- What's up, Kicks family?
It's ya boy Meech here,
back with our debate show "Sneaker Swap," where we argue a lot.
OK,
I have my usual guys with me: C.J. Toledano, Christian Pierre and Jeff Johnson.
What's going on, fellas?
- Doing good.
- Doing good, my man. How are you? - Yo, bro.
- Exciting, exciting.
We have a really interesting topic for today, guys.
It is:
If you had
a Yeezy 350,
would you trade it for a Nike Roshe Run?
I know it's crazy.
It's crazy.
But talk to me. - Is this is a prank show?
- What's the catch?
What's the catch? Cuz I'm not doing that.
I'm keeping the 350.
It's like, it's like trading the 2020 model of a car for the 2000 version.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, it's in the same vein, and clearly the 350s,
to me, are the better shoe.
They're the more sought-after shoe.
They're probably worth more than the Roshes.
It doesn't make any sense.
- Yeah.
I'm not trading the 350s for the Roshe Run, man.
It almost sounds, like, deranged talking about it, to be honest.
I'm not gonna split the 350s like that.
The 350s are lowkey
still some people's grails. Like, maybe not me personally, but I like ‘em a lot.
They're grail for a lot of people.
It's almost like if you were to offer me, like, 350 Roshe Runs for a 350,
I'm still picking the 350s.
This is the Kanye effect.
What can I say?
- Listen, I'll play devil's advocate here. - Oh, boy.
- We wouldn't have the 350s if it wasn't for the Roshe Runs.
- Thank you, C.J.
Thank you, C.J.
And honestly, and honestly, if you took Kanye's name off those
shoes and you're a Nike loyalist or if you're a Nike sneakerhead,
you know? I don't know. I might pick, I might pick the swoosh over
just, you know, some Primeknit.
I mean, and I also don't like a lot of the colorways of the Yeezy 350s,
so. And to me, it's just, like, the ultimate hypebeast indicator.
So, I’m gonna
ride with the Roshe Runs here.
- Wow.
- Wow! You're rocking with the Roshes?
- And listen, I did a little bit of research.
We'll get to it.
I have to spread out my ammo, but, yeah, I'm comfortable with this.
I'm comfortable with this.
- C.J.,
I can't, I can't say you're wrong. If it wasn't for the Roshes, like
there might not be a 350.
Cuz, like, Kanye said it himself.
I feel it. But, to be honest, like, I don't—
like, I don't know if everybody's talking about “Did the Yeezy 350s
replace the Roshes,” right?
I would think the Ultraboost 1.0s are the shoe that replaced the Roshes,
to be honest. And, funny enough, I think it's got an adverse effect to it because
what really helped put the Roshes—I’m sorry, the 1.0s—on, the Ultraboost,
is when Kanye wore them.
When Kanye wore ‘em at concerts, when he wore them at Powerhouse, like, back in,
like, 2015, I guess, five years ago.
So, like, he helped elevate the Ultraboost to what it was at that point.
It was, like, one of the hottest shoes in the streets and market at that time.
And then it's crazy
cuz even, like, later that year, obviously the 350s dropped.
So, like, they were both so fly, but it’s obviously, like, levels to it,
you know what I mean?
Like, it was, like, Ultraboosts here, 350s here.
Roshe is, like, way below, underneath the screen here.
- So, I—Christian, I agree with you, man, but I don't wanna discount
the real hype of the Roshe,
right?
This is a sneaker that originally debuted in 2012 for $70, right?
- Yeah, yeah. - At that time, that price point is unfathomable.
You know, I can take—Mom’s taking me to the store, you
know, a senior high school Meech, and I can get two, three pairs,
that's the price of, you know, what one Ultraboost was.
And at the time, you know, the Roshe Run was, like, really an athlete’s shoe,
you know? It was, it was what—now we have the slides, but you know, at,
the time, athletes were rockin’ Roshe Runs before and after games. For $70, man,
how do you beat that? How do you beat that? - Yeah, for real. LeBron, LeBron wore ‘em.
- Yeah, I’m not gonna front. I’m here to be swayed because I've seen people wear them damn Yeezys in the worst way possible.
I seen a dude wear a suit
with Yeezys on.
It's like, “Fam,
OK,
I know. You're ‘for the culture.’
You know. You're high fashion.”
Fuck
outta here!
Like, what are you wearing?
And the suit wasn't even tapered!
So what type of, like—he was wearing, like, the LeBron ‘03
size boxy suit that you just got off the rack because you know you makin’ millions,
so, you know, “Forget a tailor.
I'm trying to get paid.
I'm trying to shake David Stern’s hand.” Like that.
So, yeah, man, I'm here to be swayed because I totally agree.
If it didn't say Yeezy, it would be in Marshalls right now,
and not as, like, a hidden gem.
- I think a lot of it actually probably had to do obviously cuz the Kanye hype. We all
know that. But those were legit, like, game-changer shoes that were like, hold up.
