Instyleshoes "Give Back 14" : 14 Year Anniversary & Give Back to Niketalk

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Hi All, We recently discovered that October 17th, 2000 is when the original Instyleshoes (ISS) website officially launched. In the time that our team has been in charge of running the site (since 2010), one of the most memorable & awesome things that has happened is that we got an email from the Niketalk Staff inviting us to be sponsors here. After a few phone calls and emails, we have been here on NT as a Sponsor since July 2013.

We wanted to acknowledge this 14th Anniversary of ISS with a "Give Back 14" Program that we will donate $14 for every sale on our site for the rest of October to Niketalk initiatives. This is in addition to the percent of every sale on our site that we already put towards Niketalk initiatives.

As many of you know, Niketalk has done an INCREDIBLE job over the years raising awareness and donating to many causes. Look for an update in the coming months of what NT has been up to, and all we can say now is that we are Honored to be a part of it. Check out the Charity Tab up top in the Nav if you weren't aware of what NT has done and continuing to do.

As for ISS, we are Honored to be here and will continue to work with NT & it's initiatives.

Thanks!

Tom
Instyleshoes
Instagram : @instyleshoes1999

Ahh, ok.

It still just seems so wrong to me lol...

CelticsPride34 said:

It still just seems so wrong to me lol...

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Why is that?

-ISS

INSTAGRAM : @instyleshoes1999

Whatever happened to Steve?

INSTYLESHOES said:

CelticsPride34 said:

It still just seems so wrong to me lol...

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Why is that?

-ISS

INSTAGRAM : @instyleshoes1999

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It's mostly sarcasm... I've been on NT so long, when I see the acronym ISS... I think enemy lol...

i remember when I used to buy kicks at Instyleshoes for close to retail. might as well buy from ebay with the prices you sell kicks for now. smh

$14 bucks doe

.

I'll wait for Meth to say what the deal is.

unlike the rest of these comments, i appreciate what you are doing greatly instyleshoes

props

sup, my suit's too big.

Zyzz said:

unlike the rest of these comments, i appreciate what you are doing greatly instyleshoes

props

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Didn't mean to sidetrack the conversation; I appreciate it as well.

donpoppa said:

JohnnyRedStorm said:

sup, my suit's too big.

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One of my favorite threads ever thanks b needed that pic on my macbook.

Damn still a lot of animosity


BTW ISS is that way ---->

Seeing the responses in here makes me really want to question the age and maturity level of the posters in this thread…

The "ISS" that NT had differences with a decade ago is not the same "ISS" now. Steve and his entire staff are gone and have absolutely nothing to do with the new "ISS"

NT has always given back whether it was donating money to rebuild after an earthquake, building schools and other places and have always been praised for it..

Instyleshoes.com is donating 14.00 for every sale for the entire month of October to NT projects like mentioned above…

What that means is instyleshoes will be donating thousands of dollars to help the less fortunate and partner up with Niketalk to give back, which is something I have not seen many other people, stores, resellers, etc doing.

But the replies here seem to want to attack prices and reference the old iss which has nothing to do with the iss of today… Please grow up.

And for the poster above who is laughing at the 14.00 for each sale being donated, I'm daring you or better yet challenging you to match the donation.

Honestly, we get it. We get how NT feels towards the previous management. That's one of the reasons we are here....front and center, trying to contribute in a positive way.

Thanks to those that see it and are supporting us.

And we ask those that want to hold our company name against us to keep an open mind and see that we are contributing a good amount of money, of our own choice, to help support this forum and it's initiatives.

Thanks

-ISS

INSTAGRAM : @instyleshoes1999

For the record... I have absolutely no ill will against the new management... It's still just the initial reaction I have to the name of the company...

Niketalk (despite exceptions) is the G.O.A.T.

If niketalk had an official store and replaced yall staff maybe iss would be it....lowered prices?



wheres bastich?

get out of here ISS and take Ksteezy with you!

j/k.

Diego said:

I'll wait for Meth to say what the deal is.

