🎾 OFFICIAL AGASSI RETRO THREAD - ATC II 2024 Hot Lava and 2025 Pink Racer🎾

Noto said:
It's because the line isn't hip with Nikes core demographic anymore. They can't sell ATCIIs on the premise of them having "the Yeezy midsole!" anymore, lol.
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A lot of the younger generations somehow may not know about it but there are so many other of his shoes that are classics as well. They obviously won't bring the hype that a Jordan shoe does but it definitely did back in the day. They made so many II which was awesome but they could have spread it out more and made some hother models. This thread has been asking for the 1's and marina IV's over and over. We couldn't even get a release of the IV's in the US.
 
kb24strikesagain said:
A lot of the younger generations somehow may not know about it but there are so many other of his shoes that are classics as well. They obviously won't bring the hype that a Jordan shoe does but it definitely did back in the day.
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It’d be pretty easy though, Nike just needs to seed the shoes and apparel to celebs and pay some sneaker blogs to tout it as “hype”. Nike cares about making money and moving units. The athlete-connection is dead. I know most of us on this thread like AA because we grew up when he was a player. Now the reality is people buy sneakers for resale profit or because a blog says they’re the “next big thing” (instant gratification post). Resellers have no profit margin for non-hype since ATC/Challenge Court doesn’t even move at retail. Sad but true. A cultural resurgence for Challenge court would be amazing though!
 
Noto said:
It's because the line isn't hip with Nikes core demographic anymore. They can't sell ATCIIs on the premise of them having "the Yeezy midsole!" anymore, lol.
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However, we can get an obscure Air Scream LWP that is sure to go to outlets. :smh:
 
druheezy said:
It’d be pretty easy though, Nike just needs to seed the shoes and apparel to celebs and pay some sneaker blogs to tout it as “hype”. Nike cares about making money and moving units. The athlete-connection is dead. I know most of us on this thread like AA because we grew up when he was a player. Now the reality is people buy sneakers for resale profit or because a blog says they’re the “next big thing” (instant gratification post). Resellers have no profit margin for non-hype since ATC/Challenge Court doesn’t even move at retail. Sad but true. A cultural resurgence for Challenge court would be amazing though!
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But there was a big resale market for them in 2014 with the limited grand slam shoes, especially the first series. But as far as the gr releases yea there is not much in it for them for resale but we did see the III's sell very well and the IV's flew of the sites, unfortunately the retro IV's never sold in the US. They just don't need to mass produce so many of the gr's if that's what is holding them back from giving us more stuff. Lebron even wore the hybrids but that didn't seem to bolster sales so I don't think celebrities wearing them will make much of a difference Those hit outlets for $40. They are just better off making less of the shoes and they will definitely sell out.

lebron-james-wearing-nike-air-tech-challenge-hybrid-drops-10-pounds.jpg
 
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This is a pretty fine line to walk - I'd like to see more silhouettes from Andres line as well but I wouldn't want it to come to a point where it becomes a cancerous hellhole like people wearing Jordan sneakers 5 years ago.

Hypes and media frenzies are something not even social scientists understand sufficiently - most of the time they just happen like that and go by fast, like the last couple years the target demographic (14-early 20s) ate up Adidas products.

It's also pretty simple why Nike produces older, less popular sneakers in bad colorways - they garner to a more mature demographic anyways which won't respond positively to a sneaker not being like it was. Then when it goes to sales racks the people at Nike are going to say "why do demand that model if you didn't buy last time we offered it to you"? Recreating toolings etc. is a costly business and Nike wants to see profits. There are sneakers that ALWAYS sell like AM90s, AM1s etc. but the more oddball choices come and go by sporadically.
 
But if Nike wants to see profits they just need to read forums like these and see what the people want. There has to be people that work there that recognize that even a thread like this with millions of views is outlining what people will buy and not buy. It also doesn't make sense that when we get certain retroes that they are completely unwearable like the last Air Flare release. They took one of the most comfortable tennis shoes and made the retro basically unwearable.
 
I am pretty sure Nike does have a slight clue about what older guys and genuine fans do want but they won't put it out if it's not profitable. The most profitable stuff has to ring a bell with their core demographic and, unfortunately, that's not us. We can mostly only hope for sporadic releases and buy them up to signal some interest.

