Why would you pay 2X retail if you could get them for retail on taobao? cut out the middle man.
Again I am speaking from the pairs that I have personally come across, especially the grey market pairs in general. If you notice I also said in my post I do not know where the stamp is done and what it means. If it is a quality control stamp that comes after the shoes have been shipped to the US then that would mean that early release pairs are in the shipment with the Us pairs and somehow smuggled off to be sold early which has no ounce of truth. If this stamp is done while overseas then it is possible it can be inside the boxes of early release and grey market pairs.
as it has been said in this thread multiple times u can tell the difference, its just sometimes you would need an authentic pair right next to you in order to do so, dont take the crap that ninja keeps feeding you, it'll cloud your judgement
should have bought red foams on RD SMH. Now im basically screwed unless i buy from that guy newyorkcompany on ebay lol
lol i do make my own judgements. I've purchased Space Jams and Concords grey market pairs so I know how they look and feel. I have experience dealing with taobao vendors and I can tell you right now, if I didn't tell you where I bought them from, you'd never know.
do u then, rock fakes, but it aint for me. Same **** goes for LV bags, some of the fakes are pretty close to the real thing, but once again they are fake. Even though 99% of the general population wouldnt be able to identify the difference between a 200 dollar fake louie bag and the real thing, it doesnt make it real, even if they used the same materials.
It doesn't? So what are YOU paying $200 for then? Nike's approval? So some schmo gives it a thumbs up and it keeps moving down the assembly line...big deal. I wear and buy sneakers because I like how they look not based on who authorized them. Nike doesn't give a **** about you. Why should you care about them? But keep living in your little bubble. You wanna sell your soul for Space Jams or any other "grail" be my guest.
Did you have an opportunity to compare them against retail pairs?
I did plenty of homework. I didn't just dive in with reckless abandon and order any old pair i saw. I looked on youtube for unsolicited reviews. Could hundreds of people really be lying? I learned what to look for. I learned the DIFFERENCE between high quality aka AAA replicas/fakes and actual unauthorized "grey market" pairs. (Because there is a huge difference). Then I said, what the hell. If I get screwed and lose my money....if I end up with a bogus shoe, it's a lesson learned. But hey guess what, ended up being the best purchase I ever made online. Saves me money. Saves me time. Saves me stress. Those three things are more important to me than Nike's half-***ed approval process.
FTFY
This is exactly how i feel. ive been fortunate enough to buy all of my 11s for retail at retail stores since the original retail release space jams all the way up to the breds from this year so i dont own a pair of grey market kicks. but im not saying i wouldnt buy a pair. aside from the sole that "look too icey" (as if this is a bad thing) what are you guys using to tell the difference between the shoes? 23 alignment? patent leather cut? lace loops? I shouldnt have to mention that no 2 shoes look exactly a like so is everyones reference of comparison flawed to begin with? of course there are some pairs that look "worse" than others but how is that unlike retail pairs with b-grades? ive seen some retail b grades (pics and in person) that would make you run away in the other direction shouting for your money back. to even take it a step further ive gone on ebay and compared advertised as DS pairs of concords both with yellowing and grey market icy blue soles to be honest aside from the sole theyre indistinguishable dont believe me? below are 4 separate pairs of concords. I wont say which, but by niketalks "standards" 1 or more of the pairs are retail and one or more of the pairs are grey market. ALL of the shoes have flaws, but youre going to tell me that one or more of theses is worth $200 over retail because it was authorized by nike? ive actually held a grey market pair and compared to my retail pairs and if theyre wasnt a size difference and fresher sole i wouldnt be able to tell them apart. you can call them fake you can call them whatever but I for one am not gonna knock people for buying shoes that look exactly like mine if theyre not authorized. hell ill give them props cause they got the same shoe as me months later for the same price i paid for mine with out all of the hassle of cyber camping or camping out at the actual store.
just seems like madam and ninja hood keep getting attacked when theyre the only ones offering any kind of physical evidence to the actual product/shoe. like i said i dont own any grey market 11s but i do know my way around a retail pairs, ive got 8 pairs ranging from the years 2000-2012 all retail and ive also seen a grey market pair (concords) in person, they look and feel just like my pairs.
I was just asking did you have a retail pair to compare them too since I saw another poster who stated that they looked identical until he compared them with an authentic pair. As far as Nike's approval goes, it's peace of mind against defects and changes of mind. You can always get your money back. If you really feel that they 'don't give a f about you and you don't give a f about them' buying non-authentic "authentic" products is not exactly sticking it to the man...jus' sayin.
I dont know about you but nike's approval doesnt guarantee you a flawless pair of kicks. my first pair of cool grey 11s from the most recent release was far from perfect. the lace loops didnt line up across both shoes so when laced up it looked like laces were at different angles. these were given nikes approval because i got them from finishline on release day. with the way these shoes are mass produced youve still got to cross your fingers that the pair you get is acceptable.
like i said, they're coming....its gonna get to da point where if you dont have a receipt you'll never know for sure when you purchase
sneakers online.
welcome to da new normal.
well I can't speak for those because I dont own retail pairs of them. but 11s, I can speak for. And I can say with out a doubt that the grey market pair i held in my hand looked and felt just my retail pairs and from the pics i posted earlier, I have no reason to believe that grey market pairs arent like retail pairs, variations and all, b-grades included.
