Nigo x Nike: Does This Collab Matter in 2024?
Nigo's recent collaboration with Nike raises the question of its significance in 2024 sneaker culture. Host Matt delves into the impact of Nigo, a pivotal figure in streetwear and sneaker history, and discusses whether his influence still resonates with today's audience.
---
Like what you hear? Help this content grow: https://ko-fi.com/firefootwearpod
New episodes every Friday.
Call and give your sneaker stories or opinions to be highlighted on a future episode: +1-(202)-643-9170
Follow Fire Footwear on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firefootwearpod/?hl=en
Follow Fire Footwear on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/firefootwearpod
Follow Matty Ice on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattyIceFrates
Reach out to me with questions or thoughts: firefootwearpod@gmail.com
---
Review Fire Footwear on Apple Podcasts : https://apple.co/3HgVdpR
Review Fire Footwear on Spotify Podcasts : https://open.spotify.com/show/0qjJxokny16WTSh1Kgx3hU
Review Fire Footwear on Podchaser : https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/fire-footwear-a-sneaker-podcas-1984189
---
For more amazing podcasts, please visit the Matty Ice Media Network: https://www.mattyicemedia.com/mimnpodcasts
Follow Matty Ice on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattyIceFrates
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcript
We're getting into that.
Matt Freights:This time on Fire footwear.
Matt Freights:Welcome back to Fire Footwear, everybody.
Matt Freights:As always, this is your host, Matt freights, and I hope that this finds you well.
Matt Freights:I want to thank you for staying the course with us as we get through this content journey.
Matt Freights:Last week, I obviously didn't come out with content.
Matt Freights:I just ran out of time.
Matt Freights:We were going down to South Carolina for a wedding, had to pack, do a bunch of different things, and it would have been selfish of me to actually prioritize content making over the stuff that we had to do for family.
Matt Freights:And speaking of family, before we get into today's episode, I do want to mention that on the personal front, there are some things happening with some of my extended family, mostly my aging parents, and I don't know what that's going to look like right now.
Matt Freights:I'm going to continue to try to make content ahead of time so that you all can have content to listen to.
Matt Freights:It's important to me that I stay consistent.
Matt Freights:It's important to me that I also am transparent.
Matt Freights:And I just want to let you know that out front in case maybe a week goes by, two weeks go by, and I would try to stay in touch any way that I can.
Matt Freights:But I asked at the top about Nego, and Nego released his collaboration, his first collaboration with Nike recently.
Matt Freights:I think it was about a week or two ago.
Matt Freights:You can go on, go or stockx and find that shoe now for resale, and it is what it is at this point.
Matt Freights: op if it actually mattered in: Matt Freights:And that's not a way to disparage Nego at all.
Matt Freights:As a matter of fact, it's just kind of where we are in the culture.
Matt Freights:I feel like the culture is in this place where we're looking too far back, not too forward.
Matt Freights:But I honestly think that the way that the demographics of sneaker culture work, I think that the subgenre of people that actually care about the past, the subgenre of people who have a deep connection to things of the past, is fewer and far between as we go through this journey.
Matt Freights: iko comes into the picture in: Matt Freights:But I want to go back and kind of talk about Nego a little bit because there may be some people that listen to this podcast who are not 100% familiar with who he is.
Matt Freights:But I'm going to go through a history, a very light history of some of the accomplishments that he has had and also get down into this new release, and we're going to get into that a little bit later.
Matt Freights:So stay with me on this.
Matt Freights:1993.
Matt Freights:It was a long time ago.
Matt Freights:It was 31 years ago.
Matt Freights:And that is when Nego officially made his first stamp in street wear and sneakers.
Matt Freights:That was when he created a bathing ape.
Matt Freights:Since that time, Nego has created a niche for himself and a place for himself within streetwear culture and sneaker culture that really is almost unmatched to anybody else in the culture.
Matt Freights:I think if you were to make, let's say, a Mount Rushmore of sneaker collaborators or streetwear collaborators or what have you, I think a lot of people are gonna have nego in that top four, if not right outside in the old honorable mentions category.
Matt Freights:And that's because over the 31 years, he has done quite a bit.
