You know that feeling of surprise you get when you would open up your Christmas or birthday gifts as a little kid? Or even as an adult? You had been wishing, hoping and praying for something cool all year (maybe something specific) and as the date grew closer and closer your anticipation grew more and more. Then when the day was finally here and you opened up your present, you were either the happiest kid in the world because you received the Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64,or you didn’t get what you hoped for and you’re kind of bummed out.
Depending on what kind of person you are you either take it really hard and you’re disappointed or you accept it, deal with it and move on. The point I’m trying to make is that the gift(s) that you received were a surprise right up until the final moment before you finally saw them for the first time.
I don’t know about you, but I think that surprises are cool because that feeling of mystery gets you either nervous or excited, but it triggers something inside of you that builds anticipation.
So what does this have to do with sneakers?
The whole business of shoes is all about releases and looking forward to what’s coming next from all of our favorite brands. For example, don’t we all look forward to Jordan Brand’s Black Friday and December holiday release every year? I know I do. But what happens when the brand(s) unveil what they have planned too early? Is this a good or a bad thing? Depending on who you ask you’ll have an argument for both sides. I know that there’s deadlines and certain marketing strategies that every brand follows, but the most important thing is what the consumers (us) think. Right?
In order to narrow our topic down I’ll be focusing on official early looks that actually come from the brands, not “leaks” from people who have early access to certain releases. Even though they’re probably given the shoes by the brands anyway. I still can’t get over how the Air Jordan 11 “72-10″, if that’s even the real name, was leaked 7 MONTHS BEFORE ITS RELEASE!!! By now we’ve seen every possible picture of the sneakers that the anticipation is no longer there and we’re STILL four months away from the release. At least that’s how I feel. So back to the official early looks, are they good or bad? Both.
One example of official early looks this year has been Jordan Brand and their two major collections that they unveiled waaaay ahead of their release dates. First we had the Holiday 2015 Collection, which is already around the corner, and that was followed by their Spring 2016 Collection. Holiday 2015 was unveiled 8 months in advance (February) and Spring 2016 was unveiled 7 months in advance (June). Some positive aspects of unveiling their collection this early is that it gives the opportunity for the shoes to build hype. The earlier the shoe is unveiled the more people look forward to the release and it creates hype. The bad thing about both of these collection is that in my opinion they were both subpar. We I expected more from Jordan Brand, especially if you decided to show us what was up your sleeve so early. Since they didn’t get the positive reception they were hoping from on their Holiday 2015 releases, that’s why I think the decisions was made to go ahead and give us the early look at what was planned for 2016. And lone and behold, they fell flat yet again. Now all we can hope for is some surprise releases here and there from Jordan Brand that actually do create the hype that their releases have been lacking this year.
Another brand that has recently gave us official early looks at a couple of new sneakers from their signature athletes is adidas. The Three Stripes unveiled the J Wall 2 last week and the D Rose 6 this week, both which will be releasing in October. In comparison to Jordan Brand, they revealed the next installment of their signature athletes sneakers only 2 months before their actual release. This gives people an early look at the sneaker, but not too early where they’ll forget about them in a few weeks. If some people aren’t feeling the sneakers that much right now, maybe in two or three weeks they’ll change their mind because they see that the release date is getting closer and they hype is beginning to build up little by little. Plus, the J Wall 2 and D Rose 6 are more affordable than retros as they’ll be priced at $115 and $140, respectively.
In conclusion, I think that Jordan Brand made a mistake by unveiling their releases too early and to make matters worse the collections didn’t live up to typical Air Jordan standards. On the other hand, I feel that adidas is ahead of the game when it comes to their marketing strategies and official looks at some of their biggest releases. They’re pretty much letting the shoes speak for themselves.
What are your thoughts on how brands unveil their signature sneakers/collections early? Is it bad to unveil them too early? Should they be unveiled a specific amount of time before they actually release? Let me know your thoughts on what Jordan Brand and adidas have been doing this year as far as officially unveiling some of their sneakers goes.
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