If the general agreement is that JB is intentionally gimping the quality...

[b20 eg8]

Jordan Brand Makes Lower Quality shoes because they NEED TO.

Jordans BEST quality which I think we can all agree on were OG's and they were used in a manner in which they needed the best materials. I think we can agree that most Jordans back in the day were used to play sports in......... now don't get me wrong people did wear them casually but let's also be real with ourselves and admit that people did not have 10+ 20+ or hundreds of pairs of shoes to rotate through like today so the shoe was gonna be worn down and you were eventually gonna need a new pair.

So lets fast forward to today and say that JB had superior Quality on EVERY RELEASE..... You would buy a pair wear it occasionally and rotate through all your other shoes that you own and it would hardly see daylight and it would last 20-30 years if not more. Why would you never buy a retro-re-retro?? Re-Re-Retro? ( in the same colorways) I think you get the point...... It would force them to be creative and come up with brand new ideas but I've come to the conclusion they just don't like doing that.

 

[gatzbygordon]

they just know people NOW will buy them because of the look, even if they were made with feces but looked like the concords ppl would still cop..and ppl complain about there not being enough pairs there ya go they've sacrificed quality for quantity..the earlier days only a few ppl could afford them and they could splurge on the good materials and take their time to make a great  quality shoe but now that everything is expensive the also cant afford to crank out a bunch of high quality shoes and expect to make back what they spent on labor and materials.

 

[jordan23dotcom]

JB is not going away and the quality will not get period.... Nothing much else to say

 

[deltadogman1]

Any shoe will an all leather toe box and upper is going to crease! As a matter of fact those of us who wear casual shoes know that in almost every shoe circle besides Jordan creasing is a good thing, nothing like breaking in a pair of Cole-Haan or Mezlan's. Also, these shoes are not for hooping anymore, at least not the retro's so comfort and all that other crap doesn't matter, JB has newer models for that purpose. I remember when t shirt were made of a thicker material, i remember when Jordan, Bird, Magic, Isiah, Clyde, and Penny, Barkley, and Hakeem were actually in the league, i remember alot of products being of a higher quality than they are now, so stop whining. Besides these shoes will be release and retro'd for years to come so chill and enjoy the fact that you can buy them because believe me back in the day spending 99.00 on a shoe was a big deal and you got one maybe two pair a year not every release, so enjoy! And as it pertains to the yellowing soles, thats the price we pay for those beutiful ICEY SoLES but we have a remedy for that so problem fixed. And as the guy before me stated man you guys should be happy you can rotate shoes and own multiple pairs of these awesome shoes.  

As far why the materials are changing, the markets that manufacturers shop for materials in are changing, simple as that.

And to all of us be warned, that those 300.00+ dollars Lebron's that just released, spell trouble. I'm buying everything I can for now and preparing for the storm. Reselling has guaged the market for shoe companies. If a reseller can get 300.00 for a shoe why not just retail it for the average resell price. So when the resellers tack on that extra 60-100 the price at retail will gradually increase as well.

 

[ccastro02]

Sneakerheads are like abused girlfriends in a perverse way sometimes. The woman will complain to her friends and family about him, cry about him, and threaten to leave him. All he needs to do is bring a home a flower from 7/11 and she's back on her knees sucking him dry. Sneaker heads that complain about jb but yet buy every release are no different. They'll complain and cry in the forums, yet they're the 1st ones in line come release date.

 

[killakam]

Want them just to be cool, like everyone else. I havent copped many retros this years just because of the quality. How you gone go up on prices but quality has gone down.

Time has change and life is strange.  It's what you call "Inflation" my friend.

 

[killakam]

Of course. Why not use cheaper materials and be careless about quality control when jackasses are gonna line up for the product regardless? I find it funny that everybody on here always wants to put the blame on "hypebeasts" yet y'all are the same ducks that make statements like "jb quality is piss poor nowadays, I can't believe they put such and such material on this shoe, I'm only copping 3 pairs this time

" What kind of sense does that make? It's not the hypebeasts entirely, it's YOU. The "sneakerhead" the one that will buy regardless of whether the shoe has drastic changes or not. If you consumers keep buying their crap products they continue to make more money using less. period.

