Cop, Drop, Flip, or Double Dip
Let’s play a game of Cop, Drop, Flip or Double Dip with upcoming sneaker releases for the week of December 14th, 2020.
Those of you familiar with sneaker culture have probably heard the phrase “Drip, Flip, or Skip” coined by Sole Collector’s YouTube show Full Size Run or the “Cop or Drop” IGTV series by Highsnobiety. To not completely copy these ideas at face value, I mixed them together and added my own category. For those not tuned into sneaker culture, the description of how this game works is written below.
The rules of the game are simple: I go through each sneaker release coming this week and decide if you should Cop, Drop, Flip, or Double Dip that sneaker.
Cop means I like it and want to add it to my personal collection regardless of resell value or potential. depending on how much I like the shoe, I may even recommend paying resell to acquire it
Drop means I don’t like it and will not being trying to grab it, even to resell.
Flip means I don’t want to add the sneaker to my collection, but I will be trying to grab it strictly to resell.
Double Dip is a combination of Cop and Flip. It means that I want to add the sneaker to my collection AND try to resell another pair.
Sneaker are listed in chronological order according to release date. All drop time are in PST. Release information is up to date as of Sunday 12/13/20. Let’s get into it.
Last Week Recap: I completely struck out. 0 for 4. Ls on the J Balvins, Iowa Dunks, Ambush Dunks, and Stussy AF1s. Though week. But I’m keeping a close eye on the Iowa Dunks throughout the week and heading into the weekend as pairs start to be delivered. If I can snag my size for $170 or less, I’m doing it.
Nike X Stussy Air Force 1 Low Black (Dec. 15th on SNKRS at 7am) — $130
COP. Was anyone able to cop on Stussy.com last week? This was my experience trying to cop: Added a size 10.5 to cart and clicked checkout right at 10am. During checkout, my captcha failed to load. After refreshing three times I was able to bypass captcha and jump straight in line to purchase without ever answering a question. Ultimately, I took an L. Such a weird experience. Let me know if you had similar problems with captcha in the comments. Just like in life, everyone deserves a second chance to cop great sneakers! Ours is coming this Tuesday on SNKRS. Resale is sitting about $100 over retail but most pairs are still shipping. That will come down by the end of the week into early next week when people actually get their pairs in hand and they drop on SNKRS Tuesday. This provides a rare opportunity. Wait until around Monday of week next (Dec. 21) and see if you can grab your size for around $50 over retail. If that pans out I’m probably pulling the trigger. For my thoughts on the shoe’s design check out last week’s post here.
Adidas NMD Hu Pharrell Chocolate (Dec.15th on Adidas Confirmed at 7am) — $220
DROP. I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to do with this shoe. The Pharrell NMD line used to be so hot. Some of the limited releases still go for over $1,000. But then they gave them the Yeezy 350 treatment, releasing colorway after colorway with double the stock. The allure disappeared and resale value tanked. Then Adidas basically shelved the model for about two years. Recently they’ve brought it back to release four colorways in yellow, pink, white and black as part of Pharrell’s new monochromatic mantra. I thought they would ascend back to the original level of popularity, but I was wrong. I went after them and ended up with doubles in two pairs that I actually returned because I would lose money to resell them. I did keep the pink pair and think that colorway is pretty cool. I also have the Billionaire Boys Club edition from a few years back. A noticeable difference between this new monochromatic line and the old version is the absence of the large tread outsole. That’s a welcome change in my opinion. All brown though, not something I’m looking for in a sneaker. If I’m in a all brown mood, I’d rather go with a Chelsea boot or loafer than a sneaker. I will grant these a conditional Cop with the requirement you get them on the Adidas Confirmed App or a footsite which offers free returns and thus no risk buying. I advise avoiding all retailer raffles.
Nike x sacai Vaporwaffle Yellow & Green (Dec. 17th on SNKRS at 7am) — $180
FLIP. Sacai’s first collaboration with Nike brought us something fresh that hadn’t really been seen in sneakers before. The LD Waffle is a combination of the Nike LDV and Waffle Racer. Sacai essentially took two archival running shoes and mashed them together on one sole to create something completely new. In my opinion, they executed it perfectly. The LD Waffle is a dope shoe. This time around they are combining the body of the Air Pegasus with the design ethos of the modern VaporFly series. I much prefer the LD Waffle to the Vaporwaffle. The Vaporwaffle is a little too obvious about being a two-in-one shoe. Also, the Sport Fuchsia/Game Royal and Black/White colorways that have already released are better and more wearable. Those colorways are easily fetching over $450. This green/yellow pair will get $350 worst case, so I’ll take the profit here. I’m very tempted to consider this a Cop because the color scheme is calling to my Oregon Duck obsessive fandom. But I picked up the Jordan 5 Oregon SE as my new gameday shoes and the season is basically over. By the way, the maroon/beige colorway is set to release next Monday the 21st and will be on next weeks rundown.
