Europe/ United States Shoe Scene = Night & Day

[babyfacedassassin31]

Im a huge shoe head from England have been since I was 8years old 1988

Back in tha late 80s to early 90s Jordans were a huge part of fashion everybody had the 4s 5s and 6s then it tapered off with tha 7s and 8s by the time the 9shad hit Jordans were no longer fashionable.

Basketball was never on tv around that time much but Jordans and basketball trainers(sneakers) were wat was hott everybody knew who MJ was way b4 Space Jam.

Air Maxs have always been hott here to and Air trainers to back in the late 80s early 90s u could walk into any sports shop and theyd be carrying the latestJordans,Agassis,Bos,Barkleys and every other top Nike shoe around Huraches,Maxs etc.

Today that is not the case u have to go to a big city to cop the best shoes or like me the internet from the US or when im in the US.

I have played basketball since the early 90s so always been into Jordans and basketball shoes but very rarely do I cop shoes in the UK maybe a lil more now wehave the HOH in London.

Runners are the fashion now here and maybe dunks for skaters worldwide basketball shoes arnt the fashion nore are AF1s only ballers or true shoe heads rockJordans or AF1s in the UK.

Peace
Scottie

 

[jumpmanpt09]

Originally Posted by FIREPOWER23

Originally Posted by Magic1978

Do you guys think Jordan's aren't as popular because Michael Jordan, while being global, is more of an American icon. So we attach his legacy to the sneakers more to than Europeans. So we care about what eh wore during the dunk contest or what he wore against the Jazz. Plus there was a certain status you had when you were young having Jordan's in school, that made them more in demand.

Yes, not only MJ, but basketball in general is not as popular in Europe ...& almost non-existant in the UK.
Jordan first came to popular attention in '92 with the Barcelona Olympics & whilst he played with the Bulls he was well known, certainly among the "street scene" for want of better words. But after retirement he has long since faded from the memory ...& certainly these kids growing up nowdays do not know he is ...even if they know the name, they don't know the player or what he meant to us older generation.

I can guarantee, if you went to central London & asked 50 people "Who is Michael Jordan?" ....49 of them wouldn't have a clue ......the other 1 would be like "wasn't he that bald fella who did that movie with Buggs Bunny?"

Yeah. I agree with you. Here in Portugal it's kind of the same thing. I think people from the "Bulls generation" and older peoplethat follow basketball will always associate MJ to a high standard of greatness in the court. And in many ways that would always transcend to the Jordan Brand.I remember at the time of the second three-peat by the Bulls, during that 3 year span you could see a lot of people that didn't even play basketball withthe Jordan shoes and all the apparel. By the time Jordan retired I guess that a lot of those people just stopped buying stuff. The only one that would buy werepeople related to basketball. The kids growing and playing now will always relate more to Kobe or Lebron, but in the end it's always a question also ofprice tag. If you're buying a shoe to play how many people will be willing to pay 120€ plus for some shoes to play? It's much cheaper to go to anAdidas shop and buy some shoes for 60 € for example. Or even some Nikes for that price. To this day I have a lot of friends, that like myself grow up to theimage of MJ play and will always see him as the greatest ever. But when we were kids in practice, everyone wanted to have the shoes MJ had on court. Thesedays, not so much.

Like Babyface said, it's also been a long time since basketball shoes are fashion here! I remember people wearing CB94, Air Max Uptempo and others toschool as a casual shoe.

 

[swingshot]

Originally Posted by irishbaz

,br>I love walkin into that store with 10+ yr old OG jordans cus I just know they be running upstairs to the order room trying to get em in... Clueless

Can't expect them to know too much i guess... but i walked in there one day wearing black/royal penny IVs.
Could see one staff member out of the corner of my eye, staring at my foot, trying to figure out what they were.

 

[raffstylexx]

Originally Posted by NomadicSole21

Originally Posted by raffstyleXX

£107 for space jams at Nike.com UK is not bad at all.... im waiting for something i really want. praying for concords on 2010 and im all over it!!! or even Playoffs XII.

You live in Europe? Or does the UK site finally ship to the US now?

Im from UK... I think JDsports is now shipping to US.

