Subscribe to The Kicks You Wear with Mike D. Sykes, a drill down on the red hot intersection between sports and fashion.
Good morning, friends! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for lending me a bit of your time this morning.
I hope your week is off to a fantastic start so far. I don’t know how many of you are anime fans, but I finally got around to seeing the new “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” movie. I’d give it seven stars out of 10. Solid, but man. The flashbacks! Ugh.
Anyway, let’s get to the good stuff.
Values Still Matter
It’s safe to say that brands, generally speaking, don’t have to take the moral high ground anymore. As we discussed last week with Nike, Tom Sachs and the Mars Yard 3.0, what might have gotten a brand “cancelled” in 2023 just doesn’t seem to matter as much anymore to consumers out there.
Yes, but: While these new rules regarding scandals might apply to some brands, they certainly don’t apply to all brands. Born x Raised learned that the hard way over the weekend.
What happened: The Los Angeles-based streetwear brand founded by the late Chris “Spanto” Printup launched a new collaboration with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday.
- Overall, the collection featured a total of 31 items, ranging from multiple graphic tees, hats, hoodies, a varsity jacket and even a Born x Raised baseball.
- It was released to the public on Friday at noon, Pacific time.
As of Monday, only one item from the collection sold out — a black hoodie that barely featured any noticeable Dodgers branding.
The why: Look no further than the comment section on BxR’s corresponding Instagram post to figure out why nobody seems to be interested in the brand’s collection with the Dodgers. “Sorry guys. Support and love yall, we all still dissatisfied and disappointed with the dodgers,” one user wrote.
The backdrop: Dodgers fans and LA natives were disappointed with the team over the summer as it remained silent during Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that began in early June.
While most will see that as an act of kindness from the team, for many people, it came too late.
Why it matters: Printup, the founder of Born x Raised, made his Indigenous heritage an essential part of his brand’s story, embedded in everything from its clothes to the name itself. That messaging resonated with fans of the brand and continues to after his death. Those fans are the same people in Born x Raised’s comment section voicing their displeasure with the brand working with the Dodgers. They showed that displeasure through their wallets over the weekend.
Zoom out: With the way things have gone in 2025, it’s easy to believe that brands can simply ignore — or maybe even rail against — consumers whenever a bit of controversy comes up.
The summer of scandal reveals that it is no longer as detrimental a move as it once was in the fashion world. A consumer’s moral values and a business’s moral values no longer need to align perfectly. Especially when the business is as large as Nike or American Eagle.
The other side: But when a smaller, niche brand like Born x Raised forges its ethos in having the same shared values as its community, it matters a lot more when those values shift even a little bit.
Born x Raised learned that the hard way.
NikeSkims has arrived
While the ride to get here wasn’t exactly the smoothest, Nike’s first collection with SKIMS will finally arrive this week.
The details: The collection is set to release both virtually and in select stores this Friday, Sept. 26, Business of Fashion’s Sheena Butler-Young reports. The brand announced its arrival with a new ad.
- It featured prominent athletes from Nike’s deep roster like Sha’Carri Richardson, Serena Williams, and Jordan Chiles.
- Kim Kardashian even made an appearance herself, jumping rope.
The premise of the ad is that NikeSkims has something for everyone and everyone is an athlete. It places performance on a pedestal in the same way Nike has done across its campaigns over the last year.
Reporter’s Corner: Here’s more from Sheena on the messaging from the campaign and its potential impact:
“It’s a carefully crafted message. A central aim of the arguably unusual Nike—Skims pairing is to expand the definition of who counts as an athlete — combining Nike’s innovation and legacy of working with the world’s most decorated competitors with Skims’ emphasis on body positivity and sculpting. If it works, NikeSkims could very well become the next billion-dollar activewear brand.”
The big picture: I’ll have more of a take on this for Friday when the brand finally launches, but I think Butler-Young is spot on here. This is a deal that could be as impactful as Jordan Brand for Nike. Getting this to work is not an option — it kind of has to. That’s why the delays that we saw were so concerning.
Finally, the moment of truth is almost here. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.
On Finds Another Niche
What do you get when you combine a Swiss sportswear brand, a Japanese streetwear brand, and an American camping brand together? Whatever this collaboration between On, REI Co-Op and Beams is.
What’s happening: The three brands have combined to drop a collection that I don’t think I’d have ever anticipated.
- The collection comes with footwear (a trail runner and hiking shoes) and outdoor apparel, from a Trek jacket and pants down to knee-high socks.
- It also features actual camping gear, including a tent, camping chair, two sleeping bags and a speed pack.
My take: Most longtime readers of the Kicks You Wear know that, typically, triple collaborations aren’t my favorite. I think they’re noisy. This one certainly feels that way, too. These are three different brands from three different cultures colliding.
Yes, but: That’s actually what makes this interesting to me. I don’t think there’s much overlap between these three sides. This is something that is genuinely hard to conceptualize for me and, in a world where collaborations don’t always feel interesting to me, this one feels a bit more daring than usual. I like that.
- Beams and On have collaborated before, but adding the REI outdoors element to the combination gives it a different spin.
- It’s out of the box for a brand like REI, which is beloved, but primarily for functional reasons. It doesn’t usually go out of its way to be cool. This is a departure from that.
One thing that On Running has become consistently good at as a sportswear company is reinventing itself.
- Back in 2020, it hit the ground running (literally) as one of the brands that ushered people into their new running hobby during the pandemic.
- After that, it leaned heavily into tennis and luxury through Roger Federer, Zendaya and the moment the latter had with Challengers.
I have no idea if this will work, but I certainly respect the attempt — even if it’s a bit pricey. $40 socks? Sheesh.
The AE 2 Continues To Be The Coolest
Nobody was holding a contest for the coolest sneaker ad of 2025, but if they were, I think Anthony Edwards and Adidas just won it with the brand’s launch ad for the AE 2.
What’s new: The brand released a new spot called “Silence the Haters” on Monday. The brand revealed the shoe’s release date as Monday, Oct. 4.
We also got an awesome commercial.
- It featured Edwards and his best friend, Nick “Slick” Maddox, closing a door behind them in a dark room.
- Hip hop producer Denzel “Conductor” Williams is waiting for them in the room and he throws the AE 2 at Edwards before playing a beat explicitly made for this commercial.
- Anthony Edwards also curses in the ad! He curses, y’all!
Why this matters: There’s no better example out there of a brand completely understanding its athlete and working in partnership with them. This ad feels like Edwards to the core.
I don’t know if this shoe will work as well as the AE 1 did, but the brand is off to a great start in convincing everyone that it will.
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 💯
