Hybrids: Yes, No, Maybe So????

Hybrids: Yes, No, Maybe So???

Fusions. What Is The 1st Image In Your Head When The Word Is Said? The Average American Would Answer Fuel Efficient Vehicle, However, I Am Not An Average American And Neither Are You.  Most Assuredly If You Are Reading This Post The 1st Thing That Came To Mind Was Some Hideous Sneaker Jordan Brand Forced Upon The World Last Year, Weather It Be The V’s, XIII’s, IV’s, Or IX’s There Was A Favorite Fusion To Loathe.  Why Jordan Brand And Nike, Why??? 2009 Was Supposed To Be A Year Of New Beginnings. A New President Had Everyone Thinking 2009 Will Be Different, 2009 Will Be Better, 2009 Will Spark Ingenuity, Creativity, Innovation, And An Overall New Look For America’s Culture.  Nike Had The Opportunity Step On The Throats (So To Speak) Of Its Competition.  Nike And Jordan Brand Has Always Been Synonyms With Creative, Rule Breaking, New Frontier Design And Technology, But When Everyone In The World Was Looking Forward To The Future, Nike Was Looking To The Past.  As Opposed To Creating Something New And Exciting They Decided To Take Two Shoes From Years Past Combine Them And Package Them As The Shoes To Come.  #FAIL, No #EPICFAIL!!! While I Am Positive It Has Been An Extremely Lucrative Business Venture (Clearly Speaking From The Heart Not The Wallet) It Has Left Nike’s Most Loyal Supporters At A Crossroads.

Nike/Jordan Brand’s 1st Hybrid

I Own The Very 1st Pair Of Hybrid Sneakers I Remember Jordan Brand Ever Released.  At The Time Of Their Release The Jordan V.5 (Carmelo’s) Were Innovative.  Released In Winter 2004 The Shoe Combined The Technology And Design Of The Classic Jordan V’s And Jordan VI’s Together In A Denver Nuggets Color Way With Little Pieces Of Carmelo Anthony’s Background Placed On The Shoe, It Was Great.  It Was New Then.  I Still Have My Pair In The Box In A Stack Somewhere.  Why Do I Not Have A Problem With Nike And Jordan Brand’s 1st Attempt At A Hybrid Sneaker??? Like I Said It Was A New And Fresh Idea. The Jordan V.5 Was A Very Attractive Color Way For One Of The NBA’s Newest Super Stars.  It Was Almost As If A Passing Of The Jordan Brand Torch From The End, Yes The Real End, Of Michael Jordan’s Era To The Future That Was Carmelo Anthony.  It Was A Brand New Jordan, Not Just A Player Edition Retro, But A New Shoe, Paying Homage To The Past By Pulling From Two Classic Jordans And Opening The Gates For The Future With The Carmelo Personalizations.  Unfortunately The Gates That Were Opened Were The Flood Gates To The Fusion Filled Future We Currently Reside In.

Jordan And The .5

Since The Release Of The Jordan V.5, There Have Been almost as many .5 Versions Of Jordans Than Actual Jordans.  Although It Did Take A Few Years After Carmelo’s ’04 Release For Jordan Brand To Exploit The .5 Series, I Feel The Consumer’s Positive Response To The V.5 Kept The Idea Team Jordan’s Brain Cloud.  Again I Had No Problem When Another .5 Series Sneaker Poked Out Its Head After A Few Years Of Silence, But When That Was Rapidly Followed By Another And Another I Knew Jordan Brand Was Starting To Slip.  In My Opinion They Have Diluted Their Brand With Sub-par Quality, Designed, And Creatively Constructed Shoes, But That Is Damn Near An Essay On Its Own.  It Just Seemed Team Jordan Had Exhausted That Aforementioned Brain Cloud And All That Was Left Was The .5 Series.  Most Of The Series Have Been Poorly Executed, But Purchased Because They Are A Cheaper Version To The Retro Jordans That Many Desire To Have But Cant Afford To Purchase, So As Opposed To Going Fake (THANK GOD) They Go Next Best Thing.  I Would Have No Problem With This Except For One Factor.  Jordan Was Originally A Basketball Shoe, You Know To Actually Play Basketball In.  I Will Not Start On The TERRIBLE Quality Of Jordans Retros In The Past Year, But They Wont Even Put It Into Their .5 Series Shoes.  If They Were Constructed And Promoted Like The V.5’s Were I Would Be Fine With The Series.  If They Were A BASKETBALL Sneaker That’s More Affordable Than A Retro, But With Actual On-Court Quality I Would Accept The .5 Series, But Until Then I Will Renounce Them.  I Feel The Extremely Unattractive And Unsuccessful Release Of Every “New” Jordan Since The XX (Exception To The XXIII, Not Bad) Is Forcing Jordan Brand To Hang On To The Past In Whatever Ways They Can Which Brings Me To Fusions.