Like, “stripes over checks” type vibes.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like, at that time, that's what it was kinda giving off.
So, like, I don't know.
I don’t think the Roshes ever had that effect. Like, I guess it wasn't even a competition at
that time, but I feel like the Roshes never had that effect on the streetwear scene
like that. Everybody wore them for sure, but— - But then it comes, it comes to me and it's like,
all right, we did have, you know, those awesome original releases of the 350,
right?
But now here we are five years later, four or five years later,
and they're regurgitated so much, you know? I've seen colorways that look
five, six the same times. And if I'm looking back to the Roshe Run and obviously,
you know, the price point on these, on these Yeezys are still 200,
250, the Roshe one was $70, man,
I can get all my colors.
But at least I had variety. With the Yeezys,
I have, I have sand.
I have dust.
I have, I have coral.
I have all these colors that are all in the same space on the color wheel. - Earth tones.
- They really are making up colorways.
They're making up colorways.
They're trying to make it,
they're trying to give it some, like, mythology
when in fact, it's just the Roshe Runs on steroids, you know? - Right.
- I mean, it's like, we talk about Kanye, and I don't wanna, I'm not trying to shit on
him, but the dude walks around and says he’s Mr. Innovation, but literally the guy just put
some cheap, like, some, like, prints on some Roshe Runs and said, “I'm changing the game.”
I mean, he did, but is it because we're stupid?
I mean, I just—yeah, I just, I wanna make sure that we know that
the Roshes walked
so that the Yeezys could run,
you know what I mean?
- When he was coming up with the concepts for the Yeezy 350s, he said
that he wanted to replace that shoe.
When he was talking about that shoe,
he was talking about the Roshe Run.
Obviously we see a lot of the inspiration there, but I would also like to see
some innovation there. And we had it in the beginning, but now I feel like
it's just too copy-paste for me, man.
And I feel like that's why I'm riding for the Roshe Runs
because at least there was—
at the time, it was something new, right?
And there's still chances for the Roshe Run to come back
and make a name for itself,
you know? If the Yeezys can do this— if Nike really wanted to put their money
behind the Roshe Run and make it, you know, compete with the everyday shoe,
I think they could, they could gain that kind of momentum.
- Yeah, I mean, let's throw an artist collab with the Roshe Runs. The game,
it completely changes.
- Add an artist. Put it on sneakers.
Nobody gets it
but the bots. There's your hype.
- I mean, we've already seen so many celebs rep the, rep the Roshe
Run in the past, you know? And a lot of these guys are Nike guys now.
I can't name off the top of my head, but I know C.J.,
you're really
familiar with it.
- Top-tier celebrities: Drake, LeBron, Kanye himself,
Bieber—not a fan, but Bieber.
Yeah,
I mean, at that time, it wasn’t, it wasn't a shoe that you clowned.
It was like a staple.
Like, everyone had a pair.
It was like the high-fashion casual shoe.
- C.J., you hit on a great point there.
You said everyone had a pair.
When Kanye went into Adidas and started making 350s,
one of his promises was, “I would like everyone to own a pair of Yeezys.”
Do you guys really think that he's fulfilled that
promise or actually made Yeezys
that attainable for the everyday person?
- If he keeps on dropping different versions, giving more individuals more
chances and chances off the similar silhouette, like, he's doing that.
And, like, maybe the innovation isn't always there from version
one, version two, version three.
First of all, I'm really upset
y’all
made me, like, hold the Yeezy crown right now. Like,
I’m upset about that, but whatever.
He has
other shoes that kinda helped the innovation.
Like, the 350s, or, like, the 380s are a spinoff
of the 350s, right?
Like, you have the Wave Runners
obviously. You have the 750s. You have, like, some of the new Alvah
V3s or, like, all those 700s. Like, all these different innovative
shoes off of, like, what he originally did. - In 2015, the NMD R1 released, right?
The black, blue and red pair for originally $170,
OK?
Now NMDs are about $140. And then the Ultraboost also
released for about $180.
- Yeah.
- And also 350s, I believe, released that year.
So I wanna know from you, which of these three do you think was the
most impactful on the sneaker game?
- People really loved that Ultraboost technology.
Like, I remember just, like, non- sneakerheads a few months
after the hype died down.
They're like, “I just got these Ultraboosts. Boy, they’re comfy!” You know?
It was like, it was like a shoe that,
it looked good,
and then when they got it, they're like, “Oh, yeah, this is legit.”
Like, “This has some function to it.”
Like, I have to give it to Adidas. At that time,
I really feel like it was the Ultraboost.
that was like, “Oh, we can wear runners as a lifestyle shoe.”
- Shifting gears here a little bit, guys, I definitely want to go into some
comments that Kanye made the other day.
He said, he said, “I should be able to wear Jordans, especially
as a black man from Chicago.”