Nike SB Dunk Low x Sean Cliver (Dec 19th on SNKRS and at local skateshops) — $110
COP. Back in February Sean Cliver released an SB Dunk through his skateboarding brand Strangelove. The Strangelove Dunks were a huge success and one of my favorite releases of the year. Now with his own standalone SB Dunk collab, Sean delivers again. It’s obvious that Sean considers the timing at which the shoes are releasing in his designs. The Strangelove Dunk was released a week before valentine’s day. He took that opportunity to package all the warm fuzzy feelings of getting a valentine from your crush and put it in a shoe you can wear forever. Not just on valentine’s day. The Sean Cliver dunk follows a similar blueprint. Think of it as the coolest part of the most stylish Jack Frost outfit you could imagine. Icy blue outsoles. Crisp light blue suede uppers that invoke thoughts of majestic snowflakes falling gracefully on fresh snow in the winter. Finished with a solid gold “shoe topping” swoosh. This shoe is the feeling of getting a perfectly wrapped present with a gold bow on Christmas day as snow falls lightly outside the living room window while wearing PJs and sipping coffee. Ugh, I’m in love. Double dip if you can but that’s is a BIG if. Securing more than one pair will require you hit on SNKRS AND at your local skateshops. Depending on where you live that might be impossible. To check which shops in your area are Nike SB retailers click here. Make sure you are checking their website and Instagram pages for release information.
*Reader Request: Adidas x Kid Cudi Vadawam 326 (Dec. 18th on Adidas.com at midnight) — $180
DROP. One of the comments on last week’s post was to share my thoughts on the Kid Cudi Adidas. I hadn’t heard anything about them until I read that question, so I was intrigued. After some quick research I saw they were releasing this week and I promised to include them. But looking into it more that reader may have been asking about the Adidas x Kid Cudi Torsion Artillery Hi. Which if that’s the case, I apologize in advance. Since those came out in October, I won’t be reviewing them. Anyway, on to the Vadawam. I’m glad this is a written series because if I was forced to pronounce that name there’s no way I’d get it right. Why couldn’t they just call them moon boots or MOTM’s? That’s obviously the vibe they’re going for, releasing this shoe to coincide with Cudi dropping Man On The Moon III this past Friday. I haven’t listened to MOTM3 yet but man I hope it sounds better than these shoes look. These kind of look like the stereotypical 80s workout shoes you see girls dressed in full jazzercise gear wearing in movies. But at the same time, I get Nordic ski boot vibes from them. I don’t know man. Cudi’s weird. It’s a weird shoe. Hard pass on the shoe. Excited to give the album a listen.
**Bonus: Nike Air Max 95 OG Neon 2020 (Dec 17th on SNKRS at 7am) — $170
COP. If you’ve been in the sneaker game since the 90s this is for you. Personally the 95 silhouette is not for me but just for the historically value this is a cool shoe. I love when Nike brings back shoes that helped fuel the early fire of sneaker culture in their original essence like this. Even if you weren’t old enough to own a pair of these in 1995, its worth your time to read about why they were so popular. Ask any OG sneakerhead and I bet you they had a pair of Neon 95s back in the day. If they’re serious collectors, they might even have an original pair from the early 2000’s with the sole disintegrated. Of course, if you like it you should get it too! Please just take the time to understand that your wearing an important piece of sneaker history, not just any shoe.
Heavy week for Nike releases. Pretty light week otherwise. I’ve seen a raffle or two for some Yeezy 350 Sand Taupe but nothing on Adidas. They suck anyway. I’m seeing a few Mocha 1 raffles pop up at places like END and Size? so keep an eye out for those if you haven’t secured a pair yet. I’m also seeing raffles for Varsity Purple Dunks opened up at places like SNS and Bodega. Reminder that these are a women’s shoes so subtract 1.5 sizes to convert to men’s sizes. I.e. 10W = 8.5M
