food4thought - Kicks & Cigarettes...

I had a very interesting conversation recently with a friend about sneaker collecting. He referred to sneaker collecting as an addiction and related it to smoking. Although I adamantly disagreed with this comparison at the time, it made me rethink whether or not sneaker collecting could be as bad as smoking.

Right off the bat, many of you will say that this question is stupid considering smoking can actually physically kill you. However, if you look deeper, when collecting becomes an addiction it can possess just as radical physical effects.

The first thing someone needs to consider is that we're talking about collecting as an addiction NOT collecting as leisurely activity. One can generally determine if they're addicted to sneaker collecting when they exhibit one or more of the following:

• You spend more than 50% of your income on sneakers (for personal consumption not for resale)
• You've opted to purchase a pair of sneakers over food/rent (i.e. necessities)
• You spend more time sneaker hunting than you do with loved ones

The argument is that if you do in fact exhibit the above (a) you're a sneaker addict and (b) you exhibit tendencies that can be harmful to your health. Here's why...

If you're spending more than 50% of your income on consumer goods like sneakers, you're not spending enough on other necessities (i.e. food, shelter and clothing) that should be taking a larger percentage of your income. To give you some context, one should realistically spend 36% of their (take home) income on housing.

Also, if you're opting to spend money on sneakers rather than food/rent, I would seriously question how healthy you are both mentally and physically.  Missing one meal may not seem like a big deal but if you're doing it so you can purchase a pair of sneakers (no matter how coveted they may be) your health/nutrition most likely isn't a priority of yours.  Food produces much needed energy to help sustain our bodies.  This will also apply to rent/shelter as well, doesn't matter how nice your sneakers are, if you're not protected from the elements you probably won't have many opportunities to wear those sneakers you opted to purchase.

Although the effects from addictive collecting behaviour do not have direct effects on your health, the indirect effects cannot be ignored.  We all know cigarettes have been scientifically proven to be deadly but if you take a look deeper into the effects from addictive collecting behaviour, they may not be as far off as you once thought.

Leave a comment here or on twitter and let us know YOUR thoughts.

food4thought - Nash & The Sneakergame

With the sneakergame becoming ever so popular these last couple of years, we've seen a large surge in the number of resellers. Though resellers have always been in the game, we've seen a larger number of these individuals spring up who aren't necessarily sneakerheads. In most cases these individuals serve as sneaker brokers, picking up their stock at cost and quickly turning them for a profit.

It is human nature to try to maximize our personal gain/benefit when the opportunity presents itself. Thus we experience Nash's Equilibrium in the sneakergame. Nash's Equilibrium is defined as, "Nash equilibria are sets of strategies for players in a noncooperative game such that no single one of them would be better off switching strategies unless others did."

Let me explain this theory with a practical example:

When Nike announced that the Air Yeezy was slated to release in limited quantities over the world a large buzz/hype was created. Sneakerbrokers instead of purchasing with the intent to own the sneaker, purchased them with the intent to sell. Once the sneaker was sold out, all brokers increased the price of the sneaker with the intent of making a large substantial profit. Now you may ask how Nash's theory applies to this phenomenon. In a perfect world, "Broker A" and "Broker B" would acquire the Yeezy and sell it at face value. However, "Broker A" understands there is demand for the Yeezy and assumes that "Broker B" will sell the sneaker at face value and will charge a higher value to increase his overall benefit. "Broker B" also assumes the same thing and increases his price for the sneaker. Thus increasing the overall price of the sneaker for the end customer.

When there is a large presence of brokers in the game, the end customer always loses. One would assume that with more brokers the consumer would be better of butthis is not the case when brokers/resellers are only acting in their personal best interests.

Don't be surprised when you notice this phenomenon with the Cool Grey XI and Doernbecher III drops later this year. Atleast now you can put a name to it...

food4thought: which nike product line is better?

If I were to ask you what your favourite sneaker of all time was, what would you say? What genre of sport would this shoe fall into? Baseketball, Running or Football?

With all these retros being re released these last couple of years, many of us have been fortunate enough to see our favourites come back to retail. For myself, the news of the Air Jordan III being released in 2011 is amazing news. Although I'm a proud owner of a pair already, I made sure to get another pair for a rainy day! I can say with confidence that my favourite shoe stems from Nike's celebrated basketball lineage. If you were to ask Fatz, he'd tell you that his favourite sneaker, the Air Max 90 "Infrareds" stem from another of Nike's celebrated lines.
If you've been following the blog, you can tell that we're pretty much Nike guys and have been for sometime. You cannot deny the fact that Nike has produced some of the best and most iconic sneakers in the game. But the real question begs, which of Nike's lines is better?

