Personal Thoughts on the Present State and Future of the Jordan Brand

[mustbetheshoe58]

JB doesn't give a you know what to the collectors

 

[Mister Meaner]

Originally Posted by nick0lis

im just sayin... kids that go to my highschool could give a %%+# just as long as there is a jumpman on it, and thats the future.

Bingo!

Outside of Niketalk, most of the consumers don't pay attention to things like this. Yes, they know these shoes are "retroes", yet they don'tknow what it is a retro of. They don't know what year the shoe came out, etc. Nor do they care.

If we know what the core Jordan demographic is (I don't know exactly, but I can make a safe enough guess), we'd know that these kids are too young toremember him and his career. However, every one knows that new Jordans are "whats poppin' in hood."

And I have developed a quick theory here as well. The Jordan line started as a small sub-divison of Nike. Therefore, it only required a small array of productsto be successful. Now that Jordan brand is Jordan Brand, there are other needs to be fulfilled in order to become a success. They need to putout more shoes, different lines, become like it's mother-brand, Nike. I think this task has overwhelmed Jordan Brand. A simple rehashing, and"tweeking" of elements to create a different shoe does not cut it. Don't get me wrong, along the way some of their ideas (outside of the sig.line, or should I say spawning from) have yielded amazing results. However, the bad in this case so heavily outweighs the good.

Now you'd have to get someone more educated on the Jordan Design team, but I don't think they are that great. I think there was an article in SC aboutthe team. Is it only 4 or 5 people? I mean, I guess it serves the purpose of this brand which is still a sub-division, but JB is expanding their market,therefore I think a bigger team than that would be necessary. I don't know, the general vibe I get from them is trying to recapture the magic they hadearly on while burgeoning into the future. So far, it is really not working out, IMO.

 

[slg]

I had to chime in since we are actually having another intellectual debate but we as the heart of Jordan Brand know where things are headed. I agree withmost of the sentiments which have been said during this posts. We who have been on here for years like myself have been saying the brand has been heading inthe wrong direction for about the last 4 years. I feel like the few times I do comment I end up repeating myself but people who were close to the brand incame on this board and warned us about the current trends which we are dealing with now. I also wanted to say that we care more about the direction of Joradanbrand more than the average consumer. I've been on this board for 8 years, 7 as a memeber and a fan of Mike Jordan for over 20 years. We all know thebread and butter of Jordan Brand is nostalgia. NikeTalk represents the love which has been built upon personal history. Methodman and all of the old headshave established the only true place where the intellectual soul of Jordan Brand fans commune together and we have seen the writing is on the wall. We knowthat eventually Jordan Brand will come back to their past and put Nike Air on the back of their shoes but they are killing themselves by believing they cancombine shoes, lazer them, pack them, overprice them, limit them, and Flight Club 23 them. It seems that the public is starting to not respeond how JordanBrand thought. Being a shoe head I periodically check Eastbay to see what has moved and what has not. The Fusions don't look they are selling well andthe last two packs are still avaliable for retail in abudunce. A few months ago I typed about boycotting Jordan Brand and many agreed on this board. Mythinking remains the same and it seems that some people are thinking the same way. If you do not buy the garbage than they will stop producing it. Onceagain we all have the power but it comes to choice. Jordan brand has had many choices and they have chosen money over love so you do the analysis... I enjoyedall the post and I will holler when something else on this board makes me want to!

 

[sickkickgame23]

I've said this in the beginning. The best way for JB to sustain itself as a brand is to take the Jordan 1 and make it a staple shoe that is released yearafter year with different color variations and different materials, availability and distribution schemes. The most significant basketball sneaker of all timeis the Chuck Taylor: (I've said this in the past as well) No single sneaker is as cross-culturally accepted as the chuck taylor. Jordan could easily trumpthat if they sit on the 1 (possibly the XI as well). The beauty of the chuck is that it re-invents itself every single time to appeal to a vast audience,skaters, heads, sneakerheads, rappers, actors, celebrities, hustlers, just about any demographic you can think of wears chucks.

Nike essentially has done something similar with the DUNK and i think that should be Jordan Brand's next move. Establish a legacy withinthe brand there are several of forgettable jordan releases, the XV, the XVIII, the XXI, the entire melo line, the terrible idea of the Jordan Team Shoe. Thereality is that there are 2 largely identifiable shoes that should come back year after year without question and that is the XI and I there is no denying thatanytime either of those shoes pop up they almost always sell completely through. The issue they have to deal with is the how timeless are all of these retrosthe XIV's of 2006 were a complete debacle, the VIII's have become a tragedy, and just about every other release after the XIII's have been adisgrace to the brand.

