Good morning, friends! Welcome back to The Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading today. Appreciate you giving me a bit of your time this morning. Happy Tuesday! I hope your week is off to a great start.
It’s Wicked week! I’m going to an early screening of Wicked: For Good tonight. By the time you read this, I’ll have seen the movie. This is very weird for me because I’m not a big musical guy. But I saw the first one, I saw the Broadway show and now I’ve got to see part two on the big screen. Closing the loop, you know?
QUICK HITS:
- We’ve got some c-suite shuffling going down over at Crocs. The company promoted former Adidas executive Rupert Campbell to EVP and made him president over at HeyDude.
- Guys. We got Jannik Sinner vs. Carlos Alcaraz for the bajillionth time this year in the ATP Finals. This time? Sinner got the dub. This rivalry is awesome. Let’s hope they run it back again next year.
- For all of my anime nerds out there, this Gundam x Bape statue collab is so sick. I need one. Where would I put it? No idea. But let me figure that out later.
Alright, let’s get down to business.
Nike’s Newest Bet
NBA star Cade Cunningham joined an exclusive club on Monday. Nike announced that it’d inked the Detroit Pistons guard to an extension that would make him the brand’s newest signature athlete.
- Cunningham’s signature shoe is expected to arrive by 2027, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
- He’d been playing in a number of player exclusive models of the GT Cut and already has a signature logo with the brand.
Zoom out: Cunningham is now the sixth active NBA player to have a Nike signature shoe. The others are LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant.
Be Smart: This move surprised me. Cunningham isn’t the most popular athlete on Nike’s roster, but it makes more sense when you think about it from this perspective: The faces of Nike basketball are getting old!
- LeBron James is 40 years old and Durant is pushing it.
- The two of them have been the brand’s leaders for the better part of two decades at this point.
Cunningham’s new status is Nike betting that he’ll blossom into one of the NBA’s biggest stars. The brand needs new faces to head up the NBA side of things and seems to believe Cade can do that.
My take: I understand the play here. But, truthfully, I’m skeptical.
- Cunningham doesn’t have the best mainstream appeal to non-NBA fans. He’s only got about 800,000 Instagram followers, which is the lowest for any Nike signature athlete.
- He plays in Detroit, which has a rich history in sneaker culture but is certainly a niche market for a signature athlete.
- Nike Basketball also has quite a bit in the works. A’ja Wilson’s second shoe is coming. Caitlin Clark’s signature shoe is coming. Victor Wembanyama is waiting in the wings. How high of a priority will a Cunningham signature shoe be?
To me, this feels like a bit of an uphill battle. And, if it is, I wonder if it’s worth fighting when Nike has so much positive momentum developing on the women’s hoops side. Wouldn’t it make sense to lean harder into that?
The other side: This isn’t to say that a Cade shoe couldn’t work. By all accounts, he seems like an awesome guy. He’s a star basketball player who is very fun to watch, even if he isn’t necessarily the most popular. A wild playoff run or two can change that in an instant.
And maybe Cade will be a bit of a refresh on the NBA side for Nike hoops. It definitely needs one. It’s other recent signings haven’t quite worked the way most thought they would.
- Ja Morant’s drama has largely overshadowed his (actually, pretty good!) signature shoe and Devin Booker’s Book 1 is almost two years old with no sequel in sight yet.
The big picture: Sometimes, with the signature shoe market, less can be more. Pouring resources into a few athletes rather than having to spread things out across many can be a bit cumbersome and noisy. It feels like a Cunningham signature shoe could get caught up in that and go the way that Paul George’s signature shoes went. If you’re saying “Wait, who?”, don’t feel too bad. A lot of other people have forgotten those existed, too.
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen for Cade.
Skims Is Everywhere
Kim Kardashian’s Skims brand unveiled another collaboration on Monday — this time with streetwear brand Cactus Plant Flea Market (CPFM).
Details: The collaboration is a holiday capsule collection between the two brands placing CPFM’s iconography on Skims loungewear.
- The campaign for the collection was excellent. It featured Kardashian’s daughter, North West, along with music industry stars like Mariah The Scientist and Ken Carson as well as fashion industry staples like Veneda Carter.
My take: This struck me as such a weird collaboration. These are two brands that I’d never envisioned working together.
But that’s kind of CPFM’s thing, isn’t it? They’ll work with just about anyone, from luxury staples like Marc Jacobs to fast food restaurants like McDonalds. If there’s a collaboration to be done, this brand will do it. Skims is on quite the collaborative streak itself, obviously, when you consider its partnership with Nike.
Plus, there’s already a bit of a relationship there. CPFM did a family and friends run of a Christmas shirt for the Kardashian-Jenner-West family back in 2018. These days it’s all over eBay.
Why this matters: We can add CPFM to the list of fashion brands that Skims has worked with over the years. The versatility is incredible.
- In 2021 Skims collaborated with Fendi.
- In 2023 it partnered with Swarovski.
- In 2024 Skims launched a collab with Dolce and Gabbana.
- Now, in 2025, it’s partnered with Nike and CPFM.
Not many brands can play in the same sandbox as luxury brands like Fendi and D&G while also working in the sportswear and streetwear space with Nike and CPFM. Not to mention Skims has also done work with actual sports leagues like the NBA and WNBA.
The bottom line: That’s where that $5 billion valuation comes from, folks.
Streetwear Is on the Market
Never thought we’d see the day when a streetwear brand being traded on the stock market, but we’re inching closer and closer to it.
What’s new: Nigo’s Human Made Inc. has officially priced its initial public offering on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market at the top of the marketed range.
- The company sold shares at 3,130 yen ($20.16) a piece, according to the latest from Bloomberg.
- The IPO reportedly raised $17.8 billion yen ($115 million). The official listing date is on Nov. 27.
Why this matters: Actually, that’s the big question. Nigo is unquestionably one of the most successful streetwear designers in the world and Human Made was already a successful brand. Given that, what does the brand gain from going public in this way? I don’t want to speculate too much here given that we know so little about the circumstances. But this feels unprecedented.
- The closest analog we’ve got is Hypebeast’s IPO in 2016, but even that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. That also hasn’t gone the greatest.
What an ambitious move. I’m eager to see how it plays out.
Kai’s Clogs
The history of sportswear brands launching lifestyle lines alongside their signature athlete’s performance products is not great. But Anta and Kyrie Irving have sure managed to do pretty well for themselves in the category so far!
What’s new: Irving’s is launching pairs of slip-on mules for his ANTA KAI line. They’re really interesting.
- The clog’s upper looks like a legitimate slipper that your grandma would wear while she’s sipping her morning coffee and putting together a 5,000 piece puzzle.
- The outsole looks like something you could legitimately play basketball in. It’s got an entire traction pattern.
The upper’s design also maintains the Native American iconography that we’ve grown used to with his signature line so far.
My take: I’m not really a clog guy. They’re usually pretty boring to me. But these? I can get behind these.
What’s droppin’, bruh?
This is a dedicated section detailing upcoming sneaker releases for the week, and sometimes other interesting drops I think you might care about.
Thanks for reading, gang! Hope you enjoyed the newsletter.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, reach out to me via email at michael.sykes@businessoffashion.com or shoot me a message @MikeDSykes via socials.
Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