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The question is...WHY are older releases so much more common in Japan? Anyone have a plausible explanation?
At first the answer "Japan is cool" seems irrelevant, and more of a product than a cause of the question, but the more I think about it, the more that facile answer hits the spot.
I have an opinion and I'd like to hear other's as well.
(warning, I am making sweeping generalizations so please correct me if I am overreaching)
Japanese, being the trendiest people on this planet by far, roam from fashion to fashion devouring everything in its path, maniacally studying, analyzing, collecting, and hoarding until complete mastery over the subject. But when this brief frenzy is over the herd moves on to the next big thing. Fashion isn't move in the languid pace of spring, summer, fall, winter, but seems to move at a pace of this month, that month etc.
the best example of this is air max 95. When those joints dropped people were having judo matches over them and neons went for nearly 400-500USD. But a couple of seasons later, the whole country forgot about them. I'm not sure when the apex of AF1 collector's mania occurred here, but my suspicion is that it has gone and went, and people who hoarded a bit too much are trying to unload their stocks and convert it to cash for the next big thing.
If you people think that vintage AF1's go for a lot, you should see the prices that go for vintage converse. The bid counts and the final prices may seem asinine to us but converse are in at the moment in some circles. Who knows how long it will last? It would take a big name celebrity to say "converse suck" or "visvims rule" to bring the masses to a new direction.
To be fair, the axe swings both ways, and the way people look longingly here for vintage nike, is the same way a Japanese kid here might be bashing his head through the monitor because he can't read English to order spizikes, huf quakes, Honey Toast Crunch, an offensive army (enter any American Exclusive product). Everything you folks find ordinary, in the Japanese mind it is co.usa.
We're all sheep and the grass is greener on the other side.
lord knows I bahhhhhhh a few times here and there myself.
But good gentlemen let me pose another question, is it sheer fate, some queer arrangement of the stars, that the TEAM AF1 THREAD and its collectors lack the harmony of the Team AIR Max thread, or is there something inherent in the shoes themselves, the lack of huge sizes, the dwindling stock of co.jps, PEs, etc (when is the last time you saw fat joe whip out Terror Squad running shoes), fewer variations (mid, low, high vis-a-vis air max 89-2007) that makes AF1 collectors vicious when it comes to the hunt?
Truth be told, there's something embedded in the shoe, some consequence of its construction that forces the nasty out of some people. I imagine an AF1 to be some juicy woolly mammoth, ready for the pit fires, and AMs to be vegetables, growing neatly in rows in the garden. AF1 heads hunt like lone nomads and when they go out to hunt, they look for blood, ready with that SLR to show the tribe in 10 megapixel format what they sniped for dinner (word to Tyler). AM heads seem to be gatherers, harvesting information speaking in Dutch whenever possible while watering their AM plants. For better or for worse, vintage af1s can be worn and searching for old gems is actually a viable practice compared to AMs cracking, and so the AM community isn't as opposed to new releases because they can wear them.
I'm rambling so I'll stop.
since all spots are blown, if anyone wants me to scoop anything up for a tip, hit me up!
Neo Tokyo fresh catch of the day sashimi shoes!