 The shoe game is down bad right now. Everything is plummeting in price. Now see, those are some things that you might hear from resellers, but for collectors like me, I think this is a perfect time to be a sneakerhead. So in today's video, I'm gonna be going over all the different things that are going on in the sneaker game when it comes to releases, retail prices, stuff sitting on shelves, things that are still selling out, collaborations, you name it. We're gonna talk about all those different things, and I'm gonna make sure that I raise a lot of questions for you guys as well, so that way you can answer them down below in the comments section. And if you didn't know by now, my name is DJ, and this is The DNA Show. On this channel, I love talking about sneakers, and especially giving you guys updates like this. I've been in the sneaker game for over 15 years now, heavily collecting, and I've seen many of things over the years in different trends like this in the past. And if you haven't already, consider subscribing and joining the fam. We're on the road to a million subscribers, and you could be the next one to get us there. So I never really write scripts when I make my videos. I kinda just go off the dome, but for this one in particular, it's gonna be a very interesting one, and I wanna make sure that I answer and ask a lot of questions at the same time to see where everybody's thinking, and hopefully I can represent the different perspectives of different sneakerheads and how I feel as myself being a sneakerhead as well. So when it comes to it right now, we're seeing a lot of sneakers that are sitting on shelves, especially Air Jordan 1. So when I think of some of the recent releases of the white and gray pair or the white and red pair or the Brotherhood Air Jordan 1s, those three in particular, they are somewhat a little bit harder to wear with outfits and go as your everyday rotation, because we know Jordan 1s for being a more dark colorway, like the breads and different things like that. So I can understand why naturally, it makes it a little bit harder for people to connect with the sneaker on a consumer standpoint to actually think, hey, I can make this an everyday rocker and add it to my rotation. Now, if you're a collector and you got multiple pairs of Air Jordan 1s, like me, for example, I got almost a hundred pairs of Air Jordan 1s alone. So with that, yes, I wanna have all these different colors and variations and styles and storytelling and all the different things you name it, right? For those colorways in particular, we've seen different OG samples from in the past and different things being brought to life and different storytelling, different aspects like that. And I've seen so many things retro over and over and over again. But at the same time, I still wanted to add the Brotherhoods, the heritage and the stuff, great Air Jordan 1s into my collection. And I completely understand I'm on a different tier when it comes to becoming a sneakerhead because I'm not a beginner level and I've understood my identity through the sneakers that I love to purchase and all those different things. And that does play a factor when it comes to being a consumer, right? Because everybody always gets the label being a hypebeast, following trends, different things like that. That always falls into that category. And that is another thing where we see people talking about different things. Well, nothing is selling out anymore and things aren't gonna go for those prices and that and that, whoop, whoop, whoop. It's still sitting on shelves. And I'm like, if you like the shoe at the end of the day, buy what you like. Like that's what it's all about. No matter if the shoe is going for more or less, buy what you like. Now, yes, you wanna be strategic about it at the same time, at least that's how I feel. You wanna be strategic about it at the same time. You don't wanna buy nothing but quote unquote bricks because at the end of the day, those might be assets for you to then roll it into using it for a down payment for a property or something like that. So yes, there are gonna be sneakers that you like that are hyped, they're going for money and you're able to get for retail or a little bit over retail and then you happen to be able to double or triple your money. Sometimes even five or six or 10 extra money depending on what the shoe is. And those are a lot of different factors as well. But at the same time, you gotta buy what you like and you gotta understand that the shoe game is down, the prices are down, it doesn't matter. You're buying shoes for your collection. If you're a sneaker collector, you don't care. You are very happy right now because you're saying, hey, I don't have to go out and pay the resell. I can get the shoe, I can easily walk into the store with no stress. I can buy it from the website with no stress. I don't have to worry about every single item selling out all the time, every single release. Two, three, four releases, every single week. All these things, like it got to the point where last year where everything was at all time high. You got everything with the Jordan 1s in particular and then the Jordan 4 buzz coming in at the beginning of this year and then collaborations going crazy. Well Travis Scott, off what you name it, J Balvin got some stuff coming out and we saw a huge influx of people come into the sneaker game over the past couple years because people were looking for different hustles. People were looking for ways to make money and I completely understand