Do y'all agree?
Cuz I definitely agree. - Yes!
- Listen, I know. Kanye, you signed with Adidas. Your name's on a dotted line.
It's in the contract.
You can't wear other brands, but this is Kanye West
we're talking about, OK? - Then sign a better deal.
- Sign a better deal? - Sign a better deal.
If you're a Kanye West, put in your deal that you can wear
whatever you want, because it doesn't matter what I wear on my feet.
I'm gonna sell for you.
You're Kanye West. Write a,
sign a better deal.
He should know. He's a rapper!
Why'd you leave Nike if you wanted to wear—
- I mean, can you blame him for going to a brand that helped
make him a multibillionaire?
- I don't. I don't. I don't. I don't blame him at all.
And from a human perspective, we should be able to be free to wear
whatever we, wear whatever we want.
From a business perspective, it looks a little crazy.
Imagine Tim Cook
having, running Windows.
I don't even know what their, what their—what is it, Edge now?
Imagine Tim Cook running Microsoft Edge on his laptop.
Like, you know? And if he does, we don't know about it.
I'm just saying. Like, I think he should be able to, but put it in your deal.
Aren't there, like, shoe deals that basketball players sign where they
say, “When I'm on the court, I have to wear this sneaker, but off the court, I
can wear whatever”? - We gotta realize,
we're here,
we're talking about sneakers.
The game is the game because of Jordans.
And, like, we love when brands are self-aware, and I almost think it'd be a
good look on Adidas to be like, “Listen, we're gonna give the tiniest shout-out
to Jordans for getting us here.
So you can wear a Jordan, especially since you're from Chicago.” But also
too, like, Kanye is not the only one.
I remember stories growing up about how Iverson—
I mean, we remember Iverson in the college days.
Like, he's the second most famous person to make those Concords look
good to me with those Georgetown unions.
And then I remember when Harden signed with Adidas.
- Yeah.
- Like, there were those stories coming out that literally, like, he had signed
the deal with Adidas, but it didn't start for another, like, two months.
And he was wearing Jordans till the day the Adidas contract started.
- Like, they had to make the commercial that Adidas came and dropped off all
new Adidas. Like, a whole collection.
They're like,
“Here's the Adidas collection. Please stop wearing Jordans, Harden.” - That’s a great point.
- And so, like, we all gotta admit, like, all these Adidas and Reebok
and whoever else is out there, Wade, all these people, they definitely
have Jordans in their collection.
They're definitely wearing ‘em when they're not on camera.
- If Kanye was to also, you know, leave, take the Yeezy line, make them on his own,
could we see it competing with the Nikes, Adidas,
Puma, Reebok?
What do you guys think?
- It probably would be smart for him to just link up with another shoe brand for
distribution. And, you know, that's where I—that's one of the main reasons why I
think Big Baller Brand— - BBB! - The triple Bs went down.
Like, you don't need to, you don't need to place any stronger
burden on yourself with that.
Maybe he can go to another—what if he brings something back like British
Knights or something nuts like that,
and makes, like, a Yeezy line of that? Just makes his own Yeezy but it's
like “Yo, we’re bringing it back.” Or what if he goes to Puma?
- You know,
we talk about also, like, reenergizing a line, and the biggest
thing is retroing stuff.
How—I can't imagine Kanye hasn't thought, “Man,
I wanna retro my Nike Yeezys.
Like, those are still such, like, a sacred shoe, you know?
So, like, If he gets out of his deal, any sort of deal, a new
deal that allows him to rerelease those Nikes and other colorways, like,
that is a whole untapped potential right there with retroing Nike Yeezys.
- C.J., he even said it himself
that he—I think he said he wouldn't be mad if Nike retroed his shoe.
- Yeah.
He wants ‘em.
He wants ‘em. He’s a fan of his own Nikes.
- C.J.,
what Jordans do you think Kanye wants to wear? - The Infrared 6s.
- Jordan 6s? - Yeah.
- Which one did you say?
Jordan 6s?
- Yeah, the Infrareds.
- Wow.
- I actually remember when he wore those courtside once at MSG. - Yeah, with the leather pants.
- Yeah, I forgot about that.
Wow.
I was thinking,
at first I was trying to figure out, would he wanna wear Off-Whites?
Cuz he mentioned, like, he wants to wear his friend's shoes.
So, like, I'm trying to figure out, is it, like, an Off-White thing?
Cuz you know how the, like, when Virgil and Kanye finally met up again
at LV at a runway show, like, how big that was. So I don't know if it's like
that thing, or maybe some Don C shoes.
I don't really know.
- Yeah, it's got—it's Virgil and Don C. You're telling me—he's gotta
be—like, they're all on a group
chat dropping pictures of their shoes being like,
“What do you think of these?”
Like, “Give me some feedback.” But I feel, yeah.
I mean, Kanye wants to wear his friend's creations, you know?