I'm a huge fan of the Vince Carter line for example- but I'm pretty sure that won't come back until at least half a decade or even more.

Last time around hipsters and kids were pretending to have a "connection" with the sneakers because Jordan, Shaq and Scottie wore those shoes. Now they just admit to being hypebeasts, which is hilariously self-reflective but also drives what the companies are going to produce. Unfortunately Tennis doesn't have any hype yet. They could probably release some of Pete Sampras' stuff to ride on the "normcore, dad"-fad going on but Andre's sneakers don't fit well with current fads.
 
Sampras' stuff never sold like Agassi's shoes or line. Other than the oscillates he we wasn't generating interest. IT certainly didn't hurt to have him wear their brand but people weren't running out to buy his stuff because of it. At the end of 2001 Sampras' Nike contract expired and I assume that they later formed some type of agreement to keep paying him. Every kid I knew back in the day was wearing Agassi's shoes on the courts. Granted, Agassi left Nike and then came back but it was more to do with Nike not supporting his foundation. Obviously, Nike agreed to participate and later he re-signed with Nike.

And I don't see any point in holding the releases back as I don't think waiting an additional 10 years will generate hype. Most kids want either basketball shoes or Yeezy's now as well as the running shoe fad. But the limited grand slam shoes were able to build hype. As far as Nike's core demographic I would think it is this thread. I know for myself I grew up wearing all of his shoes and clothing and never stopped buying it.
 
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Yeah but only to a certain degree, the "limited" tag always generates a bit buzz, even with red-headed step children like the AM98s. I managed to get those back then without any problems and I'm a "retail or bust" guy who doesn't fret when something is difficult to get.

You can also see that with the Kobe 1 Retros that came out a couple of months ago - Nikes core audience care about the undefeated collabs, the OG one gets a bit of traction due to ****ed up numbers. But nothing crazy.

Nike sometimes just tests the water - I'm incredibly ****ing grateful for the Air Span II retros that came out of nowhere this year and tripled up on the OG colorways of that one. Andre willl always be around in some form, it's just that guys like us have to be more patient.
 
Ultimately, we're still a niche segment. Nike can retro a bunch of Agassi shoes... Agassi fans can buy 3 pairs each... and we'd still only be a drop in the ocean. Nike Tennis is shrinking... Nike Retro Tennis is shrinking even more.
 
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That part is definitely true. These releases aren't going to make a major impact with Nike anymore, but back in the day the sure did. Which is why I also said that waiting longer to release retro shoes would not make sense as more and more kids will be less aware of the history unfortunately.
 
It was a whole different time back then - I feel like the niche hobby of collecting sneakers has been reduced to a mostly superficial fashion fad. It's like people pretending to be art lovers because they thought that one Dali painting with the watches looked kinda cool, lol.

And I think it's sad that Tennis get's less popular, at least from what I feel. I used to play a bit as a teenager and it's a real fun past time! Tennis shrinked remarkably over here in Germany because we haven't had a spectacular player in years and Angelique Kerber is not consistent enough.
 
Meawhile, there is a pair of 1's on ebay right now currently at $63 with 7 bids and the shoes are completely unwearable. Yea Nike could definitely retro them, again it won't make them rich but releasing them would certainly make the fans happy.
 
Yeah, 2014. I thought they were pretty cool, that color scheme could've been an og colorway.

Nike-Air-Tech-Challenge-II-Poison-Green.jpg
 
Sinner said:
Ultimately, we're still a niche segment. Nike can retro a bunch of Agassi shoes... Agassi fans can buy 3 pairs each... and we'd still only be a drop in the ocean. Nike Tennis is shrinking... Nike Retro Tennis is shrinking even more.
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While I agree somewhat, the reality is that its part of their heritage. As such, even if Nike doesn't knock one out of the park for one release doesn't mean that years later a new generation may not want it (which is what we've seen happen before).
 
People were going crazy for the Grand Slam pairs just a few years ago.


Hell, I bet 95% of the people who dropped mortgage payments on Yeezy 2s didn't even realize it came from a tennis shoe.
 
Nobody who wants hyped up shoes looks into the shoes heritage and design features. That is, of course, unless people get news crammed up their throats by blogs and twitter accounts.
 
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This ad on a twitter account says it’s from 92. Thought sprites weren’t an OG color way.
 
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