Sole Material tackles the history and future of performance cross-trainers, signature sneakers and lifestyle collections marketed by NFL players.
and welcome once again to the podcast and the channel you cheer for soul material I’m your man the Ogo tart the street shark and we’re here to give you some more sneaker business talk more of that Clarity over popularity because that’s what we do we’re going to Dive Right on in given that the NFL draft is now uh upon us and gone thankfully to my commanders making the right pick we’re going to go into signature sneakers football style but the shark and I are from an era in which a athlete would be in a commercial will be wearing that shoe and it may not have been his signature shoe per se but the streets called that shoe what it was so if I say the junior se you know what what brand I’m talking about and what model if I said the emit Smiths you knew what brand W mod was talking about if I said the rod Woodson the streets knew what you were talking about the Bruce Smiths so we’re going to go into right now into some of the peak times of when Brands were doing particularly Nike we’re doing the signature shoes for football and if you getting one for football you had to be the man because unlike basketball you show your face football you got a helmet on got your jersey so what’s going on with signature shoes shark you got a few Jews force that you’re going to show and tell oh yeah and again you know we talk about Barry Sanders did he have a signature shoe we didn’t know what the Barry Sanders were and then how many of Zoom turs there were man that was the perfect shoe that translated um because he was in a Turf uh uh the team that played on Turf so and in the 90s a lot of the turf TS were wearing basketball shoes anyway so if you were in that model it was a good transition and the zoom performed so well so that was a shoe I know that I saw a lot of Barry Sanders uh shoes on the basketball courts back in the day um so actually just transition into the first signature shoe for you know look at the Box not too far this early 2000 all right 99 2000 um we got Michael Vic you can tell all my favorites Spiderman the first Vic all right it’s the first Vic I had to wipe I gotta wipe it down all right uh um because you you know how some of the materials aged on a couple of these shoes so it’s you know this was more reflecting and had the signature on the bom right there you know we had this the M you know this isn’t we this we didn’t even get to the Vic experience yet that was what the threes you know I mean I’m talk I’m still at the the ones all right so here we go this is Madden era you know what I’m saying when the when he was on the cover you know what I’m saying around this time like I remember wearing these shoes while playing that game um you know what I’m saying and of course you know he was Unstoppable uh at that time so you got the Vic on the back you know he loved the Air Forces so and and and Vic wore a lot of the mids so of course he like uh the straps all right so now what does the strap say there you go be unexpected all right be unexpected all right Mike Vic number seven all right this was shoe this shoe was so comfortable if you had this shoe great this was so comfortable you actually saw some NBA players I remember Lamar odm was rocking Le um you know for the Miami Heat um this was a great shoe and then you see how the heel was cut out right here so it it moved you know you know it really flowed with you so if you really cross trained in these and and you really performed in these like yeah you knew what you was doing and you got out a lot of so you can tell I wore these all right people I wore them all right wear your kicks and what do we got that good old Zoom Air you know we got the yellow Zoom Air uh um this wasn’t meant to be visible so that’s why it’s it’s more you could tell the age on these and if iall shark those didn’t retail for more than 110 bucks I believe yeah no this was a this was definitely not a high price yall trying to see if I actually had a receipt no I don’t have a receipt in this in this one oh wow just hidden gems in the Box because you know I just be making stuff for myself I didn’t even know this is a look at this look at this ladies and gentlemen you the original I got I got the headband yeah it’s not homemade that’s real look at that you know we was rocking headbands at this time this I just remember like the cover magazine color like Mike was on rides remember rides the magazine or whatever and then he had the you know before the the dog but he had his dogs and had his shoes on there I think he did that when it was around the two or threes uh um as well but but yeah Mike Vic signature the Vic ones all right Vic ones look at that looking like V7 V12 look at the engine like you about to take off so yeah we had a rule my house if you picked Atlanta nobody was playing against you you were banned from using Atlanta during that year no you couldn’t you could you couldn’t stop him because once he just got outside the pocket and then he did a spin move or something on you uh um it was it was a w that was it yeah let me keep going yeah so with those and the white ones I remember they may retail for maybe $19.99 if I recall but I remember selling like hot kicks man and just they looked good now don’t people going to kill me especially youngans they look good with denim they look good with shorts they look good with khakis and like you said they were just cross functional all the way across so I remember seeing some guys on campus at VC you playing soccer in them joints like like it just what what it was and again um us being in in the DMV at that time and him just being as hot as he he was it was just a seller BR time and they did a good job on that design um the advertising