 

[2nick3]

you can't compare the us prices to the euro. first of all the euro is much stronger and i think
europeans make more money than americans too

 

[reppin va]

I live in Finland and they straight jack you with the prices...But my mans got me my SJ´s for 100 euros.Its about the connections people have too.And Europeansdont really make more than people in America either..All depending what country and what job.It does help that the Euro is stronger than the dollar.I make goodon stuff when i go home for the holidays young.

 

[rawmanjones]

Cool thread.

 

[irishbaz]

Originally Posted by 2Nick3

europeans make more money than americans too

Bull S.....

 

[DVMNXK]

europeans make more money than americans too


Not true at all.

 

[biggimike]

Thats why Europeans take shopping trips to NYC and buy up all of our stuff. You should see how crowded all the major shopping areas are over here.

 

[jumpmanpt09]

Originally Posted by BiggiMike

Thats why Europeans take shopping trips to NYC and buy up all of our stuff. You should see how crowded all the major shopping areas are over here.

The Euro is stronger than the Dollar. You can get cheap flights to NY and still have enough for some shopping and walk around.

 

[luc1311]

I was in NYC last august as mentionned earlier... Good way to save money...
No doubt that Europeans DON'T have a bigger buying power... This is silly to say that...
My average salary is 1300€... so when I buy a Jordan for 150€ it's more than 10% of my income! Argh! And if you think of a big month like Space Jams andWhite Red XII... 300€... Done for the month or even 2...
In France, the 90's were also like a dream for me... Kicks everywhere.... along with NBA Jerseys... Even Reggie Miller's ! lol
But, Basketball is the 3rd sport after Soccer and Rugby... TV ratings for sports are not that great apart from the soccer national team...You can not see anyother sport primetime on a national network...
French people don't know s**t about sports... So nobody will remember MJ or Lebron or Kobe in 10 to 15 years... apart from those guys I'm part of whoget up at 3 AM to watch NBA games...

 

[across 110th st]

are the prices high because of the taxes added?

 

[mkc1983]

It was like this in Canada until quite recently. When retros first came out they would sit there until eventually going to the clearance rack. All the Xi'swere very easy to get when they first came. Air Maxes would sit as well. Air Force Ones sold well though.

I've never been to Europe so I'm a bit naive, but I think with the amount of designers in Europe, Europeans would prefer to purchase brands such asPrada, Gucci, etc. over Nike/Jordan. I heard a Benz salesperson from Europe say that European fashion is a lot more forward than Canadian (obviously) and evenNew York, eg new styles here happened in Europe at least a couple of years earlier.

 

[jumpmanpt09]

You can say that the prices are high because of taxes. But that's not the only reason. Basketball shoes by nature are usually expensive. You put a Jordanlogo on it and they're gonna be even more expensive. The same thing with the Kobes or Lebrons. IF you have a shoe that in states has a retail price ofabout 150$, chances are that those same shoes will be sold for about 150€ here. Why? I guess it can be the taxes, the import costs and another thing that isvery important. These kind of shoes are for a very small segment of people, mostly basketball players and people that like to rock basketball shoes for casualwear. Not a lot of people do that in Europe. And for a lot of people to pay 150 € in a performance shoe, that's very expensive!

Maybe it's related with the noticeable decline of the sport popularity in most of the European countries. And in some countries I find it even worsebecause there are players in the NBA from this countries. Tony Parker is a great example. And how's the popularity of the game in France? Not that good.

Like luc1311 said, the 90s were really a golden era for NBA in Europe. Right now, not that much.Not a lot of people will stay up to 3 am in the morning towatch an NBA game. I can only do that on weekends. Not to mention that you can only see NBA games in a sports channel that you have to pay a monthly fee tohave. Back in the 90s you could watch the games in the national TV that everybody has access. So it's really hard to promote a sport having this kind ofconditions.