JB+AF= GTFO

Remember, Remember The Fifth Of November January, 2008.  That Day Will Forever Live In Sneaker Infamy, For On This Day Jordan Brand Released The Air Jordan Fusion 12.  This Quite Possible Has Lead To The Most Hated Series In The Sneaker Culture “The Fusions”.  A Stroke Of Life From The Jordan Brand Wallet Is In Turn The Same Death Stroke To The Heart Of Its Strongest Cultural Supporters.  I mean In Theory This Is Brilliant, Take The Air Force 1, Arguably The Greatest Sneaker Ever Invented (Come On People It Started It All, And Combine It With Different Jordans, The Sneakers That Argue With The 1st Arguable Statement.   Take The Two Best Selling Series In Nike’s History (Exception Air Max) And Put Them Together And It Would (In Theory) Create A Harmonious Balance in The Culture And Line Nike’s Pockets With More Than Dri-Fit.  However To The Loyalist It Was Like The Total Sign Of Disrespect.  How Could They??? It’s Bad Enough They Continue To Fuse Two Retro’s Together, But How Could They Combine Something As Sacred As A Jordan With Anything Else???  Nothing Against The Air Force 1, I Love Them, They Are A Classic Shoe, But They Are Not Jordans.  I Am Willing To Bet That There Is One Jordan, One OG or Retro, That Got Them In The Game That Is The Sneaker Head Culture.  And To Dilute The Integrity Of The Shoe Like That, Its Almost As If Jordan Brand Was Getting Its Tiger Woods On (Too Soon???)  No Loyalty To The Loyalist, I Know I Felt Disgusted By The Poor Quality And The Even Poorer Execution Of The Fusion Series.  The Sad Thing Is It Seems As If They Didn’t Even Attempt To Creatively Combine The Two Sneaker Legends.  A Majority Of The Fusions Appear As Either Jordans With An Air Force 1 Sole, Or Jordan Inspired Air Force 1’s, With No Meshing Of Technology Or Style. I Hate It. End Of Section.

The Combo Guard Shoe

The .5 Series And The Fusions Are Just The Two Prominent Members Of Jordan Brand’s Fusion Division, But They Didn’t Start Nor Finish With Either.  Perhaps The Most Culturally Accepted Non-Retro Jordan Is The Spizike.  A Fusion Of Multiple Jordans Is Marketed As A Design Concocted By Avid Jordan Fan And Brand Rep Spike Lee.  The Design Is “Doing A Lot” But In The Right Color Ways Is Actually An Attractive Sneaker.  I Love The Original Color Way, But There Have Been Few And Far In Between That Have Caught My Eye.  The Reason Being Is The Spizike Happens To Be A Loud Shoe, The Design Itself Is Has A Lot Going On, So When Combined With A Very Basic Color Scheme It Comes Off Almost Flawless (A La Original Version), But When Combined With A Loud Or Complicated Color Way The Shoe Just Screams Look At Me, Look At What I Was Tricked In To Buying.  The Rest Of The List Contains More Sneakers That Are A Combination Of Multiple Jordans In An Attempt To Exploit Past Glories.  The 6 Rings Package Is Self-Explanatory, Take All 6 Shoes Michael Jordan Won Championships In Take A Piece From Each And Slap It Together.  Quality = None, Attractiveness = Less Than None.  An Ugly Sneaker That Makes The Spizike Look Tame, At First Look It Comes Off As A Fake XI.  Another Failed Attempt At Sneaker Combing Was The Dub Zero. This Idea Has Been All But Killed By Sponge Bob and Soulja Boy. That Is All The Attention I Will Give The Dub Zero.  Lets See We Have The Jordan Olympiads This Was A #FAIL. And More Recently Jordan Has Concocted The 60+.  They Have, In A Sad Attempt At Nostolgia, Taken All The Sneakers Jordan Wore While Scoring 60 Or More Points In A Game, And Have Put Them In A Shoe. WACK WACK LAME (Wocka Flocka Voice).  This Is All I Have From Brand Jordan And Their Fusion Experiments, Now On To The Mildly Appealing And Attractive Nike Attempts.

