We’re here. It’s late december, and we’ve finally almost made it through 2015.
Now that the year’s over, we can take a look back at the sneaker industry and the game as a whole, both the good and the bad. Like most other years, there were ups and downs across the industry, but there was one brand that tossed an uncharacteristically large amount of bricks over the last twelve months: Jordan.
Now don’t get us wrong here: we love Jordan Brand. Hell, how could you not? They’re responsible for a large number of the best sneakers of all time. But that doesn’t mean they’re immune to releasing some garbage every so often. What went wrong this year? We’ll break it down for you. Without further ado, here’s why 2015 wasn’t Jordan Brand’s greatest year.
Bad General Releases
Limited releases will always sell out, but you know a season/year is a success when all the GR’s sell out too, and that was certainly not the case in 2015. We’ve already discussed how this year’s GR’s were sub-par as a whole (you can check that article out here if you’re so inclined), but here we are several months later, and a lot of the same shoes are still sitting on the shelves. Want Marvin VII’s? Three-Peat VIII’s? Sweater VII’s? Walk into any store and grab them. They’re likely sitting on close to a full size run. The GR designs and color ways this year were pretty sub-par, and when the products you should really pride yourself on aren’t moving, it’s not a good look.
Extended GS Sizing…Not A Big Deal
Ladies (and men with smaller feet) the world over rejoiced when it was announced that any grade school releases would go up to a 9.5 instead of a 7 in 2015. Problem is, extended sizing didn’t have the impact it should. Sure, there were a lot of people happy to get their hands on a fresh pair of Citrus XI lows, but there was no true signature female release to go along with the announcement. This could have been a chance to really knock it out of the park with a dope shoe for the ladies, and instead they were given the Jasmine, a half-baked casual shoe loosely associated with Nicki Minaj. Swing and a miss.
The Signature Shoes Were Bricks
Carmelo Anthony. Chris Paul. Blake Griffin. Russell Westbrook. What do these four have in common besides being world-class basketball players? All four of their signature shoes failed to make an impact. The Melo M11 came and went without so much of a whimper, as did the Super Fly 4 and the CP3 9. And let’s not even get started on the Westbrook 0. Trying something different, like Jordan did with making Westbrook’s signature sneaker for casual wear is not a bad idea..but the execution just wasn’t there, and a shoe that could have been really dope winds up looking like a Balenciaga knockoff. No surprise they’re sitting everywhere.
Not Enough Futures
Ok, admittedly we’re a little biased here as the KicksOneTwo family all loves Futures, but there simply weren’t enough this year. Arguably the shoe of 2014, the Future got almost no love this year, and although some of the new low-top models like the Gammas above were clean, they didn’t hold the allure that the highs did in 2014. Why Jordan Brand didn’t roll out more Futures this year is beyond us, but you can chalk it up as another missed opportunity.
All in all, not the best year for Jordan Brand. Missed opportunities, odd advertising (a Blake Griffin Space Jam-inspired commercial but no Space Jam release? Come on), and some flat-out uninteresting sneakers made for a somewhat stale year. Here’s hoping 2o16 is better. You can’t really go wrong with IV’s and XII’s right? We’ll just have to wait and see.
What do you think? Was it a bad year for Jordan Brand? Do you have a more positive opinion of how their year went as a whole than we do? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on Twitter! We’re down for a discussion. And, as always, be sure to follow us on Instagram for all the fire sneaker pictures you can handle.
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