 

[trethousandgt]

Originally Posted by l2icel3oi9i6

Originally Posted by Illuztrious

The Space Jams are 170 Euro = $245

III's and XII's 130 Euro = $188

I usually order mine online but when you tack on shipping plus the hassle of waiting for them in the mail, it's more convenient to just pay a little extra for them.

those prices, maybe that's why they are sitting on the shelves..

meanwhile dudes are paying 400+ to re-sellers on ebay

 

[luc1311]

To make my point and jumpmanpt09's Parker is famous because he is with The Desperate Girl... and that's it... Here we cheer for loosers... So himgetting 3 championships... Not a good thing... French people are waiting for the scandal...
And about the design, I'd say that this is a global thing. Basketball shoes are designed in the US even for Adidas. People only buy casual wear shoes inEurope so they feed 'em with Air maxes... nothing else...
Import taxes? They're 'bout the same here and overseas... The same goes with the ps3 29999 yens... 299$ 299€... same digits, but Europe is always thefat cow to milk, because we're not a good market. Paris and London both got HOH coz they have a urban scene which doesn't exist elsewhere... that'sit... HOH Paris has replaced the largest FL in Europe. They were already the biggest Jordan spot of Paris...
To conclude I'll say that I'll continue to buy J's as long as I can afford 'em... It's that simple... And I will continue to spread thegood world from all sneaker heads... COLLECT KICKS IS THE FUEL OF OUR LIVES!!!

 

[retri]

Originally Posted by Across 110th st

are the prices high because of the taxes added?

nope, they're just deliberately high, which sucks because I just paid 210 Euro (roughly 300 US $) for my Tuned Air X "10th Anniversary" whicharen't even supposed to be that rare to begin with (and they're running shoes, lol).

If I lived in the states instead I could've prolly picked up a pair of original Jordan VI's for that same price /sigh.

Same goes for any Air Max ever released: the "97's "Silver", the 2003, the ones 50 cent wore in that video whose name escapes me at themoment and the 360 (2006) were all about 200 Euro upon release; the 2009 ID cost 240 Euro (345 US $ lol...).

Also, the OP picture is sorta misleading: I was born and raised here and in all honesty I wasn't even aware that our local footlockers sold Jordansnowadays, as far as I'm concerned they basically ceased to exist back in the 90's around here (and I don't live in a small town either, Torino islike the 3rd or 4th biggest city in Italy), so it's prolly just Roma (perhaps Milano shops got them as well, I know "Bottega Back Door" gets somein very small amounts every once in a while.

Thanks for the heads up though, gonna make a quick trip to Roma very soon to get a few pairs

 

[koudie from brooklyn]

mistake - double post

 

[koudie from brooklyn]

Originally Posted by trethousandgt

Originally Posted by l2icel3oi9i6

Originally Posted by Illuztrious

The Space Jams are 170 Euro = $245

III's and XII's 130 Euro = $188

I usually order mine online but when you tack on shipping plus the hassle of waiting for them in the mail, it's more convenient to just pay a little extra for them.

those prices, maybe that's why they are sitting on the shelves..

meanwhile dudes are paying 400+ to re-sellers on ebay

i paid 124 euro wit 14 extra for shipping for mine. just about retail plus shipping.. im happy with my recent purchase.

 

[retri]

Originally Posted by luc1311


French people don't know s**t about sports... So nobody will remember MJ or Lebron or Kobe in 10 to 15 years... apart from those guys I'm part of who get up at 3 AM to watch NBA games...

man, hook a brotha up (I'm not quite french however we aren't that far apart)! Where do you usually get your Jordans from?

 

[micronsil]

What they basically do in europ is that they take $ price and just put a euro sign there.

I live in the netherlands, i wish i could buy the spacejams for $175.

I would have bought 6 pairs in stead of 3 pairs.

And it's true, in europ jordan's aren't really hot items.

There are only 3 spots in the netherlands where you can really get jordan's
First and formost there is Oqium in rotterdam that has the real exclusive $@*.. If you can't get it there it aint worth buying.

And you have Footlocker rotterdam and Footlocker amsterdam.

Peep this ... the Air Jordan XI space jam:

Footlocker netherlands only received 12 pairs in total to sell in both their stores.
That's 12 pairs and there is 19 million people in the Netherlands.

Needless to say they sold oud within 20 minutes.
When I asked they guy at footlocker why they only got 12 he told me, the managers don't expect them to sell well, we requested 24 because that would bejust enough for the demand here.
24 !!!!! enough to meet the demand... W.t.h.???

Thank God there's Oqium in rotterdam.
They get enough and if they don't have enough they will go the extra mile.