I Thought Little Brother Copied Big Brother???

Not In The Case Of The Fusion, At Least To My Knowledge.  From What I Recall Jordan Brand Was Combing Sneakers Well Before Their Big Brother (Nike) Attempted Such A Daring Feat.  However While Jordan Brand’s Attempts At Combining Sneakers Has Been A Success Financially But A Serious Fail Culturally, Nike Has Received Mixed Responses.  More Hit Or Miss Than Brand Jordan, Nike Has Had Some Very Well Executed Fusions Along With Some Failures.  Seeing As This Is “Essay” Is Going On Long Enough I Will Only Review The Bigger Named Combos In My Memory.  I Feel The Two Most Successful And Clean Execution Of Nikes Attempted Fusions Both Come From The Foamposite Family.  The ½ Cent, Which I Feel Is Maybe Nike’s Best Executed Fusion, And The Foamposite Nike Boot Are Two Extremely Popular Sneakers Within The Culture.  The ½ Cent’s Got Dealt A Bad Deal, Being Released In An Market Over-Saturated With Fusions, I Feel The Consumer Is Tired Of It, And The ½ Cent Will Unfortunately Be The Sacrificial Lamb.  While They Are An Attractive Sneaker, Comfortable, And Are The Signature Shoe To The Coolest Puppet Since Lamb Chops (Lil’ Penny) They Were Released At An Awful Time.  The Foamposite Boot However, Is A Favorite To The Nike Boot Fanatic.  A Comfortable, Stylish Version Of Nike’s Signature Boot, What’s Not To Love???  Fails In Fusions Come With The Vunk And The Big Nike.  The Vunk Is Bad, Real Bad Michael You Know… They Decided To Combo The Air Max 95 With The Dunk And It Is Hideous.  Luckily Only Made For Children The Vunk Should Discontinue ASAP.  No Blending Of Any Type Of Technology Just The Wave Like Design Of The AM95 Slapped On The Back 2/3 rds Of A Dunk #EPICFAIL Of A-Rod Steroid Test Proportions.  The Big Nike Is What Happens When You’re Out Of Ideas And You Let Your Accountant Design A Sneaker, No Creativity.  They Took A Dunk And A Terminator, Two Already Very Similar Shoes, And Mashed Them Together… Clap Clap Bravo (Drake Voice).  Every Color Way They Have Released The Big Nike In Would Look More Attractive On A Regular Dunk Or Terminator So That Leaves Me With Why?????

Finally The End…. For Now….

I Shall Finally Conclude My Lengthy Rant On The Fusion Craze.  If You Have Made It This Far Thank You So Much For Reading This And Please Comment Below, Anyways.. In Conclusion…. Jordan Brand And Nike I Beg Of You Please Stop Your Production Of These Hybrid Sneakers, At Least For A While.  You Have Diluted Your Brand And Alienated Your Most Loyal Fans.  Fusions Are Not Bad But ,As With Everything, In Moderation.  For The Past Two Years You Have Looked To The Past For The Future And The Creative, Innovative Nike Of Old Almost Seems Dead And Gone.  Don’t Get Me Wrong, Nike Did A WONDERFUL Job With The Air Max 2009, The Hyperdunk, They Hyperize, Lunar Racer, And More With Their Breakthrough Fly Wire Technology, But What About Sports Culture??? Nike And Jordan Brand Seem To Be Clinging To The Glory Days Of Old As Opposed To New Designs That Will Shape The Sneaker World Of The Future.

Quinn Goydish (@KicksandChicks)

Advertisement