was great and um again the price point was on point with those so I definitely remember the first Vicks shout out to Vick oh yeah let’s move on to another signature athlete all right from Nike this and call back to are sneaker collaborations and licens collaborations all right because this was the perfect right time right moment we have the Nike cj81 Trainer Max Calvin Johnson AKA Megatron Megatron the all right so now we have the Megatron we got the purple and red we got the Decepticon the real logo okay the logo this wow this this collaboration was awesome I’m just trying to get you the strap so look at the details on the on the tongue you got the there’s another Decepticon logo right there with the um you know lace lock um on top this was a a strap over these were extremely cou I I had like almost every color of this shoe all right there’s only one I have left cuz I kind of warm and kept selling them um but I wish I kept at least one or two more or they had the vult colorways they had you know he was a baseball fan too so he had the baseball I have some of the low top ones he like bowling as well so you know they did great storytelling with Calvin Johnson uh um and then you can actually see on the inside as well Megatron and the Decepticon logo um so I just love how they executed the campaign there was a perel that went along with this this particular re release I don’t have it near me but it’s in my toy collection uh um where it actually came with another mini box and had Decepticon logo wrapped around it and it was actually a football that transformed into the robot um as well so they went all the way in on this collaboration and I love it you know two of my favorite things two favorite things that the shark lives is shoes and 90s cartoons so all together now Auto I’m not going to say Auto bus but Decepticons uh uhuh they rolled out with this one with Nike you know that they we talked about in the past how they did the official collaboration and The Unofficial collaboration for Transformers in particular um with Nike so yeah just shout out to uh Megatron he was a beast during his time um very underrated just because he was on the Lions team that didn’t get to win um but so many games but he’s he made Matt Stafford and that’s the story and I’m sticking to it and historically shark I know we talked about this in the past episode but this was Monumental because how cheap Nike was quote unquote with them doing colorways fonts as we talked about in the previous episode but never doing the full collab this is the first time they actually put the money in and put the money where their mouth was and did a full collab which n did not want to pay for so that show you how special Megatron was now today it looks like not that big of a deal but but this was Monumental for that reason this the first time that I recall Nike really going all in with the licensing and everything yep and you know we like to slide in ut Acquisitions too um so I’m just going I got these random Ross pickup again this is the Calvin Johnson what are these the threes if I’m not mistaken um so this is the Ashton Martin colorway so of course I had to get the Ashton Martin color way all right so you know just quick pickup you never know when the flag football game is going to pop out that you need but I’ll just show you why we got that you can see that right there ladies and gentlemen $ 17.99 that’s what we do we’ve been doing this all right so just throwing that in there Ashton Martin Calvin Johnson so you know you got the cleats and the shoe so again it’s not a PE this is not a PE CLE this is the signature CLE all right and you had the signature trainers to match all right um so that’s what we’re talking about why we’re having this discussion about the NFL players what was happening in the past because we have no idea what’s happening in the future who who is who’s it gonna be and it doesn’t even have to be offense or defense we think about the I mean offensive players skilled players we know that Patrick Mahomes right now has a signature with Adidas I think that this is more partnership with just Adidas uh um rather than just pushing the shoe and the apparel you’re not really going to see shelf placement of any of those shoes on in a store um they’re more at the that seems like they focused on the actual well they’re training shoe so they only want to give it to Dick Sporting Goods type stores for athletic training equipment that type of stuff you know um um so you’re not GNA see his shoe at the urban retailers for Patrick Mahomes but you would see Deion Sanders you will see all of the the Barry Sanders you’ll see some Megatron you’ll see some Michael Vick so that’s what we’re talking about having this discussion but you know just one more signature Sho because I talked about offensive skill players but another skilled player because we so we was always looking for the air apparent the next Dion Sanders uh not to say that he had the flare off the off the field but for a couple years revas Island existed and some even Megatron and plenty other Hall of Fame receivers got locked down and stranded on Rivas Island all right so derell Rivas had a shoe all right you want to know a story arc anyone familiar with John Gyer all right well guess what he started by working with and because Rivas was his friend and they were doing uh colorway collaborations he got to have say so and his relationship started with Nike sitting at the table with derell Rivas on Sho designs and colorway all right and then mpace checks and Story Goes On from there but without derell Rivas story AR for John joh gerer I don’t know if that really exists just saying you know we’re versed over here that’s that’s clar that’s Clarity over popularity right there so this was a color way where um I had a couple of