Matt Freights:A bathing ape has established itself as one of the most, if not the most popular streetwear brands of all time.
Matt Freights:They are known for being loud, a lot of camo print street wear items, but I think what they're mostly known for is their babe step and that shoe.
Matt Freights:Both the high top, low top, and I believe even the mid top pay homage to the Air Force one.
Matt Freights:And they do so in a way that is so familiar that it's hard not to look at them and do a double take if you've never seen a baby before.
Matt Freights:The biggest difference is, I think, minor changes in the cuts of the shoe, but also that star logo instead of the Nike swoosh that we now know as iconic and babe.
Matt Freights:Over the years, especially into the early two thousands, saw their popularity gain and gain and gain until they got really, really popular when people like Pharrell and Kanye started really endorsing them, were seen wearing them, and in some cases, even collaborated with them.
Matt Freights:And this is when the big star started to align for BApe, and they started to really, really creep up.
Matt Freights:And at the foundation of all of this was Nego.
Matt Freights:Obviously, it was his vision, but he wasn't somebody, I think, that people necessarily knew a lot about.
Matt Freights:I think there was a little bit of secrecy to him as a creator, but all the way through this, he was making his mark, making his stamp.
Matt Freights: ascend, all the way up until: Matt Freights:All of these have happened over the years, and they really cemented themselves as where they are today.
Matt Freights:One of the best.
Matt Freights: In: Matt Freights:He sold it to the IT group, stepped away from really being the face of the brand, the main creator, main influencer of the brand, and went on not too long afterward to make and create human made.
Matt Freights:Human made is probably a brand that many people know about.
Matt Freights:What I focus on with that is that there were differences between the two.
Matt Freights:Cause you might think to yourself, well, wait a minute, he's going from bape to human made of.
Matt Freights:Both are streetwear brands.
Matt Freights:What's the difference?
Matt Freights:The difference is, I believe that for the most part, Bape was really focused on the present.
Matt Freights:They were focused on things that were big now, putting their own stamp, their own interpretation on things that were happening now.
Matt Freights:Whereas if you go back and look at human made, it is trying to hearken back to a different era.
Matt Freights:It's more of a vintage look.
Matt Freights:They're going for a more rugged look, more workman like look.
Matt Freights:And that's completely different from what Bape was trying to accomplish.
Matt Freights:For Nego.
Matt Freights:This was kind of carving out a different space for himself, padding his resume, doing something different, having his name, his face, his influence, and his ideas on something that would touch a new subgenre within streetwear.
Matt Freights:And obviously, it was playing up to current things that were hype at the time, in a way, but it was doing so by paying homage to the past, which is something that I believe was a different direction for him at the time.
Matt Freights:And so you go through all that stuff, you have a new direction and everything is great.
Matt Freights:Nico continues to do what he does.
Matt Freights:Everything's awesome.
Matt Freights:And then all of a sudden, Nike decides that they're going to sue bape over the bape stip.
Matt Freights:Really, the design that they feel is a copyright infringement of the Air Force one.
Matt Freights:We already talked about that earlier, that the Air Force one is being paid homage to through the BAPE stuff.
Matt Freights: this happened, I believe, in: Matt Freights:They've been suing all different parties over counterfeits, over copyrights, so many things.
Matt Freights: And you fast forward to: Matt Freights:And those two parties settled.
Matt Freights:Bape and Nike actually settled their lawsuit.
Matt Freights:And then the intriguing part happened.
Matt Freights:Nike announced that Nego was finally going to be joining the brand and collaborating with them in an official capacity.
Matt Freights:When I heard that and saw the news of the lawsuit settlement, and this is probably something that is out there in the space or maybe has been explained by him, I don't know.
Matt Freights:But at the time I thought to myself, I wonder if his collaboration with Nike had something to do with the settlement.
Matt Freights:It was almost like, hey, look, we're going to go easy on you in this settlement.
Matt Freights:You've clearly infringed on our copyright, our design, and instead of making you pay all of this back, why don't you come work for us, design some things, make some money and we'll call it even.
Matt Freights:I have no idea if that's what actually happened.
Matt Freights:That is pure speculation on my part.
