Missing out on popular shoes has never been some new phenomenon. When the latest Jordans, Kobes, Iversons, or whatever dropped, it was kind of known that you had to act quickly or else feel left out as all your friends got to wear them. Yes, it was frustrating, but the process felt at least somewhat fair.
At some point, however, that shifted to whatever the hell is going on now, where so many consumers are growing apathetic as any new release is hyped up for its exclusivity over whether or not the shoe is even nice. To discuss that transition and what feels like a genuinely broken system, I welcome Michael Sykes of ForTheWin and his own “The Kicks You Wear” Substack on this week’s episode of “The Anthony Irwin Show.