Nike started out producing runners and is considered to be their bread and butter of the last 20 years. In more recent years, Nike's basketball line has started to surpass their heritage as being one of, if not their most profitable lines. If I were to ask you which of Nike's lines instead of which shoe was your favourite, what would you say?
Nike Running has produced some iconic sneakers like the Air Max 1/90/95/97/360, Presto, lunarglides, etc... While Nike Basketball has produced Air Jordans, Pennys, Kobes, LBJs, etc...

Which side would you choose if you could only choose one?

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?

f o o d 4 t h o u g h t: infrareds versus varsity reds...

Jordan brand has been so kind to drop us with the infrared pack but dropping them only a week after the varsity reds begs the question, is there really that much of a difference between the two?

For the purists, the obvious answer is yes but if you really think bout it can YOU really tell the difference? I'm not going to deny that there are a select group of individuals who will be able to tell the slight hue change between the two different models but will that be a driving factor to get you to cop both? The White/Varsity-Red VI's are retailing for 209.99CDN (149.99USD) while the Infrared Pack will be retailing for 399.99CAD (?USD).

There are a few reasons why I'm personally going to pass on the pack dropping next week and stick with the varsity red models. Firstly, I'm not really feeling like spending the extra cash on some models that are almost identical. I know a few of my friends will come at me and say that I'm not a true Jordanhead for making that statement but if you really want to go down that road and talk about being a true Jordanhead, you'd spend the extra flow to grab the OGs with the Nikes on the back (I know they're way more expensive and rare).

Secondly, dropping these colourways only a week apart are really heavy on the finances. I'm not sure how many people can realistically spend 689.28CAD (after taxes) in two weeks on three pairs of shoes. I'm personally more inclined to save that type of cash and spend it on something else, but that's just me.

Third is the hype. With every newbie Jordanhead vying for the Infrared Pack, it is going to be near impossible to find a spot that will have them in stock. With the phenomenon of the Pre-Order, most ppl will be left in the dark if they haven't already bought them up front. I for one have grown out of the whole camping out mentality as I'm getting older and don't really feel like waiting out in line during the middle of the night.

Please keep in mind that these are my own opinions and are by no means meant to make anyone feel bad. If you want to buy both, do it. If you want to camp out, do it. I mean it would make sense to cop the Infrared Pack if YOU hadn't been one of those individuals who copped the Black/Varsity-Red VI's earlier in the year (which I doubt since almost ALL of us copped them).

The way I see it is if you can get the pack through a link at a good rate, do it up. I know I would but the question is, WILL you be able to with all this hype? Share YOUR thoughts with us...

f o o d 4 t h o u g h t: a j v i "i n f r a r e d s"

I don't know bout you but there was a lot of hype in the latter part of 2009 surrounding the AJ VI Infrared rumoured release. As the months passed, JB announced that the AJ VI's would see a Varisty Red release instead and left many Jordanheads disappointed and heated. This decision left many to forgo this purchase as they didn't want to buy a "cheaper" alternative to the real deal. This was apparent with all online retailers having a full size run available even to this day for this colourway.

So we know 2010 is the year of the VI and JB has decided to be so kind and rob bless us with the re-release of the beloved Infrareds in a two pack (Black/Infrareds & White/Infrareds). With a tentative release date of June of this year, many Jordanheads were anticipating images of this release to quench their hunger for this iconic colourway. Most recently, a lot of the sneakerblogs have posted images of the infrareds from the pack which have left a lot of sneakerheads asking themselves what the difference is between these and the varsitys that dropped in January.

In my opinion, I don't really see a major difference between the two with the exception of the shade of red being only a smidgen lighter than the varsitys. I don't know about you but I know many ppl will be coppin these based on the fact that their the infrareds and nothing more. If you ask me, if you already copped a pair of the varsitys I'd save your money for some other retros like the XIII's, XI's or IX's.

What do YOU think? Will YOU be coppin?

P.S. Can you tell if the image posted here is the Varsitys or the Infrareds?

f o o d 4 t h o u g h t: a l l t i m e f a v s (k i c k s e d i t i o n)...

Once again we want to thank everyone whose been supporting the blog, its much appreciated...

Considering that we've been doing this "e n t e r s p a c e..." thing for a minute now, we figured it be nice to give you a little insight into some of our all time favs and hopefully you'll share some of your thoughts or favourites with us. Copy the list below and past them in the comments section with YOUR answers!