these too all right um these couple of these made it to the Ross circuit as well you know but I love you know I love a good camo all right uh um so we had the nice uh you know brown leather sitting on top of the the camo the Rivas look at the shoes these were extremely comfortable extremely comfortable like I know the first pair I went and got the you know you see the 24 over here I went I had the Jets colorway to start off with and and I ran them things into the ground you know what I’m saying those were they turned into beaters real quick cuz they were so comfortable uh you know those are the shoes you wear to the gym and afterwards you know what I’m saying because you you got to wear something comfortable uh um all the way um and uh so I save this one uh uh for the stash but derell Rivas all right so I don’t know if we’ll have another Dion now that Dion is coach Prime over in U Colorado um you know he brought back some of the you know at least the Maxes they sold out really quick but it looks like they’re going to be bringing out more colorways in the fall coming up for the new football college football season you’re going to see some more um you know colorways associated with uh Colorado um hidden stores and um I want to see more I don’t want to see just one color I want to see more um um and the question we have for our audience um is you know who’s next you know we you got some really talented guys but you know um who gets the signature you know you got like Justin Jefferson because it’s like who is it going to be and and he’s got the swag um he’s with under arour um he’s had some PE stuff but is he worthy of the signature you know who who is it you know he’s up in Minnesota with and he’s a young dude doing his thing in Minnesota I want to see at the very least can we redo the Kevin darnet and Randy Moss photo shoot you know what I’m saying and just do Ant-Man and Justin Jefferson I’m just saying just saying for Nostalgia sake can we can we redo that but who’s who do you think um um OG you know is there there any young Talent that’s standing out um I don’t even know what position is marketable the way that it used to be with us you know what I mean so what you true because I think in our day it was so diverse and um gosh um everything now was so offensive driven you know what I mean so um I’m thinking of even a Jamar Chase who I really really like as far as someone who was young consistent he has PE he has like two PE cleats um and maybe um I’m not saying he f with the bag totally but with injuries and everything and then with the trade um you know maybe there is a a little bit of residue of um the old not standing in New York and injuries and how things went and I think he and he’s going to Miami now so um there’s still some he say still some gas left in the tank but um with Beckham but I’m thinking of just some young cats that are talented um on a defensive end but no one really Market marketed themselves without needing the machine the way a Dion Sanders did and no one had the Mystique of a Barry Sanders now to where we mentioned in a previous episode about how Katie can be with some things but he was cool being him because how Nike somehow will cater to his commercials or his advertising and it was a Mystique with Barry Sanders outside his performance that was like you just had to kind of get his shoe because you wanted to be like Barry how he performed and they kind of teet with not doing commercials but still wearing the shoe not having so I don’t see anybody like that right now because unlike back in our day shark I really feel like it was some consistency with guys and now with contracts it’s always been in injuries but getting a guy outside the quarterback position that’s going to play and be consistent for a good five six seven year run it’s tough right right right on St outside at a quarterback position and a running back position right now is just defun the way the lead has treated right running back so um from a varability standpoint outside a quarter quarterback I’m looking at a Jamar Chase but the way the Bengals are going he may not be a bengle the next two three years from now you know what I mean so um the Calvin Johnson era I’m looking for that to come back but I can’t think of anyone that’s coming to mind that’s a young 24 25 got a few few years in the league that say Hey that’s that guy um I got I’m a fan of of of of a few people but no no no one comes to me CH in NFL that’s that guy yet on the offensive side or defensive side outside of a bunch of quarterbacks if they get all of the praise they get the commercials they get you know what I mean so it’s what it is but um hopefully you said it the quarterbacks you know Nike you you you’ve had one or two uh um PE dunks or whatever with Kyler merley but you know is that really selling you know and and you’ve just done like a special t-shirt for a couple guys and then that’s it like you do a Travis Kelsey t-shirt like he can’t even C you mean Travis Kelce can’t even get a PE release you know like nothing and especially when he was you know before Taylor Swift whatever like he was more swaggy you know what I’m saying so like I understand you got a champion on your roster like why don’t you I don’t understand why you didn’t do that you know I talk about kyum Murray you know couple other people but let’s just go back real quick with the Nostalgia you know with some of these commercials like just being associated or Affiliated like I can just remember like Derek Thomas Reebok oh I just know automatically you know um and that the gritty style commercials that they had basketball and football you know what I’m saying the EM Smiths uh um you know and those type of things you still had performance on on the field but when you go back to the Nikes and you mentioned Junior