Snake America Eighty One
Snake is a bi-weekly newsletter that covers eBay and related ephemera. This week: completed auctions. Subscribe for emails. Also - shirts are coming soon. http://snakeusa.bigcartel.com/product/snake-america-t-shirt
ENDED: Nike Aloha sneakers, 1984, $1,650: Great pair of what might be the dumbest and rarest Nikes produced in the past 30 years? (This assessment excludes wrestling shoes, cleats, blousy windbreakers, open-ankle track pants, etc.) Initial Googling and the auction description both reveal these shoes to be swag from the 1984 Honolulu Marathon. It's unclear whether the sneakers were given out to volunteers, participants, or just finishers. The Marathon gives out shirts to just finishers these days. The Olympics gave out pairs of Adidas sneakers to all the volunteers in Montreal in 1976, though it may have been Adidas which did the giving out. Or it may have been the Canadian Olympic Committee. Facts are hazy. My dad, who lived there at the time, applied to volunteer--theoretically as a bar loader--and could have received a pair, but he didn't make the volunteer cut. He hasn't responded at press time. Compare Adidas Montreals to these Nikes ... pre-1990s Adidas don't hold up well, and, what's more, they're Adidas, which is unfortunate. Lore has the smallest Nike runs at 24 ... two in each size and half size, though there are some Jordans (rumored) to be one- or two-offs, like the ones in Huskies colors. The Japanese Nike book/magazine on my coffee table doesn't give any more information, since I don't read Japanese. I tracked down Patti Bellan, the fastest woman in the 1984 race, with a time of 2:42:50, who is a high school teacher in Boise, to ask her if she got any, but I'm still waiting for her to get back to me. I wonder how obese whoever the person who won these shoes is.
ENDED: Kentucky Dunk Highs, sz 11.5, $910: Good price for a pair sneakers that are no longer popular but whose previous popularity can not be overstated. Original pairs have been going for about $100 lately ... the retros, from 1999-2002 or so, have lately been going for less. This shoe is the Kentucky version of a series of Dunks made for UNLV, Iowa, Michigan, St. John's, Georgetown and I think Princeton. Or maybe Harvey Mudd. The shoes had two colors and were featured prominently during the 1985 and 1986 NCAA championship seasons. Nike re-released these, in high and low, and with some other two-color models here and in Japan and they languished on the shelves. Around 2002 Dunks began to get popular and for the next few years "Dunks" were interchangeable with "rare, loud Nike sneakers" or "sneakers that go past the ankle." I'm not sure when that stopped but it was sometime before the economic collapse. The shoe was everywhere and didn't look as good but is fine now. The 1985 model here has this logo on the tag that the retros didn't, which is worth the price discrepancy.
ENDED: Nike Lava Domes, $30: The oldest shoes of the bunch, finally sold for $30 after being re-listed a dozen times. What a slap in the face to old stuff. This shoe is from 1981 and the first hiker Nike made. I don't believe they had a name at the time, but now they're called Lava Domes. Or this might have been the Dome's precursor. At any rate, the abovementioned is in really good shape. The seller originally listed the shoes at $115 around New Year's, which is a good price for near-showroom shoes from the Carter era. They didn't sell and they were re-listed at 45, then 35, then I want to say 25? They sold for $30. This means ... that no vintage sellers in Japan think this could sell. In my experience as a seller, Japanese buyers take a flyer, or a loan out, on an old piece of crap to make a profit. They'll get shipped out to a PO Box near LAX and will cross the Pacific in a checked duffel bag. So someone from Japan buys Alohas for $910 so that someone else in Japan can buy them for double that ... but taking a $50 flyer on Carter-era sneakers doesn't guarantee a profit. Also, look at how brown these are. They just don't look any good.
ENDED: NIke Air Max 97 Gold, $140.50: Just noting here that these went for 50 cents over original retail(1). I like the idea of someone buying these upon release to sell at a higher price at a later date, and then only making 50 cents, and being initially disappointed, but then feeling better because that money can go to Lemonheads, a phone call, etc. This of course implies that the seller lives across the street from the post office, or has been gifted a bus or train pass, or that they have a butler who does all the shipping.
Thanks for reading. Please forgive my absence as I have been learning the classic lifts.
Snake
http://snakeusa.bigcartel.com/product/snake-america-t-shirt coming soon
http://snakeusa.bigcartel.com/product/snake-america-t-shirt coming soon
http://snakeusa.bigcartel.com/product/snake-america-t-shirt coming soon
http://snakeusa.bigcartel.com/product/snake-america-t-shirt coming soon
(1) $140 retail, with no sales tax. No sales tax in Delaware, Montana, Oregon, and New Hampshire, but the seller here is in Texas. It's not wrong to assume he's from Montana ... but is it fair?