Another reason why this is necessary is because think about it: (this is gonna be ugly) How many Jordans are actually exclusive anymore? None. Everysingle Jordan ever made has been bootlegged; every single sig shoe, every dub zero, the Fusion, the Spizike, nothing is sacred. So why are we holdingthese shoes with such esteem? Cuz of MJ, definitely not. Not when people wear a pair of fake Jordans with Jordan shorts, tee shirt, and sweatband. IT's cuzof the Branding its like Louis Vuitton or Gucci or Versace, those guys are dead and no one cares its the status of the product that is mostimportant...BRANDING IS JORDAN BRAND'S MOST IMPORTANT ASSET.

Look at the Nike Dunk, they've turned it into a chuck, they've made it a sneaker that anyone can wear and not get offended by or scoff at. Sure dyed inthe wool skaters prolly dont skate in Dunk SB's but many do, which proves that one single shoe can be timeless given the right marketing and Brandingtechniques. Sure all of the limeberry and watermelon lime grape kool-aid colorways would have to be well planned and unpredictable (OR SCRAPPED) but I see noreason that Every month for the rest of our lives that a new Jordan I(high or low) and Jordan (XI) 11 (high or low no IE's, please) couldn't reachspecialty shops and footwear retailers. Jordan 1 lows go as low as 75? retail that makes it compete with the dunk, The High goes for as little as 100 and youcould sell it for as much as 150 arguably, slap a premium tag on it and limit distribution and availability and itll sell just like the opening day pack.As for the Jordan XI? The cool grey in Ohio is called the Riot Squad Pack! There is no limit to the sales possibilities of the XI, but if thebrand wants to stay relevant those are it's 2 most important shoes. Bar None.

Revision: Some of you forget that yeah, many people buy into hype based on these online forums, blogs, and word of mouth on the streets, but all and all THEREIS NO WAY that JB is doing as well as they did a couple years ago. Fire Red V's were some of the best selling Jordans in the History of Retros clearing Ibelieve a couple hundred thousand pairs in it's first weekend. No way that the Fusions or XI i.e's coulda pulled the same stunt. Carmelo shoes continueto be a complete dud and the team shoes though not popular amongst sneakerheads still don't sell anywhere near as closely as the regular retros. My pointis....with XX3 shoes to bring back again and again, Limiting the # of possible retros would definitely help create predictable sales #s for the brand given thehistory of the Sneaker. And as a sneaker head, my favorite Jordan isn't the XI. I just know the sneaker that general consumer would go nuts for every timeit dropped would be Jordan XI. It is the world's most recognizable Nike Shoe. From Australia to Iceland people know what the Jordan XI is with the patentleather rand is.....it's a no-brainer

 

[zkingofjays]

No matter what they do, people will buy what ever they put out. Am I right.

 

[odiggidy]

Originally Posted by veGAtts

Originally Posted by Burns1923

People prefer Nike Air over the Jumpman. Always have, always will. They're NIKE Air Jordans, and JB will never be able to shake that connection and history.

you're wrong. people in this community do. the vast vast majority of people do not. you people think they are holding back nike air for some convoluted future selling strategy? it is far more simple than that. the average consumer does not know what an original 3-6 look like, they do not miss Nike Air on the back. all they know is that the jumpman is "cool." and so they sell. the fact is nike air on the back will not generate more sales to the average joe customer. overall i would say sales would be worse. people on here have the hardest time stepping outside of their opinions and looking at what regular people think. we are not regular people. our opinions are the minority by far. we are not the only people that buy sneakers. we buy a lot of them but theres so much fewer of us. i understand everyone on here's opinion but you guys all look at it from your personal shoe collector point of view and then assume this is how everyone feels, but its not. and thats why we arent going to win. JB is a business, if you cant satisfy all of your customers wouldnt you satisfy the much larger group?

there are quite a few Nt'ers who needs to read this over and over until it sinks in.

 

[burns1923]

^Why?

I commented that people, as in people who are aware of the original shoes, prefer Nike Air over the Jumpman. Perhaps I should've made the distinctionclearer.

I don't think most folks on NT are in denial about what's on the back of III-VI not mattering to the average consumer who doesn't know/doesn'tcare about the Air Jordan history/accuracy.

However, for those who grew up with the shoes and for those who cherish the originals, those people prefer NA over the Jumpman, naturally.

Furthermore, just because the average joe doesn't know/doesn't care doesn't give JB the right to ruin it for those of us there in the beginning.They roped people in with accurate retros in 99-01, and then conditioned people to the Jumpman on the back. It was a deliberate ploy and it worked.