seal um you know it’s just you know it’s not like he was speaking in any of the commercials uh um what was this Dennis Hopper when he was the the the uh the referee like the crazy referee for Christmas and then o I got the Dions oh and he’s blowing the whistle and then he’s running in the sand and and it’s him like he’s training and he’s just a deranged fan you know what I’m saying uh um those type of things just spark up the uh The Nostalgia and I just think about like that type of Arc and that’s why I mentioned someone like Justin Jefferson who has swag on and off the field you G have to grab a SCE Gardener you know what I’m saying like but the fact I can’t tell you who soft Garder is even affiliate what what brand he wears I can’t even tell that off the top of my head so like brand like you got the NFL won’t allow they don’t like the individualism The Shield is always bigger so someone’s going to have to transcend even back in the day you know friend of the of a family you know what I’m saying shout out to Buddy my you know Antonio Freeman used to you know for the green pay Packers you know him and Robert Brooks had a foot action exclusive I remember the commercial where it was just them you know someone was just throwing random things and they would go catch it like he would catch a arrow and then heau a discus and or golf ball or whatever and then they had the cutouts in the store you know what I’m saying so remind more y it remind me more of a WWE it remind me of the Mr Perfect vignettes that WWF used to do like it was one it was on that line I’m like if you didn’t know him you knew him after that commercial you know what I mean and that’s what it’s all about and I mention that because when you go in story arc I remember a similar thing but it was Michael Vic it wasn’t the Nike but it was the Power Aid commercial and that was one of the first like is it real or is it fake era you know what I’m saying where a couple of these commercials and then Mike is in the stadium and he just Chucks it and then it just keeps going you know you’re like wait because I kind of believe it but this just to that’s not real real you know and it wasn’t you know you see Steph Curry doing some of that stuff now too uh um but really like you see where that where I’m going with that Arc you know like you said even if you didn’t know who it was you remember the moment it was clever enough so even if the person isn’t available yeah it’s hard to do running backs now because they won’t allow all you know we went to the two back committees um and you know you had like Chris Johnson you know he had the thunder and lightning with Lindale white but we forgot it was CJ 2K okay and then he just barely got a PE out of that you know what I mean if Nike didn’t do anything with Russell Wilson who was the kidss person you know I mean he slapped the dangerous logo on the kids stuff uh um look at the order acquisition I had just got some stuff from the Nike outlet not long ago too um but if they couldn’t do anything with Russell Wilson at his Peak when he was Super Bowl champion and couldn’t really push it and make he has the nice guy routine and everything so you know they they could have just poured more into the kids if they wanted to but they kind of missed the boat on that so you know we yeah quarterbacks do get a lot of credit I don’t think kyin Murray he had a g he’s a gamer as well so like I don’t think that he didn’t have the personality to match what the Superstar and then injuries and they don’t win over there in Arizona you know I mean so you know like why doesn’t Lamar Jackson have anything you know I want to know about the Jordan brand athletes like you know de press Do’s overhype don’t give him anything I’m not suggesting anything but you had like J Herz like is his marketability at his Peak you know with the Super Bowl run and coming back because I don’t know if you’re gonna get that again they got a new Squad and a lot of new Talent they they got one more Super Bowl run in them but are you gonna capitalize on all those moments again um I feel like Jordan bran you know we could have got a super freak out of somebody by now you know what I mean wow how did I forget the super freak oh my God it’s if it’s not a quarterback then who’s the receiver that’s why I was looking at Justin Jefferson and Under Armour you know Under Armour you had Cam Newton you had his signatures and that was okay in the first rounds you know I mean and then cam you know uh um his career you know but he was always uh you knew he was Under Armor you know I mean it was more pees than signature releases um because it was a high top train issue and it just you didn’t have the variations to really get in and out of it um but it was still a com Sho micro G’s was good Cushing the system um at that time um so someone that stands to mind if we’re talking about a young quarterback and has the opportunity to win and has opportunity to you know he’s already shown his personality in the off season see J stra all right that’s the guy that’s the Young Buck that’s the if you messed up Russell Wilson you better not mess this guy because he got the talent um and now after one year he’s got the the Arsenal of of assets from receivers to running backs He’s got everybody uh um and they’re gonna win they’re G to be chucking it I bet you there’s G to be more Houston Texans games on TV coming up next season all right so um you know he’s someone that stands out to me but you know you mentioned Jamar Chase as another uh uh uh top receiver I just don’t see the personality though you know over and again Nike you already have some pees with him like I feel like Lamar Jackson was the guy that that you know could could have done it but you already missed the window I feel like on him we talked about obj um you know I