In this edition we're gonna focus on the glue that makes this whole "e n t e r s p a c e..." project complete, sneakers!

maxcak

Top 3 Sneakers of All Time (in no particular order): Air Jordan III (White/Cement Grey-Fire Red), Air Max 95 ("Neons") and Air Penny II (Black/Varsity Royal-White)
Favourite Brand: Jordan Brand
No. of Pairs in Your Collection: 50+
Favourite Sneaker (You Own): Air Jordan III (White/Cement Grey-Fire Red)
Favourite Sneaker (You DON'T Own): Nike Air Max 1 (Atmos Edition)
Best Pickup: Air Jordan XIII (White / Team Red – Flint Grey), got them for $120
Worst Pickup: Nike Air Max 1 (112 Pack), got them for close to $300. Love the shoe, didn't love the price I paid for them

Fatz

Top 3 Sneakers of All Time (in no particular order): AM90 Infrared, VI Infrared, AM1 Clark Kent 112
Favourite Brand: Nike
No. of Pairs in Your Collection: 60+
Favourite Sneaker (You Own): AM90 Infrared
Favourite Sneaker (You DON'T Own): Air Max 1 Atmos (teal swoosh w/elephant print)
Best Pickup: '01 Jordan Black Cement IIIs for about 130
Worst Pickup: Puma Schattenboxer Mid for ~150

FRZA

Top 3 Sneakers of All Time (in no particular order): Nike Dunk Low SB - De La Soul; Jordan XI BRED; ALIFE x Reebok Court Victory Pump (Tennis Ball) - I don't have any of these but they are all wonderful
Favourite Brand: Jordan Brand OR Reebok Pump
No. of Pairs in Your Collection: 105
Favourite Sneaker (You Own): Jordan III Retro (White/Fire Red)
Favourite Sneaker (You DON'T Own): Air Jordan IV Black/Cement Grey OR Air Jordan IV Blk/Yellow "Thunder"
Best Pickup: Reebok x STLN RCHS Pump 20 (gotta rep the T-Dot)
Worst Pickup: Vans Slip On Cab1 Lizard (cheap shoe but I will never ever wear them)

f o o d 4 t h o u g h t: w h e r e 'd t h e y g o???

If you're a local TDot sneakerhead you've probably noticed a recent phenomenon in our sneaker scene, the disappearance of a few staples!

In the last few months a number of prominent sneaker stores in the sneaker community of Toronto have disappeared. Stores such as North Trooper and GDFT (all locations in Canada) have disappeared without real warning unless you were in the know. Stolen Riches on Queen West (just west of Bathurst) recently closed it's doors for some renovations which has really left us with a few shops in the heart of our city. To get your fix on we've been left with really a few locations to grab some gems like Capsule, Livestock and Adrift. If you're ambitious and want to travel in the burbs of the city we still have spots like The Vault and Solestop to meet your needs.

The real question that many are probably thinking is whether or not the shoe game in Toronto starting to die down. The Canadian market for sneakers is already pretty weak, with the reduction of these local shops are we going to be losing out on even more gems? Are we going to be resorted back to depending on the buyers from large corporations to get us heat?

Share YOUR thoughts with us!

f o o d 4 t h o u g h t : c l a s s i c s ...

Fatz and I recently had a conversation about "Fads" in the sneaker game like the current "Boat Shoes" trend (yes I know I copped a pair too). What makes a shoe stand the test of time and allow you to carry it for generations? We asked ourselves, what shoe is such a classic that no matter your gender, sex or race you can still pull off regardless of what age you are. Which shoes do you find cool at 16 and still have the ability to rock when you're 50 without looking like a complete tool?

Here's our list:

1. Air Jordan 1
2. Adidas Stan Smiths/Rod Lavers/Gazelles
3. Converse Chuck Taylors

There is one common trait that these shoes all share; they're design is simple. The general design of these shoes are all rather slim and minimalistic in nature. Although these designs are generally simple, this does not take away from the style they all have. Slim build and minimal colours allow the show to stand the test of time and deviate from other shoes that have a bulky design or crazy features. Although most of these shoes have been released in a plethora of colourways, its the classic colourways that make these shoes staples in your wardrobe.

So whether you're a 16 year old skateboarder from L.A. or a 50 year old father of 2 from Japan, be sure that any of these shoes will be safe within your inner circles while giving you the "hip" factor.

What are YOUR thoughts? Leave us a comment and share some of your classics ideas!