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 7th, 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.
Sneakers are listed in chronological order according to release date. Let’s get into it.
J Balvin X Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG Multi-Color (Dec. 8th) — $190
FLIP. Holy Colores. Its like J Balvin took every song from his album and visually applied them to a sneaker. This makes me think of a kids sketcher you’d find at Payless. While its precisely on brand for what I would expect from a J Balvin collab, I couldn’t imagine wearing it. There’s no way I’m taking you seriously if I see you strolling down the street wearing these. I promise you if J Balvin’s name wasn’t attached to this shoe, it would be on TJ Maxx sale racks by February. But the market wants to value this shoe safely over $500 making it an easy flip if you can manage to secure it.
Nike Dunk High “Varsity Maize” (Dec. 9th) — $120
DOUBLE DIP. A reincarnation of the “Iowa” Dunk from the original 1985 College Colors program called “Be True To Your School”. I love this color combo. I’m surprised to see pre-release market value around $220 given the shoes similarity to the incredibly limited Wu-Tang dunks from 1999. I thought we’d see something similar to the affect the Travis Scott 1s had on the Mocha 1s. Maybe this is an indication stock on the Iowa dunks is pretty high. If so, great, sign me up. Perfect opportunity for a double up where I think you can still flip for around $200 after release.
Prada X Adidas Luna Rossa 21 Cloud White (Dec. 9th) — $695
DROP. Stay away. I wouldn’t want to wear these if I got them free. No margin for profit on the resale market. Boring uninspired design. Find these on the end of year sale at SSENSE if you’re REALLY interested in them.
Ambush X Nike Dunk High Black/White (Dec. 11th) — $180
FLIP. The year of the dunk rages on. The latest take on the iconic silhouette is from Yoon Ambush and looks a lot like what Virgil has already done with his Off-White x Nike collabs. This is basically a rubber dunk “high”. Resell value will safely rest above $400 after release. I’ll take that profit on a shoe that’s not very special any day.
Adidas Yeezy Boost 380 “Azure” & “Hylite” (Dec. 11th) — $230
DROP. Ye has knocked it out of park many times before when creating a brand-new silhouette with Nike and now with Adidas. This is not one of those times. The 380 in general is just okay but these color combinations are terrible. No colorway of this model is even breaking even on the secondary market. I continue to wait for a 750 re-release. If you’re looking for an easy cop this week save your money for the Jubilee 11s mentioned below.
Nike X Stussy Air Force 1 Low Black and Fossil (Dec. 11th) — $130
DOUBLE DIP. Shawn Stussy has been killing his Nike collaborations this year. From being chosen as the designer tasked to bring back the Spiridon to now giving his take on one of Nike’s most iconic mainline sneakers. Props to Shawn. He hasn’t let 2020 get him down. I love that he used materials that typically don’t associate with an off-court basketball sneaker like the AF1, instead of just coming up with a new colorway. Based on his previous releases, this will be a very difficult to pair to double dip. You will have to enter multiple raffles and get lucky on stussy.com Friday morning. But if you’re able to do it, you’ll pay for your personal pair with money left over to put towards next week or some extra holiday spending cash. It looks like the fossil colorway will be a Stussy exclusive (unconfirmed). If you’re going for the highest resale potential, that version should be your target on Friday. No word on a future SNKRS release yet.
Air Jordan 11 Retro “Jubilee” (Dec. 12th) — $220
COP. I don’t know if OG sneakerheads are still holding on to that “retro colorways or bust” mentality when it comes to classic Jordan models like the 11 or not, but this is the cleanest non-retro colorway I’ve seen since the Mocha 1s. This shoe is very wearable, good for winter weather, and shouldn’t be too hard to get with releases at every Nike retailer including all footsites (Footlocker, Finish Line, Eastbay, etc.).