think his personality he it just stayed in New York you know what I mean because the marketability fell in Cleveland you know he was he didn’t play a primary role when he was in LA but still won a chip um so now now you know he’s just a piece over in in in in Miami um you had Tyreek Hill if nobody did nothing he’s with Nike again too nothing no PE for the cheetah nothing L you say cheetah and people know who you referring to come on you know he should have the cheetah why at the very least he should have some apparel collection or something like like like get behind somebody to actually you know promote something over there to you know so you know we could you know talk all day about what athletes but the fact is you know audience check us out Instagram at so material leave some comments here who do you think um should be uh um the next guy is there a next guy um who’s out there um that really um because I can’t name any other you know does Michael Parson is that gonna be is he worth a signature you know like who’s this other defensive player you know uh um that has personality that really you know um I met JJ Watt he had a he had a good deal with rebok rebok you know and that line went on for a little bit there was a little Iverson Inspirations going on with some of the colorway so I know it’s rebok but I’m saying he had a signature shoe and it worked and he was he was good for what they did because in their CrossFit era that’s around the time where he was doing that so that was a good shoe for CrossFit as well uh for for what they did so I just don’t know if any anybody that’s here ready right now uh uh uh to cement it out outside of a Justin Jefferson or a CJ stra well given that the draft just ended maybe there’s someone that’s going to blow our minds in this 2024 NFL draft um that we are not expecting there is a wide receiver that got drafted by Buffalo who already displayed a certain character and a certain Charisma from his first press conference so I got my eye on that kid from Florida State and maybe have a lot of opportunity with with the top two receivers G there there you go so um who knows maybe next year we’ll talking about again it’s what we do we kind of try to just do a Prelude not necessarily predict some things but just open up that window just to ask the questions and just think and it may be he was at the bottom of the first round so after all those quarterbacks and everyone else goes um it may be a surprise in this 2024 NFL draft um but he he shown some characteristics definitely off the break just being him he wasn’t trained up and so forth so we’ll see but shock I’m with you th% but again one of my sayings what a time to be alive during the 90s during that Zoom Air football time and again um it was cool that guys have their signature shoe but you knew it was their shoe because the commercial or the moment or the advertisement and the streets will call that shoe by the athletes name man and that’s just um what it was I’m looking forward possibly that happening again sometime soon um because opportunity is there I think that it’s easier now than it was then given accessibility social media and so forth um for some reason man I don’t see that being as important or prevalent as it once was and NFL like you said key thing is The Shield but some personalities got to come out because there is a market there for these cross training type of shoes like it was in the 90s and NFL will always have talent always have talent y Nikes got to step up because they got an archive of History man that showed greatness and they can do that again I’m looking forward to that happening again gotcha all right and before we wrap up you know I’m actually G to squeeze in a little nugget for our viewers and our listeners all right this is like your Avengers in credits where you thanks for sticking around for this 30 minute episode and if you made it this far I got a surprise for you all right so you know love a good show and tell uh um and I was very surprised at this that you know I did the back door on the Nike site that I told you about save stuff to your wish list check on it later I don’t care if it’s been gone for over a year keep checking you never know when the sizes uh pop back up and my size pop back up and it added the cart and they delivered it all right so what do I have here thanks for sticking around we have the Air Max 90 EA Sports collaboration that released over a year ago this is the Madden all right play like mad all right play like mad EA Sports It’s in the game all right NFL logo we got the football leather oh we look at that the football leather on top of the regular smooth leather too oh man and the white laces like the football laces you see that you see the texture on the laces like for the old school heads remember the look at that yeah there you go you see that with the stitches on stitches on Stitches there you go all right on the inside Air Max with the gold gold on the back you know what I’m saying Air Max 90 look at that details so we just had to squeeze in a little show and tell thank you guys for listening uh uh to the full episode so now just give you some more incentives because you never know when we drop a little nugget post credit you know at the end so just want to throw that in there before we go since we’re talking about the NFL uh um and again NFL that Shield you already know red white and blue but EA Sports It’s in the game all right um so thank you all for uh tuning in to another episode The Soul material podcast podcast you cheer for the channel you’re cheer for gave you that sneaker business Talk and of course Clarity over popularity all right so till next time friends it’s t Mar the street shark Sig and off and your man Ogo until next time peace to you sneaker it’s the soul material podcast [Music]
