All About Those Lives

I gave the Davidson family the signed portraits of Ashley over the weekend at the memorial service for her. That part wasn't easy, emotional wise. Rest in Paradise Ashley Davidson and my condolences to the Davidson family.

And during the upcoming NBA All-Star Weekend, Michael Jordan will , coincidentally, turn half a century this Sunday. The day before that His 28th edition Air Jordan basketball sneaker that nobody will buy will be released at the same time his first sneaker from 1985 in the Black/Royal blue colorway will drop, which everyone and their girlfriends mothers will buy.

The 1985 joints releasing only at House of Hoops Foot Lockers (Westfield Topanga, Beverly Center) for $140

The 2013 Air Jordan XX8 releasing at every foot wear store you can think of.


Finally, this fool right here....

his life is like a 15 minute movie this past week. If it were a reality show, than LL Cool J should play as him (yes, I'm a few days late on that joke, and I think the Huffington Post did this page on purpose). 

Anyway thanks for your time reading this, and spoil your girl tomorrow. 

The Sneakers that John Connor is wearing back in 1990...

are gonna be released this Saturday. For those who can't see to closely, here's the big picture. 

The Nike Air Jordan V White/Fire Red colorway, which is what Edward Furlong was rockin' during his pull-up session, was released around the time when Terminator 2: Judgement Day was being filmed a year before the movie was played in theaters and WAY before Arnold looked after my state of California. The Air Jordan V was the first pair of Jordans I ever bought, but in a limited Black/Carolina Blue colorway in the summer of 2006. It came with a card (known as a retro card) that showed a black and white image of Michael Jordan spreading his arms just like in the "Wings" poster and on the back, it detailed the history of the shoe, such as dissecting the moments that Michael had in the NBA that year while wearing these. I also have another pair of these in the White/Emerald Grape colorway that will also be re-released again this year. 

What I like about these Jordan Vs is not what Michael did while wearing these, but the background I learned from it as well. The bottom of the sneaker was one of the first to have a clear sole with the Jumpman logo visible through it. Two other cool features of the Jordan V's was that it came with lacelocks for those too lazy to tie their shoes and the other is the reflective tongue that brightens when exposed to a large amount of light such as a flash from a camera (the other version of the Fire Red Vs had a black tongue that doesn't reflect). Will Smith was know for constantly running and dancing around in Uncle Phil's lavish house while wearing these during the first season of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, which also came out in 1990. 

Speaking of which, the retail price for these back in the day was $125, a shitload of money that year for basketball sneakers. This was at a time when anybody and their moms can go into a Foot Locker or an Athletes Foot and just purchase them anytime of the day, any day of the week. That process is no longer relevant nowadays in the present. Everytime an Air Jordan Retro is released, it sell out in less than 5 minutes online and many athletic footwear stores (Footlocker, Finish Line, Champs, Sheikhs) and boutiques (Undefeated, Blends) received limited shipment of each particular Air Jordan retro, with in some occasions, certain pairs are captured for the store employees as they take advantage on their employee discount on them. So don't expect to see this and other future Air Jordan Retros in the stockroom, otherwise the only other option is to pay beyond retail for these at sneaker reselling consignments like Flight Club LA, eBay, or make some offers through sneaker websites like Sole Collector and/or N-SB.org. 

Thanks to the Air Jordan XI Concords release (I blogged about that shit already http://justforsneaks07.blogspot.com/2011/12/kickin-and-screamin.html), now its getting more tough and challenging just for a pair of Air Jordans. The whole reasoning is because from the logic of Supply and Demand: the lower the Supply, the higher the Demand. People should realize, or have already realized, that Nike, and its shoe distributor accounts like Foot Locker and Finish Line, is a business. And in a business, its all about making money and maintaining that procedure. Buzz generates interest, which makes the hype for these shoes to spike while reselling. That's why those same shoes that sell out will still in shelves of Flight Club LA cause not too many people will pay alot more for a sneaker as opposed to suggested retail price, which the term MSRP comes in, Manufactured Suggested Retail Price. Because of the buzz and the mayhem from the example of the Concord XI release, many Foot Lockers, NikeTowns and several other athletic stores now have the so-called "raffles", which is a way to avoid the campouts and potential wildness during a Air Jordan Retro release. I've never done a raffle for a pair of shoes, but how it goes is that you walk in to the store, obtain a raffle ticket by giving them your phone number or email address and wait until if they notify you that you won the said raffle in exchange for a secure right to purchase that Air Jordan Retro on the day it releases. Here's a screencap I took from Beverly Hills NikeTown's Twitter account as a example. 

They also do a raffle process, but in a different way. You have to have a Twitter account in order to secure your pair at NikeTown through their "Twitter RSVP" method. Here's the link to Nike's website that explains it further. NikeTown Twitter RSVP information

I'm explain all of this for those parents and others who like Michael Jordan (or dislike him) and the design of Air Jordan Retros but aren't into sneakers and have the knowledge of them as I do. If you swim around previous release date threads on NikeTalk and Sole Collector for a particular Air Jordan Retro that dropped, you'll not only read stories about dudes crying for not being to get these off Finish Line's website or the Foot Locker nearby them had 15 pairs and ten of them went to the employees with the remain 5 not available in his size, but you'll also read the posts on these threads from people saying that they either have to know somebody that knows a connect, and that you have just have to do their homework by researching a way to get that Jordan Retro that your favorite rapper or that reality TV star you hate and his girl is wearing. Not only does this happen with Air Jordans, but hype and purchasing process usually happens whenever Kanye West's Nike Air Yezzy drops or if there's a different shoe like the Galaxy Foamposites from last year.