We all have some kind of addiction and as humans, we are a creature of habit.  We know what's good and we know what's bad, sometimes?  We say what we don't mean and we do just the opposite of what we just said.  In street terms, Jordan brand is selling crack and all the crackheads are feenin' for the next best product.  They all know the product will be garbage but there is that little hope...lol.  No other dealers would have the same kind of products.

 

[killakam]

From what I've noticed it seems like every time a shoe is re-retroed people rant about the quality of the shoe and claim the one before it was "high quality" . My only problem with that is that I am now seeing shoes get called "high quality" that were considered "low quality" at the time of their release. For example, the Fire Red IV's last month. They have been said to be the one of the worst quality Jordans to be released in quite some time (I agree with that statement. I even had to exchange one of my pairs because it came scuffed and the leather was all chewed up). My only problem with that is that people then ranted about wanting the "high quality of the Mars IV's" from 2006. But when the Mars IV's came out, all I ever read was how bad the quality was. The same goes for the Metallic V's from 2007 to 2011, couple of XII models, and the list can go on. My question is, what is the expectation? I ask because it seems to be a moving target through the years. Also, if the quality is THAT bad, why are you still willing to cop, and cop, and cop, etc.? If you're truly unsatisfied with the product, stop buying it.W

Want some quality materials? Go cop yourself a pair of Gucci shoes or Louis Vuitton shoes for a re-seller's price.

 

[deltadogman1]

Even if you look at Vintage LV items, bags in particular the newer stuff looks much cheaper from a material standpoint!

 

[eltouha]

Sneakerheads are like abused girlfriends in a perverse way sometimes. The woman will complain to her friends and family about him, cry about him, and threaten to leave him. All he needs to do is bring a home a flower from 7/11 and she's back on her knees sucking him dry. Sneaker heads that complain about jb but yet buy every release are no different. They'll complain and cry in the forums, yet they're the 1st ones in line come release date.

hahah, addicted to abuse. well played.

 

[eclipse4343]

you have high school kids who dont care about quality but flock every release. there was a giant group of kids at the raptor release even tho i didnt buy the raptors and tried to resale and fail.same **** with everything. who care about quality when high school and some college kids never need to care about quality when they are walking around in em.

 

[agarcia790]

Yea qualitys definitely going down but people will buy regardless 

 

[alexander2182]

Dudes not even answering dude question.

But honestly it seems like you referring to older heads who think they deserve to easily get shoes. Dudes hate the fact that they gotta work hard at 8 AM or be in line to cop Js when all these sneakerheads never even seen him play. Same dudes mad at people for calling Charcoals "Raptors". I started copping Jays last year but I been wanting Jays since 09 and imo MJ has some of the best sneaker designs ever, and as long as rappers keep rockin em, use hype to their advantage and they keep they price around 160 ppl will still be working hard to cop.

 

[air jsarg]

Jordan does not make quality shoes any more point blank! Why spend money on quality leather for people who will pay $2,000 on hard plastic leather jordans? I don't blame them, but I will not buy any more Jordans.. Made the mistake of buying these stiff cement IVs.. only thing they are good for is looking at. Last pair of jordans I got that had some OK leather were my Banned Is.. My homie keep trying to sell me on these blk/blu Is dropping next year.. I'm betting they will also be carved from wood.

haha "Carved from Wood", I think that sums up the leather quality lately right here, you're dead on about the WC4's, mine feel like plastic and squeak everywhere............ and the midsole paint

but I got them cos it was my first chance at the WC4's, not that I expected anything amazing

 

[senorroboto2k5]

This whole discussion just gives me a sinking feeling that when Jordan circles around for the next go-around of popular retros, they'll introduce them as the "Air Jordan IV Retro Supreme" or some crap like that...

Charge $250 or something for a model of a classic colorway with premium, top-of-the-line materials like they were originally.

Jordan is kinda "conditioning" their audience to accept the pleather and synthetics and cost-cutting materials on the retros. They don't accept it, but they still buy them.

Don't care enough about the legitimacy of the retro to spend that much? Can't stomach it when retroes were $130? Well, there's always the 2010, 2011 non-supreme versions you can go find.

That and retros are becoming a lifestyle product anyway. People damn sure aren't on the hunt for new releases cause they wanna ball in them. So when other botique lifestyle shoes with high-grade materials are $250+... one day it might justify Jordan to decide to go that route with their most popular shoes.

