Retailers or Resellers? Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Retailers or Resellers?

Posted on Wednesday, October 3, 2012 by Rob

I am following up my article on the black Nike SB x Levi’s collaboration Dunk Low with a quick review of the blue pair that I was lucky enough to get my hands on. There are two main reasons in writing this: The first being so many heads thinking these kix are denim because they aren't. They are composed of a corduroy upper and aside from color, which is labeled as “dark obsidian,” is identical to the black version. The mesh tongue, tongue tag, tag lettering, leather Swoosh, and heel tag are all dark obsidian. The Nike branding on the back is red to match the bottom of the sneaker. A dark gold leaf stitching outlining the Swoosh is an added design element, which is also featured on the heel. The insoles are covered in a red, white, and blue flag pattern that gets me hyped on some patriotic $h!t. They come with dark obsidian laces, but I opted to switch the laces out with the white pair they also come with, because the white laces work with the midsole to really make the kix pop.

Now as fresh and limited as these Dunks are, they still retail for the EXACT same amount that the black pairs do, which is $98 by the way. This brings me to my second reason for writing this article: Why the f#xk are shops putting their own price on $h!t? Browse any sneaker forum and you will read endless tales of people being charged over retail for recent Nike SB releases that have been limited, and many times for over double the cost.

When will these stores be held accountable? Foot Locker and Champs don't hit us over the head with double MSRP every time a new Jordan retro releases, so why the f#xk is it being allowed for skate shops to do this to the sneaker community? I am thankful some shops are still continuing to treat customers with respect. We should all give a big F#xK YOU to those shops who aren't. If your local shop is charging the same amount as resellers, then don't buy from them. Spend that money with the resellers. Resellers buy a product at MSRP and make profit off the market value at time of sale. I would much rather participate in that than allowing a retailer to dictate how much I will pay for a product based on availability at the time of release. $h!t's all f#xked up and the only way to fix it is to stop spending your money at shops like this because the sneaker community doesn't need more resellers, and essentially that is what these shops have become.

I'm out.

Wit-E

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