Matt Freights:Somebody out there may know more than I do.
Matt Freights:Hell, even Nego might be listening to this and say, no, that's exactly wrong.
Matt Freights:But that's what I thought.
Matt Freights:And I wondered, and I think other people wondered it too.
Matt Freights:And I think it was a natural question to ask, a natural progression of all the information, all the context clues that we were getting over this time period.
Matt Freights:And so everybody is kind of excited or at least intrigued by the idea of Nego is actually going to be working with Nike.
Matt Freights:What is that actually going to look like?
Matt Freights:It's pretty common in today's sneaker world to have a lot of things spoiled.
Matt Freights:Over the last few months we have obviously seen pictures, possible mock ups of what this initial collaboration is going to look like.
Matt Freights:Obviously there's going to be street wear, there's going to be clothes and those have his branding on it instead of Nike.
Matt Freights:A lot of people like that.
Matt Freights:Not for me, but I can understand why people like that, people who have reverence to him.
Matt Freights:And the other part of it was what kind of sneakers is he going to come out with?
Matt Freights:And what they decided on was an Air Force three collaboration.
Matt Freights:I believe it's two colorways, Air Force three.
Matt Freights:I just want that to settle in.
Matt Freights:If you're listening to this right now, and you've been in the game not very long, how many people actually know that there was an air force three?
Matt Freights:The Air Force one is talked about almost as royalty, and rightfully so.
Matt Freights:It has been around for a very long time.
Matt Freights:It has been a staple.
Matt Freights:It's kind of something that you can always rely on.
Matt Freights:The Air Force one is all reliable.
Matt Freights:You know that if you have it, you can always wear it, you can always pair it with something.
Matt Freights:And even when they do colors, even when they do collaborations, they maybe don't hit the hype train, but they're always pretty solid and you can really get away if you have the certain body type and you actually like the shoe wearing Air Force ones and pretty much looking good all the time.
Matt Freights:But the Air Force three is not that.
Matt Freights:The Air Force two came out, and I'm glad that they actually went down the road of trying something different.
Matt Freights:Didn't really hit.
Matt Freights:They went for an air force three, tried something new.
Matt Freights:The thing about the shoes at that time was everything was bulky.
Matt Freights: And fast forward to: Matt Freights:I think there was a time period where you had the easy wave runner, a lot of the Balenciagas that chunky was big.
Matt Freights:We're past that now.
Matt Freights:And so Niko comes out with this very colorful rendition of the shoe.
Matt Freights:They took some risks, which I definitely appreciate, but overall, I had to wonder, does it really matter?
Matt Freights:Because the air Force three is not a silhouette that matters.
Matt Freights:And while I always appreciate when they deep dive into the archive for something like this, it still has to have meaning.
Matt Freights:It still has to be able to bring new feelings to the sneaker culture.
Matt Freights:That's something that Greg said on sneak this a couple of weeks ago about bringing new feelings.
Matt Freights: ew feelings to the culture in: Matt Freights:And I think the Air force three falls into this category of it means a lot to you.
Matt Freights:If it meant a lot to you before, and I always say this when it comes to movies, if you grew up in a certain era, and let's take eighties comedies, for example.
Matt Freights:If eighties comedies weren't something you saw early in your life, and you're now seeing them in your thirties and forties, you probably think that they're lame.
Matt Freights:So if you never saw an Air force three, never wore one, never even had an encounter with one, and now you're seeing an Air force three, you probably are thinking that it's lame and that it's whack.
Matt Freights:And I don't necessarily fault you for that in any way.
Matt Freights:I would venture a guess that the Air Force three means something to Nico.
Matt Freights:He's obviously been in the game a very long time, probably has tons of stories in his mind, and maybe that he's told elsewhere about shoes that he has connected with.
Matt Freights:Perhaps it was one of the first shoes that he got.
Matt Freights:Who knows?
Matt Freights:What the story is, but I think it does have some meaning to him internally.
Matt Freights:But it has to have meaning to sneaker culture overall.
Matt Freights:If we are going to feel a certain way about it, we have to feel a certain way about it for the right reasons.
Matt Freights:And I don't feel like this collaboration really accomplishes that.
