea of what the actual product on release day is like (i.e. Marqueesole).  

I have never Bought or condone buying fakes , but right now you people sound like fools. First of all all sneaker websites hype beast,sneaker news, amongst others use pictures from these guys or other oversea companies. second the reasons for claiming they are fake is because of quality? really , Ive seen pairs personally from footlocker,champs and other stores with mold and sloppy paint. Another point is to make judgment on these guys or the closet collector without being an expert is irresponsible. I say until Nike or Jordan Brand say in bold letters that they are fake than these opinions are just that "OPINIONS". Lastly every industry has a black market whether its stolen or what not why are you guys using the price point as a reason for them to be fake when all these shoes cost pennies on the dollar to make and the reason why everyone cant buy from overseas is because of the hassle with customs and shipping. So to the guys that received pairs and had bad experiences your one of many that have dealt with that but it could of happened to you in a footlocker , champs or w.e , the prices you pay on the market are due to demand so if their shoes are priced lower guess what they are still making a killing because they get these shoes at pennies on the dollar. Ask your Local retailer with NIKE ACCOUNTS how much they pay (50% off at least) and your mom and pops stores buy from middle men. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by calikush 

^^^Fake is fake. Fake can't be sort of, kind-of, almost real

Well perhaps.  But let's take a MacBook for example.  So you have the regular MacBook with Apple's authorization to be manufactured.  Then you have a MacBook that was illegally made, but using the exact same parts and manufacturing process and is identical to the "authentic" laptop.  

The only thing separating the "authentic" laptop from the "fake" laptop is something intangible.  They both function the exact same way, look exactly the same, made of the exact same materials, and made from the same factory.  If you were to put that gray market unit in the inventory of a major retailer, nobody would proclaim "ah, that's definitely 'fake' "

In regards to the shoes, I'm aware that there are have been some stark differences between the gray market pairs and fully authentic pairs from major retailers.  

On the flipside, as already stated before, there are "authentic" pairs that would be bashed as fake if they were sold in the gray market stores, and "fake" pairs that would be praised as undisputedly authentic if they were sold in a major retailer.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by calikush 

^^^Fake is fake. Fake can't be sort of, kind-of, almost real

da only thing "fake" is da channels of distribution.

if da kicks are stolen from da factory, or illegal over runs are made they it doesn't make a sneaker fake.

once again i will say you guys are fools, if a store like FLIGHT CLUB WONT TAKE THEM its because they are STOLEN GOODS. and if I'm not mistaken they have a Nike account of some sort. also the guys at nice kicks has a store of his own so its a conflict of interest, he is denouncing a supplier because he is disappointed with the pair HE received. Like i said before unless Nike or Jordan come out and publicly state this all i hear is noise. BTW in no way do i promote or condone buying fakes, i have been buying sneakers for quite sometime , to end the headaches of camping i buy designer shoes. These shoes aren't fake because they have a few flaws or aren't certified by Nike I CLEARLY STATED IN ALL INDUSTRIES THERE IS A BLACK MARKET AND WITH SNEAKERS WE ALL SEE IT.

P.S : Don't we all ***** about quality because of flaws with the sneakers? whether its over glued or painted poorly or poorly stitched. ive personally bought pairs out of footlocker with flaws. understand that establishments like flight club also don't mess with them because of the risk of the poor quality of the shoes sometimes which poorly reflect on the store. These guys aka Air-Randy take a chance and at times the merchandise is poor and instead of throwing the pairs away that they bought they sell it to customers. At the end of the day its like downloading music for free people in the music industry frown upon it but its still THE SAME music.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LimitedRetroOG 

What extra parts under the soles did the restocked SJs have?

apparently they used extra spare pieces from cool grey XI's under da sole, and cobbled together a pretty decent size run of "grey market" space jams.

i wonder what happened to most of em, i know they STILL had a full size run when slam dunk space took em off online, joints were probably re-distributed somewhere

where da heat wasn't on em.

to be honest, i aint really have a problem with em since they're all made of real materials..but if they were "after hour" runs, appropriate measures should've

taken place to have full disclosure of da situation.