The first time I noticed a real glut in the industry was around 2014 or 2015…which started with the Adidas ZX Flux. For years Adidas had been chasing Nike’s market share and they finally created a hit with the ‘ZX Flux Prism’. People were paying resale - around $200 or so, which doesn’t sound like much now but was a lot back then. The Prism was such a hit that they continued producing it (to meet perceived demand) and they produced so many goddam pairs of it that they began ending up sitting at Adidas outlets for $19.99. It got to the point that people who wanted this shoe no longer wanted to even see it. At all. (All of this has been corroborated by a MUCH more detailed look by Mr. Luber himself).
And then Adidas struck gold by signing the most impactful sneakerlebrity in 20+ years - Kanye West. His first drop - the 750’s - was a bit of a shit show. I had a hard time believing that this was the way the sneaker world was headed but was forced to eat my words shortly after. I couldn’t believe people were buying those things. But shortly after that release, Kanye was photographed in a bunch of random Adidas silhouettes, all of which seemed to move as soon as the photos released…
Climacool 1’s, originally released around 2001 - a shoe I originally owned and was dying for a retro of - suddenly mounted a comeback based on a handful of Parazz-ye pics…Prices started out in the $200 range, but Adidas perceived much more demand than there actually was and pairs ultimately settled around $40.
A few more pairs of heritage Adidas started moving…
Kanye was spotted rockin Ultraboosts. Another surprise hit from 2015…until…they started creating ‘retros’ of this shoe only 3 years removed in 2018. Again, these were selling for about double retail (or more) until supply turned out to be like 10x actual demand.
And then NMD’s. NMDs. Goddam NMD’s. Such a great shoe and silhouette…but my god…talk about beating a dead horse. I never saw Kanye in a pair of NMDs, but somehow Adidas managed to create more than 1,000 different versions of the NMD. That shoe made its debut in 2016. In 5 years - 1,000 colorways. MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND COLORWAYS OF A SHOE THAT CAME OUT IN 2016. And I know this is going to be hard to believe -but the first pair of NMD’s that came out in early 2016 - I copped before the hype train and sold my pair for about $400 (because they didn’t fit).
I was kicking myself because these were actually reselling for $1k about a month after I sold my pair. $1K! And what’s funny - you can currently buy that exact same pair on GOAT for $70 right now. $70! They can’t even GIVE these shoes away at this point.
And not all that long after all these pairs started sitting…they pulled an old, old pair out the archives, slapped Kanye’s name on them and somehow, this dude managed to convince the world to buy up these Powerphases…the first ‘Yeezy’ co-sign to hit sales racks:
Powerphases once sold for $300, now you can get a pair for $52 ..
It’s easy to say that it’s all Adidas’ fault. All gas, no breaks. But is that it?
To be continued…
I admit I'm an old grump, but are you getting a hangover on sneakers that became pleasing based on paparazzi pics of people podiatrically peddling Powerphases?
As you mentioned in part 1/?, the pertinent thing regarding glut is *production numbers*; number of colorways or styles is indirectly related or subservient to the actual production numbers for each model and colorway. But I do recognize that the brands hold that data very close to the vest, so all we have is number of colorways and the behavior of resale prices -- which are so easily manipulated. Oh well.
I liked the Multicolor Prism ZX's, but they reminded me of a much more interesting design that I liked tons better: the Nike Air Woven (but never purchased... priorities, sigh). And then Nike hit it out of the park with the rainbow Inneva Vapormax. Such yummy specks of woven color (which still have not been purchased due to finite resources and priorities).