Sorry if it sounds like a rant, but with Android Hommes and all those random brands charging $240 and their selling point being high-grade pigskin leathers etc. I can't help but think it.

 

[mcstrokin]

Even if you look at Vintage LV items, bags in particular the newer stuff looks much cheaper from a material standpoint!

Thank you it's everything across the board not just Jordan Brand products. Cars used to be made of metal but now their mostly plastic. Shoe companies used to use real leather but now they mostly use synthetic materials etc. The list goes on and on my friends. Everything used to be cheaper but now it's higher priced. If you want to fix something, how about you advocate fixing our monetary system that way prices drop. The US Dollar dollar has decreased in value considerably and that's why you're paying higher prices for damn near everything.

 

[longstroke]

This will probably go ignored, but hey...

...Nike still makes the shoes, and Nike really does not dig that people would rather wear the retro Jordan's, over their newer lines like that of LeBron and Kobe.

Jordan has too much power, then could sink the ship of Nike if he ever loses the popularity that he has. So what does Nike do? Well, suddenly the quality of Jordan product begins to diminish, possibly to sabotage the demand of retro's, as Nike knows that QUALITY should be in demand from all consumers, yet they also fail in their newer lines in regard to quality construction as well. With Nike going almost all plastic in their main sig lines, I don't blame anyone who'd rather play in a pair of Retro XII's, over playing in a pair of Kobe's.

 

[nycsneakerhead]

I agree, but also feel that so many people will still buy even with diminished quality that won't realy matter to Nike in the end.

 

[steve austin]

Jordan Brand hasn't been associated with a quality shoe since 99-03 era of releases. Everything after that has been suspect and on a downward spiral.
Haven't bought a pair since 2004 and will continue not to. Only you are in charge of your wallet, if you don't like something or think it's crap (like I do) then don't buy it (like I do).

youre trippin----

all the signatures that aint been retroed(not counting the countdown packs

) have on point for basketball----team jordnas aswell

why would JB go hard for replicas that they know people are only gonna wear casually? aint nobody playing basketball in these----get over it yall

 

[mcstrokin]

youre trippin----

all the signatures that aint been retroed(not counting the countdown packs

) have on point for basketball----team jordnas aswell

why would JB go hard for replicas that they know people are only gonna wear casually? aint nobody playing basketball in these----get over it yall

 

[rob1ne]

youre trippin----

all the signatures that aint been retroed(not counting the countdown packs:x ) have on point for basketball----team jordnas aswell

why would JB go hard for replicas that they know people are only gonna wear casually? aint nobody playing basketball in these----get over it yall

 

[noblekane]

Jordan Brand hasn't been associated with a quality shoe since 99-03 era of releases. Everything after that has been suspect and on a downward spiral.

IMO the bordeaux vii came out really nice except for the lighter shade of midsole. i think that was the last jordan shoe i bought

 

[noblekane]

This will probably go ignored, but hey...


...Nike still makes the shoes, and Nike really does not dig that people would rather wear the retro Jordan's, over their newer lines like that of LeBron and Kobe.
Jordan has too much power, then could sink the ship of Nike if he ever loses the popularity that he has. So what does Nike do? Well, suddenly the quality of Jordan product begins to diminish, possibly to sabotage the demand of retro's, as Nike knows that QUALITY should be in demand from all consumers, yet they also fail in their newer lines in regard to quality construction as well. With Nike going almost all plastic in their main sig lines, I don't blame anyone who'd rather play in a pair of Retro XII's, over playing in a pair of Kobe's.

what is wrong with you son??? atleast make sense when you try to discredit nike.

so in your eyes nike is purposely making jordan retros with horrible quality because they want consumers to buy their "plastic" shoes? come on dog that is the most insane **** you have come up with yet

 

[steve austin]

you dudes just dont get it

dudes are making BASKETBALL shoes for BASKETBALL with NEW and better TECHNOLOGY-----they dont care about the quality of REPLICAS that USED to have the newest technology

 

[mcstrokin]

you dudes just dont get it

dudes are making BASKETBALL shoes for BASKETBALL with NEW and better TECHNOLOGY-----they dont care about the quality of REPLICAS that USED to have the newest technology