Matt Freights:While they take risks, while it looks cool, it's just not for me, and I would assume that it's not for a lot of people.
Matt Freights: estion of Nego's relevance in: Matt Freights:I don't think that he personally cares about his relevance.
Matt Freights:That's not why he's doing this.
Matt Freights:He has already established himself, like I said, when it comes to Mount Rushmores, he's probably on a lot of people's, if not right outside of it.
Matt Freights:And for Nego, I think that this just adds another layer to his legacy.
Matt Freights:But it doesn't cement his legacy in any way.
Matt Freights:It's not necessary.
Matt Freights:And so for that reason, I do wonder if this partnership over the long haul is actually going to matter.
Matt Freights:Is it actually going to move the needle now?
Matt Freights:There is a still time to figure out whether that's true.
Matt Freights:They're going to do a lot more work, I assume.
Matt Freights:But this first iteration, I just have to wonder if maybe they missed the mark a little bit in trying to do something different, which I appreciate.
Matt Freights:But once again, the execution is just not there in terms of storytelling.
Matt Freights:And before we get to the end, of course, we have a release of the week.
Matt Freights:Release of the week, where I like to highlight a shoe that catches my eye.
Matt Freights:It's not always hype.
Matt Freights:Sometimes it is.
Matt Freights:It's just one that I want you to know about.
Matt Freights:And this week I'm highlighting a shoe that's going to preview something that we are going to talk about in the next episode, October 19, which as of the release of this episode is tomorrow.
Matt Freights:So my apologies if you're getting to this late, but the Nike what, the co dot JP dunk low.
Matt Freights:Not because it's a dunk low and not necessarily because it's fire.
Matt Freights:As a matter of fact, I'm not a huge fan of this shoe at all.
Matt Freights:I think what the products in general kind of can be weird.
Matt Freights:But the reason I say that I want to highlight this is because I think a lot of people don't understand the influence that code JP has had on the sneaker community.
Matt Freights:And so next week, we're going to talk about that.
Matt Freights:We are going to talk about their history.
Matt Freights:We're going to talk about some of their most famous releases.
Matt Freights:And hopefully we can bring a little bit more education, a little bit more hype back to code JP that maybe some of the culture has forgotten about.
Matt Freights:So go take a look at that shoe and hopefully it spurs you to look a little bit more at code JP and learn a little bit.
Matt Freights:In preview of what we're going to talk about next week, how do you feel about Nego's place in sneaker culture?
Matt Freights:And how do you feel about his Air Force three collaboration?
Matt Freights:Are you excited about the future?
Matt Freights:Let me know.
Matt Freights: -: Matt Freights:Don't forget for all my international callers to add that country code of one for the United States.
Matt Freights:Very important.
Matt Freights:I want to make sure that you can get through and also thank everybody who listens outside of the US.
Matt Freights:Of course, if you want to find me on Instagram at Fire Footwearpod is the handle to do so.
Matt Freights:We love to have you in the group chat.
Matt Freights:We have a great group of guys, would love to add some ladies in there.
Matt Freights:But honestly, anybody who wants to talk sneakers, we would love to have you.
Matt Freights:You can find me on tick tock.
Matt Freights:You can find me on YouTube.
Matt Freights:Fire footwear sneakers talk if you do go to YouTube, make sure to hit like subscribe, all that good stuff.
Matt Freights:We're trying to do different content there and I just hope that you are enjoying it.
Matt Freights:If you're listening in audio.
Matt Freights:Thank you.
Matt Freights:But also don't forget to subscribe.
Matt Freights:Give me a review.
Matt Freights:Some stars some words with the stars means a lot.
Matt Freights:When people find the show, they know at least what they're getting into.
Matt Freights:And I love the critical feedback.
Matt Freights:Hope this finds everybody well, fam, hope this finds everybody safe and I will talk to you down the road.
Matt Freights:This is fire footwear.
Matt Freights:The opinions and viewpoints expressed on fire footwear are those of Matt Fraitz and his guests and not necessarily those of the Matti Ice Media network.
Matt Freights:Fire footwear is exclusively owned by Matt freights and is brought to you by the Maddie Ice Media Network.