As for me copping the V's this Saturday? I don't want to go through that raffling Twitter RSVP bullshit. Sucks how there are young kids (post 1994 babies with money) who maybe know more about shoes than I do, but has never got to experience walking into a Foot Locker or NikeTown on a Saturday afternoon instead of camping out the night before and purchase the sneakers in his size right then and there. I don't give a fuck about paying more for these when they get re-released at Flight Club LA like I did with the White/Cement IV's last year, but I will be getting them in the future. One of my favorite bits about this retro is that

1.) There's no 23 on the side, and its the first time since the 2000 Fire Reds Vs that these retros will be released without the 23 just like the OGs from 1990 (yes, there was another pair of Fire Red Vs that came out in 1990 as well, but it had the 23 on the side, the midsole had more red than black, and like I said earlier, the tongue was non-reflective black.).

2.) The OG design box that its gonna be packaged in, just like Nike did with the IV's last year and the III's the year before.

I know for sure these will sell quickly now that people got their tax refund at around this time. Now you can see why Nike is bringing back the Black/Royal 1's and coincidentally re-releasing the White/Cement Jordan III's again with the Nike Air on the back this time. For those getting these Vs and those other retros, good luck. For those who didn't, find a Terminator or a T-1000 and have him take you back to 1990 in Los Angeles so that you can pay for these less cheaper than it is in the present. I suggest you use a credit card instead of cash cause the cashier will look at the dollar note and think that the money is counterfeit by looking at the year the cash was made.  

The Devil Wears Air Jordans

As a sneaker enthusiast, I can't believe I actually owned a pair of these.

I took this photo of those Air Jordan 1's at my homeboy Frank's crib just right after I purchased these just three years ago. I was actually in Chatsworth to pay off some fines I owe at the Courthouse there during that summer of 2009. I was doing security in the Antelope Valley then and I just got my first check from them which was $1,600 ($300 from that check went to the bank to clear off some bullshit holds I was too lazy to take care of then). So after that, while I was still in a good ass mood, I decided to drop by the Northridge Fashion Center to cop some stuff since I was within the area. I went to Champs to see what they have, and on the display, they have a pair of the Air Jordan 1 60+ pack that was released that summer, and this was a month after they dropped. Then a sales associate came up to me and asked me what size I wanted (similar to the Fire Red IV retros at the Finish Line I blogged about two months ago). I told him my size (12 and 13) and he went to the back to see if it was available. I first, I though we were wasting out times since I assumed that the pack was sold out and they only had the smallest size available, but apparently to my surprise (again, like the Fire red IV story) he walked out with two packs with the different sizes I asked for. 

I thought them shits was sold out as I asked him. He told that somehow, they still managed to have a full size run of the 60+ pack. Reason I thought they were gonna be sold out because of the Black/Red 1's that came with the pack, but I really wanted it for the Boston Celtics colorway of the Jordan 1's that was also included in the pack. (I don't like the Celtics, but I like how the colorway turned out on the shoe) Again, this was a month after it dropped and typically at that point, most of the original Air Jordan retros with the OG colorways are sold out within minutes after the sneaker stores open. Anyway, I bought the pack which turned up to be $310 plus tax IN RETAIL and then bounced with my new pairs of sneakers. I went to Franks house to take photos of the shoes with his camera, but mostly for the Black/Red 1's cause I was planning on not wearing them so that I can sell them. A month later, I sold those Black/Red 1's for a hundred bucks and still kept the Celtics colorway for another year until I sold those to my cousin on New Years Day 2011. 

To this day, I still imagined of what if I never sold those Black/Red 1's and what if I actually wore them. That shoe was retroed 3 times since it dropped in 1985 and they made another retro two years after that. The history behind this particular shoes was unusual if you think about it. 

Right after he was drafted into the NBA, Michael Jordan was invited by Nike executives to come check out a presentation that they did for him and to also have him sign with the company. Michael refused to go because he really (I mean, REALLY) wanted to sign with either Adidas or Converse cause not only were they the top selling basketball sneakers at in the mid 80's, but also, Michael wore when he was playing at North Carolina. Plus the two companies has athletes who won NBA championships endorsing them: Adidas had Kareem Abdul Jabbar who wears them in the NBA and Converse had Julius "Dr. J" Erving wearing their pair, along with Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson as their spokespersons. At that time, Nike wasn't a big company. It was mostly geared towards running than Basketball (the Air Force 1 that released in 1982 sold decent, but it wasn't as hyped as the Converse Weapons and the Adidas Superstar), so that made the company invest and trust in Michael as the tried to sign him. 

In 1985, his parents forced him to go to Nike's headquaters in Beaverton, Oregon, and they went with him so that he wouldn't miss out on this offer. When they got there, the suits at Nike presented him a video presentation of the shoes that they constructed for him. After that, Michael was disgusted and said that he'll look like a clown wearing the devil's shoes. Eventually after Nike kept persuaded him and giving him a 2 Million dollar contract, Michael reluctantly gave in, signed the paper, and the rest, obviously, was fucking history. If he still refused to sign with them, then I wouldn't have stacks to Nike shoeboxes in my room and and several other sneaker enthusiasts wouldn't have stacks of Nike shoeboxes in their rooms as well. I think I'd be wearing Adidas Superstars or some generic Payless shoes had Michael never signed with Nike. That just shows how much impact that pair of those basketball shoes (which was retailed for $65 in 1985) made throughout the years. 

Well, tomorrow I have to go with the little brother to the Newbury Park Adventist Academy in the Conejo Valley so that he can take the ACT standardized test over there, then for the rest of next week it more meetings, worthless appointments and several kids (and adults) dressing up as one of the Angry Birds consuming too much sugar this upcoming Wednesday.  Thanks for your time reading this.