It’s that time of year Once again, Nike has teamed up with Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and given 6 kids the opportunity to design their own shoe for the Doernbecher Freestyle collection. For those of you not too familiar with the DB collection, it is a yearly promotion with all proceeds going to the hospital, and is a great, meaningful collection.
Since today is the release day, I’m going to take a look at this year’s collection, and rank them in terms of worst to best. (Since I have no clue how to really get into ranking a women’s shoe, I’ll just give you my ranking now. Free TR5, best; Air Max 90, second-best). However, before I get into it, there’s one disclaimer: Anything said in this post is me being real about the shoe itself. Like I stated before, I think this is an unbelievably great fundraiser for the hospital, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for both Nike, and the children involved in the designing. However, that doesn’t mean I love every shoe that they released. Without further ado, here’s the 2015 Doernbecher Freestyle collection rankings:
#4 – Retro 13
I don’t care what anybody says here — these are absolute garbage. You couldn’t pay me to wear these. Sure, the black scaling details are pretty cool, but it just doesn’t mesh well with the shoe. The patent leather blue-ish color reminds me of something I’d see on a pair of fakes or something. To be honest, I was surprised when I saw some people say they loved ’em. (Makes me wonder what they would be saying if it wasn’t a DB Release). Although there are some cool details to the shoe, such as “Crohn’s” on the outsole so you can “stomp out the disease with every step”, the overall shoe is very ugly. Easy pass for me.
#3 – LeBron 13
Although I’m not the biggest fan of the LeBron 13, and wouldn’t dream about wearing these casually, they make the list at #3 — coming in way ahead of the Jordan 13’s. Easily the best colorway to come off of a LeBron 13 at this point, the savanna sunset-inspired colorway really pops. Apparently Kian, the designer of this shoe, is a huge Cavaliers and LeBron fan, so I already have a lot of love for the kid. You won’t see these on my feet at all either, but this is a pair I wouldn’t mind having as a collection piece.
#2 – Zoom Stefan Janoski
Taking the second spot this year is the Nike Zoom Stefan Janoski. I’ve never been a Nike SB guy, but these are unbelievably dope. First off, the all black shoe with red detailing is sweet. The Xeno-esque reflective material that shines when you hit the shoe with light is super dope as well. To top it all off, the Batman logo is prominently placed on the outside part of the shoe. This shoe makes me reconsider my current non-SB situation.
#1 – Air Max 95
Was it ever really a question? The Air Max 95 undoubtedly takes the top spot in this years ranking. The blue to red color-scheme combined with the circuit board detailing absolutely sets this shoe off. You better believe I’m going to be trying to get my hands on these today.
Kudos to all of the kids who I know worked hard on their shoe designs. Although I might not think one shoe looks good, someone else might have that as same shoe on their grail list. To each his own.
What do you think? Was I right-on here? Did I screw it up? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter! And best of luck to all those trying to cop!
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