I ordered 2 spacejams from them.
They only had 1 avaiable but i wanted one from my brother as a X mas gift
I called explained my situation.
And the guy working there " Mo" he told me no problem, I'll email you the invoice and sell you my pair that I ordered for myself so you cangive that to your brother for Xmas.
Now that's customer service!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, i know the last art didn't have anything to do with the availability jordans in europ, but i just could not keep this from you guys that there arereally honost sneaker shops out there in stead of all the stories that i hear bout the GM's and workers that buy up all the shoes and then sell them forre-sell prices

 

[raptors29]

Originally Posted by jumpmanpt09

Originally Posted by FIREPOWER23

Originally Posted by Magic1978

Do you guys think Jordan's aren't as popular because Michael Jordan, while being global, is more of an American icon. So we attach his legacy to the sneakers more to than Europeans. So we care about what eh wore during the dunk contest or what he wore against the Jazz. Plus there was a certain status you had when you were young having Jordan's in school, that made them more in demand.

Yes, not only MJ, but basketball in general is not as popular in Europe ...& almost non-existant in the UK.
Jordan first came to popular attention in '92 with the Barcelona Olympics & whilst he played with the Bulls he was well known, certainly among the "street scene" for want of better words. But after retirement he has long since faded from the memory ...& certainly these kids growing up nowdays do not know he is ...even if they know the name, they don't know the player or what he meant to us older generation.

I can guarantee, if you went to central London & asked 50 people "Who is Michael Jordan?" ....49 of them wouldn't have a clue ......the other 1 would be like "wasn't he that bald fella who did that movie with Buggs Bunny?"

Yeah. I agree with you. Here in Portugal it's kind of the same thing. I think people from the "Bulls generation" and older people that follow basketball will always associate MJ to a high standard of greatness in the court. And in many ways that would always transcend to the Jordan Brand. I remember at the time of the second three-peat by the Bulls, during that 3 year span you could see a lot of people that didn't even play basketball with the Jordan shoes and all the apparel. By the time Jordan retired I guess that a lot of those people just stopped buying stuff. The only one that would buy were people related to basketball. The kids growing and playing now will always relate more to Kobe or Lebron, but in the end it's always a question also of price tag. If you're buying a shoe to play how many people will be willing to pay 120€ plus for some shoes to play? It's much cheaper to go to an Adidas shop and buy some shoes for 60 € for example. Or even some Nikes for that price. To this day I have a lot of friends, that like myself grow up to the image of MJ play and will always see him as the greatest ever. But when we were kids in practice, everyone wanted to have the shoes MJ had on court. These days, not so much.

Like Babyface said, it's also been a long time since basketball shoes are fashion here! I remember people wearing CB94, Air Max Uptempo and others to school as a casual shoe.

Man nowadays you can't even wear older shoes like the Barkley's on the court. These newer retros have no kind of support.

 

[luc1311]

Originally Posted by Retri

Originally Posted by luc1311


French people don't know s**t about sports... So nobody will remember MJ or Lebron or Kobe in 10 to 15 years... apart from those guys I'm part of who get up at 3 AM to watch NBA games...

man, hook a brotha up (I'm not quite french however we aren't that far apart)! Where do you usually get your Jordans from?

I got my Space Jams at Opium Store http://www.oqiumstore.com/boutique/liste_rayons.cfm Theyalready have the presale for the Black Red VI.
And most of the time, I go to my local joint called M&D store. You can check their web site http://www.mdstore.fr/
or I order on Eastbay. But for the white red XII's, my order got blocked by the customs. I don't have them yet. They released em today, so I don'tknow if I will have some more to pay. Ebay is also a good spot. Try the seller Step To My Run

 

[retri]

Originally Posted by luc1311

I got my Space Jams at Opium Store http://www.oqiumstore.com/boutique/liste_rayons.cfm They already have the presale for the Black Red VI.
And most of the time, I go to my local joint called M&D store. You can check their web site http://www.mdstore.fr/
or I order on Eastbay. But for the white red XII's, my order got blocked by the customs. I don't have them yet. They released em today, so I don't know if I will have some more to pay. Ebay is also a good spot. Try the seller Step To My Run

wow awesome man, thanks a bunch.

EDIT: does the Opium store send stuff to Italy? Couldn't really figure it out from the website (I don't speak french unfortunately;; )

EDIT#2: hmm is this shop legit? They got the Air Yeezy in 2 different colorways at 200~ Euro (and the pictureof the black one seems fake)...definitely looks fishy to me.

http://www.oqiumstore.com/boutique/liste_produits.cfm?code_lg=lg_fr&type=11