I’m sure a lot of you out there are equally as surprised as I am on the quick price hike on these Nike SB Jordan 1 Lows. Sure you can associate skateboard legend Eric Koston to the mix and say it’s a collab, but over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to understand what truly happened and try to explain why these Jordan 1s specifically has gone up in price much more than any other Jordan 1 lows released as of late.
Maybe let me speak from a sneakerhead perspective first. Well before the shoes were actually released and when i first saw the pics online, I knew personally I needed a pair for myself. The navy pair I absolutely needed because it gave me vibes of the 01 Co.JP navy white highs. Those were absolutely one of my favourite 1s back in the day because it was probably the first time they ever put suede like material on a pair of 1s. I wasn’t a huge fan of the jumpman on the toe box, but it didn’t stop me from wanting them. Moreover, the low retail price point of $110 USD was a no brainer to cop as it was relatively super affordable. Personally I’m not a big fan of Jordan 1 lows because it just doesn’t feel original to me, but when I saw the commercial of Koston skating in the UNC lows, I immediately fell in love and needed a pair of the UNCs as well.
Over my somewhat relatively long tenure in the sneaker market, there aren’t that many shoes that would catch my eye where I absolutely need them. These Lows were one of those where if it’s available I’ll take them for retail, if not I can pass. I’ll be honest, these were super available and I even had the opportunity to grab a couple more pairs, but I only picked up 1 for personal because I didn’t feel like the price would shoot up this crazy in such a short period of time. But this definitely created mix feelings inside of me trying to figure out why these?
So aside from the obvious….The introduction of the Travis 1 lows could have an effect on prices on Jordan 1 lows in general. I mean, Nike is really good at this game. Make the Travis 1 lows super hyped and low quantity so most of us can’t get them and pump out a shit load of other colourways as consolation prizes we can buy and scale the volume there like no tomorrow and that’s how Nike makes most of it’s money. So in my opinion these 1s were kinda a by product of this strategy, however, the biggest factor for the price increase of these 1s is the fact there is TRUE demand for them. There are actually more people that want these shoes to wear for personal consumption than there are re-sellers.
Let’s get real…if you’re a relatively experienced reseller you know Jordan 1 lows is something you should never touch. Margins are too low and there’s simply no demand for it whatsoever in the entire history of Jordan 1 lows. We all know there’s no resell in them and that’s also the reason why we are all so shocked at the price increase. Personally I don’t know what the strategy is for Nike SB right now because it seems like every time they gain some headway in the market, they stop doing what they’re doing and the wave dies. As we speak, they lined up some great releases with the Parra dunks and blazers and followed it with these Jordan 1 low Koston SBs…but can they continue to bring the demand to attract customers and keep the SB line alive?
With that said, I personally don’t think prices would go too much higher for these Jordan 1 SBs. I mean historically speaking I’ve never seen a Jordan 1 low go this high and moreover I feel like at this price it will create a scenario where those that initially bought them for personal consumption are slowly deciding if they would rather re-sell for a decent profit it instead of rocking them. I mean buying them for $110 and flipping them for double or even triple the profit in certain sizes is very rare nowadays? That is a hard choice for some people. In this scenario, you’ll probably see a lot of supply hit the market soon which could bring the prices back to reality in the short term if it hasn’t already happened. Long term wise, I really don’t see these going for over $500. If they do, then shoot me because if that was the case I much rather buy 5 pairs of dunk lows from 1999 and rock those instead.
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