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It's legit.  

Listen, it's no secret that I was never a fan of ISS' old owner.  Most of our OG members remember what he was about and how he conducted himself.  

Years ago, that business, which people here consider a single entity, was actually split up into two pieces:  the content piece (which was later sold to Complex), and the store piece, which, I believe, was sold to the owner of uptempoair.  (Correct me if I'm wrong on that point.)  

The store, instyleshoes, has been under new management and completely separate from the old owner for years now.  It's not connected to the tacky NikeTalk clone founded out of petty spite.  It's not connected to the shill content farm.  It's a shoe store that deals exclusively in authentic products. 

Now, as you guys know, Huddler handles advertising and sponsorship opportunities for us since our transition.  They reached out to ISS because they knew that ISS could be trusted to sell only authentic products, which made them a trustworthy sponsor.  As the deal progressed, I was asked if there would be any problem, given our contentious history with the former owner.  

The current manager, Tom, has been a NikeTalk member for years.  He was not part of the old regime.  It made no sense to hold the actions of the old owner against the current group.  So, if we could just get past the name, what we actually had was an opportunity to work with an actual NikeTalk member to build a true win/win for all involved.

When we first decided to run ads on the site to help us cover our spiraling costs, one of the things we always wanted to do was to use that opportunity to give back to charity AND to give back to our community members in the form of contests and giveaways. 

Thus far, ISS has been our most generous partner on both of those fronts. 

Last year, ISS gave away a $500 gift card as part of our contest to rename Washington's pro football team.  (My favorite contest/promotion we've ever done.)  They also gave away a pair of denim LeBron X's.

Earlier this summer, they gave away a pair of Jordan III's.  Right now, there's a contest up for a pair of Air Jordan XIIIs:  http://niketalk.com/t/608827/enter-to-win-a-pair-of-barons-air-jordan-13-from-instyleshoes

On top of that - and in addition to the standard sponsorship deal - ISS pledged to give 1% of their sales to NikeTalk's charitable initiatives.  

This past December, as some may recall, we donated $35,000 to Room to Read and targeted that money to support education programs in South Africa in honor of Nelson Mandela (more details on that soon.)  ISS followed up by giving 1% of their sales last year to Room to Read in an unrestricted donation. 

Now, for the cynics out there, I was in touch with a corporate/foundation relations associate with Room to Read while we were setting all of this up (I'm in touch with them pretty regularly, given our annual contributions), and they confirmed for me that the donation was received.  They were thrilled.  This amounted to thousands of extra dollars supporting Room to Read's comprehensive literacy programs around the world.   

Think about what ISS was even five years ago.  Think about the mentality of that business.  Not only is this a huge turnaround for ISS, I'd like to think it raises the bar for what we should all hope and expect out of this industry.  

When you've seen the vague "A portion of the proceeds from the purchase of Jordan products support educational initiatives", do you know what that portion is?  It sounds like a percentage, doesn't it?  Yet, from its onset, I believe that they set aside $1 million each year, which they'd disburse in the form of $2,500 block grants to various applicants.  In other words, whether they sold $100 million in products or $100 billion in products, the result would always be the same:  $1 million.  It's a lot of money, and I hope it's gone on to great use, but for a company that makes as much as they do, they aren't exactly giving until it hurts.  

For ISS to give 1% to charity is a big step forward - and $14 per purchase is more generous still.  So, you're free to thumb your nose at it, but how many businesses - especially in this sector - can honestly claim to be doing better?  

From the beginning, we've wanted our community to stand for something positive.  We wanted to influence the industry - and not just in terms of which shoes would be released.  This platform gives us all a voice, and there's strength in our numbers.  We can and should aspire to do something meaningful with both.

Improving social responsibility in this sector is something we'd love to be associated with.  

Why dont you just donate some money tom?

Bread is to b broken

Let me be the first to rep Meth on another informational post. Insert therockclapping.gif

I'm with it. Don't really buy kicks no more but thanks for contributing to my all time favorite site on the net.