THEY may have made it status quo but that doesn't make it right, and doesn't mean every last person is just going to accept it. So here's tocontinuing to resist and speak out against the Jumpman where it does not belong.

 

[typecast3]

jordan brand will still sell ugly shoes in 10 years just like they do now. they get money fromjordan big funds and all those hideous shoes. nike is nike and JBis separate and until you get that through your thick skulls we cannot have a real convo about this.


STOP THESE POSTS WHAT A WASTE

 

[burns1923]

nike is nike and JB is separate and until you get that through your thick skulls we cannot have a real convo about this.

1.) JB IS Nike. They use different logos but that's all that's different about them.

2.) Do you go up to people you don't know on the street and talk like that to them?

3.) We were having a real conversation about this. And you added nothing to it by posting a condescending comment.

 

[vegatts]

Every month for the rest of our lives that a new Jordan I(high or low) and Jordan (XI) 11 (high or low no IE's, please) couldnt reach specialty shops and footwear retailers.
I hope they dont make an 11 every month. That would be cool for about 2 months. They are already releasing 1s at about that pace so maybe they arethinking the same.

I periodically check Eastbay to see what has moved and what has not. The Fusions don't look they are selling well

Bear in mind, just because they still have a FSR doesnt mean they arent selling well, that just means they have a lot of them. The fusions were (mostly) notlimited and I think they are selling pretty well. Maybe not so much the bright cactus flavors but the first few black white ones and Im pretty sure the fusion5s as well.

PS - To me the 12 fusions were the best because they were the least like their AJ counterpart. The other ones are all so close to the normal AJ that i feellike they are just ruined AJs. The 12 fusion didnt look like a 12 to me so I could look at it as a shoe in its own right and in that light it wasnt so bad. Istill didnt buy them but the playoffs were lookin pretty nice. Totally off topic, i know.

 

[jordansrmycrack]

Originally Posted by ShoeConnoisseur09

JB plays the "Nike Air" trumpcard to bring back lost customers with rediculously priced, more accurate retros

-Supermanblue79

WOW I can definitely see them doing that in the future. It's going to happen.

I've been saying this for several years now! It's only a matter of time.

 

[sneakerafi]

Originally Posted by veGAtts

Every month for the rest of our lives that a new Jordan I(high or low) and Jordan (XI) 11 (high or low no IE's, please) couldnt reach specialty shops and footwear retailers.

I hope they dont make an 11 every month. That would be cool for about 2 months. They are already releasing 1s at about that pace so maybe they are thinking the same.

I periodically check Eastbay to see what has moved and what has not. The Fusions don't look they are selling well

Bear in mind, just because they still have a FSR doesnt mean they arent selling well, that just means they have a lot of them. The fusions were (mostly) not limited and I think they are selling pretty well. Maybe not so much the bright cactus flavors but the first few black white ones and Im pretty sure the fusion 5s as well.

PS - To me the 12 fusions were the best because they were the least like their AJ counterpart. The other ones are all so close to the normal AJ that i feel like they are just ruined AJs. The 12 fusion didnt look like a 12 to me so I could look at it as a shoe in its own right and in that light it wasnt so bad. I still didnt buy them but the playoffs were lookin pretty nice. Totally off topic, i know.


The Jordans overall haven't sold well if you ask me, I go to the local sneaker stores and boutiques and they are there. The Glacier LS Fusion sold out.The Black and Blue Ribbon Fusions sold out. The XX3 All Star Limited, Titanuim, and Breds sold out....that's about it. The other Fusions, the CDPs, and theStealth XX3 the are still in stores and on the websites.... hell the 11's, the low 1's, and even the XX2 Alphas are still in the stores.

 

[neptunesfinest]

^^I think most people here forget or weren't around when you couldn't get GENERAL RELEASE J's unless you stood in line on day 1. They used tosell thru in literally minutes at least where I'm from. IMO we really shoudln't see Jordans and Jordan retros sitting on shelves for months. Even theFire Reds were around for a while. That would have never happened before 01.

 

[kickzfeen247]

Originally Posted by nick0lis

im just sayin... kids that go to my highschool could give a %%+# just as long as there is a jumpman on it, and thats the future.

Very true. Walk up 2 any kid and ask them about the shoes they are wearing, the first thing they'll say "Idk....they'reJORDANS". But they dont know the STORY and LEGACY behind the sneakers they're wearing. Sadly JBjust isn't the same anymore.

 

[clkru]

Garbage.

JB is in need of a shake up, top to bottom.

 

[Size12King]

Originally Posted by jacobmontana

OG colorways or bust for me.
JB officially lost me awhile ago w/all these clown colorways.