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

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LBCOL said:
(most of) the people who actually care enough to put in the effort got them, personally I missed out on them because I had to work but I never thought of going to any of these websites. I got mine off of my local CL for $320. The moral of the story is that you should be on top of these releases before they happen. Don't wait until you see all of the hype on ESPN then decide that you want the shoe
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You do know that there are places where you have to run, right? In a case like that, no matter how early you arrive, your chances are pretty slim if there are hundreds of people there.
 
By the way, I honestly wouldn't mind buying a certified pair of B-grades with a B stamp on the tag, at all. I would even say that those have higher quality than early release pairs because Nike would put a B stamp on a shoe with the smallest flaws; they might not even be noticeable.
 
FutureDHughes said:
TCC has put an updated video addressing the guy above.
It has begun...
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and he's full of crap. I only watched part of the video, but when he pulls the bred 4s out you can see his fingers right through the paper and what's funny is he goes "ahhh" like he was about to mention the paper and use that as a point, but he stopped because all it did was prove exactly what everyone was saying about the paper being fake. I don't doubt dude has some good connections when it comes to PE's and what not, because I'm pretty sure he works at solefly, or at least knows someone there, but his connections damn sure are not good enough to get LEGIT full size runs of shoes directly from JORDAN BRAND months in advance. No one has those types of connections. It's hilarious how he keeps pulling shoes out the box to show the size sticker, but none of that changes the face that dudes pair didn't have it and had all types of problems.

and here's a youtube comment he made

"$200-$210 try to keep it as low as possible but remember i pay over retail to get these shoes

blacksanta24 in reply to myjsarefly 3 days ago 4"

So how many sneaker dealers do you know that pay over retail price for sneakers to sell? Last time I checked Nike doesn't charge sticker price to retailers.

It has been proven NUMEROUS times that these factories make whatever they want. Do people not remember the Space Jam restocks two years later? Take those shoes to Flight Club and see what they say. They wouldn't be caught dead with those.
 
can anyone enlighten me on the early release boxes situation? are the boxes for early release typically smaller or sumthn? or should they indeed be the same sz box as others boxes with the same sz shoe
 
Again it could vary. They could be different sizes or a completely different box because those things are probably produced way closer to the release date. Or, they could be in a different box because the shoes were acquired illegitimately sans a box.
 
wtf, $175 retail for spizikes?

Speaking of mental kicks, they have almost a FSR of Space Jams. I really want to pull the trigger to see what these actually look like.
 
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Say what you will about resellers but id rather buy a pair of them over all of these shady over seas early release sites....easily.
 
FutureDHughes said:
Don't know what to believe, seems weird that 2 people, unrelated, would call him out recently...
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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.
 
If you don't know by now, STAY AWAY from all of those sites.

I bought a pair of concord XI's from marqueesole.com and the quality on them was trash.

Huge creases/wrinkles on the patent leather, yellowed mesh/lace loops, glue stains and the overall shape/look of the shoes were off.

These were the only pair of early release shoes that I have ever bought, waste of $350. I bought them because the concord XI is my fav. shoe of all time and I don't have time to stand in line on release day, so I said what the hell....never again. Ended up getting 2 pairs from eastbay.com on the night of the release and compared them to the kicks from marqueesole.com, its like a night and day. Don't trust any of those websites! :smh:

oh and this dude "the closet collector" just REEKS of shadiness. I wouldn't trust him with any of my money.

FSR's of a shoe that dropped 2 years ago should be a huge red flag.
 
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!
 
SenorRoboto2k5 said:
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)
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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. 
 
Manny24 said:
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. 
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Nah, we're saying fake because they don't always use the same materials and they have differences. If they were identical, you should be able to take the to flight club and have them sell them for you. Flight club won't touch these shoes with a 10 foot pole. Plenty of these shoes have had different boxes, different leathers, different shapes, wrong production dates, and I could go on. People forget that this all came to light after a hand full of these sites restocked space jams last winter and a guy took them to flight club to sell and as soon as he put the box on the counter the told him they were fake. I'm not going to go into full details, but if you find the old concord thread from last year and go back to the posts from about this same time last year you'll see pics and videos about it. As far as the blogs go, they post these pics because essentially they have to. If they don't post it, someone will and they will lose the traffic. Matt from nicekicks and the owner of sneakernews were on the osd live podcast talking about this months ago. Matt from nicekicks even said he dissected a pair of early release playoff 8s years ago and he knew something wasn't right. He said they've struggled internally on whether or not to post these pics from these sites for a long time.
 
Mental Kicks has to be fake. I know it was a real ebay seller once upon a time, but where the **** do they keep getting these restocks. I checked their site a million times in a three month period earlier this year/late last year. The IIIs would sell out, then they would have a full size run a few days later. On top of that you will be paying over $300 after you factor in customs fees. At that point you might as well go on eBay.
 
calikush said:
^^^Fake is fake. Fake can't be sort of, kind-of, almost real
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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.  
 
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calikush said:
^^^Fake is fake. Fake can't be sort of, kind-of, almost real
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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.
 
ninjahood said:
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.
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More power to you. Just be weary if you decide to resell the fakes, if the buyer can prove you sold them fakes they can legally keep your shoes(they must destroy them) and they'll get their refund back.
 
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