- 32
- 20
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2000
The bottom line is this...getting a chance to buy a pair of basketball shoes - the Air Jordan XI or otherwise - shouldn't be worth risking your safety or your life. It's that simple. The way Jordan Brand/Nike purposely limited the number of pairs of the Concord XI just to build up the hype and frenzy surrounding their release isn't just irresponsible, it's ethically deplorable. I live in Indianapolis, Indiana and the mall I usually go to for Jordans - Lafayette Square Mall - was the mall shown on the national news, Pardon the Interruption, and SportsCenter in video clips with people literally ripping the doors off their hinges and trampling over each other just to get inside. I watched it happen live, and was just as horrified when I saw the replays on television later. I've been collecting since 1990 and this ONE release has absolutely drained any enjoyment or satisfaction I might've gotten from collecting Air Jordans in general.
I'm a grown adult now, I've learned how to be responsible with my money and how to pay my bills and my taxes through discipline and hard work. Collecting Air Jordans was always a fun hobby to me, a connection to the past, to my youth, and to the greatest athlete in team sports history. I was very fortunate to have seen Michael Jordan play 6 times in person, during his prime in the 1990s, at Market Square Arena against Reggie Miller and the Pacers. And each time I saw him, Jordan put everything he had into the game. It didn't always work out for him...I was there when he unretired and shot 7-for-28 and the Bulls lost in overtime...but that intensity, that conviction, that indomitable will was always present. I saw him try to rip Reggie Miller's face off and then score 40 points, many of them on impossible fallaway jumpers and angry, vicious drives to the rim. I remember the player he was. I remember everything he did. But what I remember the most was the level of sheer competitive greatness that has never been surpassed both before or since.
To me and others from my generation who grew up watching the "greatest player ever", Air Jordans aren't just basketball shoes or mere fashion statements...these MEAN something. They're symbols of who we wished we could be like when we were little, symbols of what can be accomplished with hard work and determination. But most of all, they symbolize *excellence*.
That's why it's so infuriating when the quality of a lot of these retros released is so poor while the prices are so high. And it's disheartening when it becomes near impossible to get a pair of a particular model - in this case the Concord XI - without a lot of undue physical and emotional stress.
All my friends and co-workers who know nothing about collecting Jordans have all asked me the same question regarding the XI riots...why don't they just make more pairs? Why aren't they more widely available? And that's a good question. You never see people riot over Air Force Is or Chuck Taylors, yet those shoes do phenomenal sales every single year.
Jordan Brand could've avoided this whole mess by doing two things - A) letting all the stores do pre-orders or reservations...putting a certain amount down to reserve your pair, then paying the remaining balance on release day (failure to pay means the pair goes back on sale to the public), and B) simply making more pairs and doing a few restocks both in stores and online. A lot of stores in my area only got ONE pair in each size. Supply was nowhere close to satisfying demand, and that's what fuels the frenzy to get a pair. And this is just unacceptable.
In my opinion, only a class-action lawsuit against Jordan Brand/Nike by thousands of consumers will wake them up. I don't have any legal expertise, but I'm sure there are some of you out there who do. What can be done? How can we unite to stand up to this corporate entity that does NOT care about our well-being and let our voices be heard? Who can make them listen? A debacle like this should NEVER happen again, and if it does one of these days somebody is gonna get killed. Is that what it takes? Does Jordan Brand want people dying over pieces of leather and rubber? As a collector I can understand the desire to acquire these, as a rational person in the real world however I can never understand the lengths some people will go through to get them, all because of hype. Michael Jordan was the greatest competitor in team sports history. But we shouldn't have to be that competitive WITH EACH OTHER just to buy his shoes. It's all just backwards and ridiculous. MAKE MORE PAIRS. IMPROVE QUALITY. STOP OVERPRICING.
It's time that Jordan Brand actually reflected the defining trait of the athlete who founded it - EXCELLENCE. We as consumers need to stand up NOW, and we need to be ONE.
I'm 35 years old. This is not a memo. It's a mission statement.
I'm a grown adult now, I've learned how to be responsible with my money and how to pay my bills and my taxes through discipline and hard work. Collecting Air Jordans was always a fun hobby to me, a connection to the past, to my youth, and to the greatest athlete in team sports history. I was very fortunate to have seen Michael Jordan play 6 times in person, during his prime in the 1990s, at Market Square Arena against Reggie Miller and the Pacers. And each time I saw him, Jordan put everything he had into the game. It didn't always work out for him...I was there when he unretired and shot 7-for-28 and the Bulls lost in overtime...but that intensity, that conviction, that indomitable will was always present. I saw him try to rip Reggie Miller's face off and then score 40 points, many of them on impossible fallaway jumpers and angry, vicious drives to the rim. I remember the player he was. I remember everything he did. But what I remember the most was the level of sheer competitive greatness that has never been surpassed both before or since.
To me and others from my generation who grew up watching the "greatest player ever", Air Jordans aren't just basketball shoes or mere fashion statements...these MEAN something. They're symbols of who we wished we could be like when we were little, symbols of what can be accomplished with hard work and determination. But most of all, they symbolize *excellence*.
That's why it's so infuriating when the quality of a lot of these retros released is so poor while the prices are so high. And it's disheartening when it becomes near impossible to get a pair of a particular model - in this case the Concord XI - without a lot of undue physical and emotional stress.
All my friends and co-workers who know nothing about collecting Jordans have all asked me the same question regarding the XI riots...why don't they just make more pairs? Why aren't they more widely available? And that's a good question. You never see people riot over Air Force Is or Chuck Taylors, yet those shoes do phenomenal sales every single year.
Jordan Brand could've avoided this whole mess by doing two things - A) letting all the stores do pre-orders or reservations...putting a certain amount down to reserve your pair, then paying the remaining balance on release day (failure to pay means the pair goes back on sale to the public), and B) simply making more pairs and doing a few restocks both in stores and online. A lot of stores in my area only got ONE pair in each size. Supply was nowhere close to satisfying demand, and that's what fuels the frenzy to get a pair. And this is just unacceptable.
In my opinion, only a class-action lawsuit against Jordan Brand/Nike by thousands of consumers will wake them up. I don't have any legal expertise, but I'm sure there are some of you out there who do. What can be done? How can we unite to stand up to this corporate entity that does NOT care about our well-being and let our voices be heard? Who can make them listen? A debacle like this should NEVER happen again, and if it does one of these days somebody is gonna get killed. Is that what it takes? Does Jordan Brand want people dying over pieces of leather and rubber? As a collector I can understand the desire to acquire these, as a rational person in the real world however I can never understand the lengths some people will go through to get them, all because of hype. Michael Jordan was the greatest competitor in team sports history. But we shouldn't have to be that competitive WITH EACH OTHER just to buy his shoes. It's all just backwards and ridiculous. MAKE MORE PAIRS. IMPROVE QUALITY. STOP OVERPRICING.
It's time that Jordan Brand actually reflected the defining trait of the athlete who founded it - EXCELLENCE. We as consumers need to stand up NOW, and we need to be ONE.
I'm 35 years old. This is not a memo. It's a mission statement.
