food4thought: the retro game...

In a conversation I had with a friend recently, I was asked how many original (OG) pairs of sneakers did I own and to be honest I couldn't tell him. As we're all aware the atheletic footware business has moved away from focusing primarily on new innovations to pumping out re-releases of everyones old time favourites. This practice has become more and more apparent in the 2000's where we've seen the largest resurgence of retroes to date. Although, we can all agree that this serves to benefit those who wish to relive a part of their past through their sneakers this has also killed the game in a certain extent.

Once were the the times when major sneaker companies would re-release a sneaker every few years, now we see the same sneaker released once every other year. For example, it was great joy for me to see the re-release of the Air Max 95 "Neons" back in '08/'09 to only see them retroed again in '10. This practice could be seen again for the Air Max 95 "Infrareds" which saw a QS release back in '08 and then another re-release in '10. The Air Jordan IX "OG Colourway" ('08 & '10) and the rumoured Air Jordan III "True Blue" ('09 & '10/'11) are also in preparation to be retored. Although this may seem like a great thing for new collectors its really a blessing in disguise for the consumer and a nightmare for collectors and retailers.

Fat Joe said in one of his interviews with TSG, when they decided to first retro the AM95's, he went and bought up as many as he could because the thought was these would never be retroed again. To his disappointment, when they released them again and again there was really no need to stockpile this shoe. This is the problem with the sneakergame today. Sneakerheads have become savvy consumers and understand this trend. What is the point of purchasing a sneaker at retail when you can wait for it to go on sale or wait for its next release which is potentially in a few years.

Although I don't necessarily agree with the recent trend of re-releases in such a frequency, at the end of the day the person who comes up a winner is us the consumer. Keep in mind that I said "consumer" and not collector. If you're a consumer, you're purchasing this shoe for the purpose of consumption and not for its resale factor. In other words, you're not gonna be the person who cares if the sneaker is released once or a million times in the next few years.

By no means is this a knock on any sneaker company, I too am a consumer of retroed goods but at the end of the day its all about buying what you like and not what you think will sell...

What are YOUR thoughts on this topic?