that. And people were like, oh, after resellers, da-da-da, whoop-doop. And they're hating on the resellers. And I'm like, bro, honestly, this is all the part of the game. No matter what industry you are in, there is always this type of level of business and economics and you name it. It just happens to be in our industry so you look at it and perceive it in a different way so you want to be mad at somebody else and blame everybody else because you didn't network good enough and you couldn't find somebody to go find the shoes for you and get the deal that you wanted and all this stuff. Like at the end of the day, if you really want a pair of shoes and you mad at the resellers and stuff, go network more, go meet more people, go get into communities, go do those things to take the next step to get your collection to that next level if that's what you want to do. And me personally, I don't think it's, I don't know, I mean, yes, you want to be able to have access and go purchase all the shoes that you want. That would be great. But at the same time, would that even make collecting sneakers fun? I feel like the hunt of sneakers is fun at the same time. Yeah, when the reseller's high and you're like, oh man, I got that good deal on it, I was able to hit it for retail. That feeling is really good. And then you're going to have the other people's like, well, I never hit, I'll always take L's. Yeah, but also again, you need to be networking and doing other things and trying other avenues and entering more raffles. And all the other things that we talk about on the channel, you know we talk about all this stuff on the channel. So I mean, you guys know, but you kind of get where I'm going, right? Like everybody can play devil's advocate and we can all do the whoop-do-whoop and go back and forth and blame somebody else and point the figures and everything out. And everybody can hate on both sides and everything. I see both sides. And I understand both sides is very interesting, especially from my perspective, because I used to resell a lot of sneakers to help build my collection. Don't worry about it, I was selling shoes was so I could buy more shoes. I was have shoes, I clean them up, I'd wear them, I make a profit off of them, I resell those, buy another shoe, get that one out of it and then save up and trade them for a grill and you know, be in a sneaker head. Like that's what I was doing. So for me over the years, I've seen those things and speaking of the current times now, you got shoes sitting on shelves right now and I think it's completely fine. We remember this happened about five or seven years ago, 2015, 2014, some time around then. Jordan Brand was making a lot of terrible releases and people just didn't really want the stuff. We remember those times, the 2015 through 2017 era of things just sitting on shelves and people looking at those old images and saying, oh the good old days are back and da-da-da. And that's the prime example right there, right? So even from a reseller standpoint, I'm sure a lot of people have invested money into this stuff and they're down bad and I completely feel for you. At the same time, we gotta know, like are we overspending on shoes or are we just buying because we're happy to do it and all these different things? Like we need to be aware of those things. So if you are a reseller in the game and you are doing those things, you gotta treat this like a business and make wise business decisions and not just buy into the hype and buy all the things because you think you know it's gonna work. Like you need to find out that this is proven going to work. I'm going to have success with this item. You don't have to always be selling the same thing that everybody else is selling to make money. People always think about that and they're like, ah, bro, I gotta be flipping this because someone's so flipping that and he's a bigger reseller. But they forget. They're connected with more people and built that network and done those things to be able to get shoes at a better price, to be able to sell it, make a bigger profit to then go out and buy more shoes. Again, see what I'm saying? There's a lot of levels and tiers to it. A lot of people want to blame each other and all this different stuff. I'm just kind of all over the place with this. I'm just again, speaking my mind, it's just crazy to see this game. People have been asking me to make a video about this topic and I was gonna like ride it all out and do stuff. And I was like, you know, we're just gonna talk kicks and just experiences and everything that's happened over the years and different stuff like that. So before, about five, seven years ago, we saw this happen. It's happening again now. And I remember it happened again, it happened before that. And honestly, the game was nowhere near as big as it is now, you know, 10 or 15 years ago. So that alone, but you know, it's just like the stock market. Like you're gonna see those cycles and you're gonna see those dips and then you're gonna have the people in the comment section, oh, you can't compare this to stocks. Oh, you can't compare this to real estate. Well, I have a stock portfolio and I have a real estate portfolio and I have a sneaker portfolio. So for me, I think it's all in, again, same. Economics is economics and business is business and money is money and people make money when it comes to the shoe game. So for me, I think they're all great comparisons. The stock market is taking a dip. The shoe game is taking a dip. Everything's taking a dip right now. You gotta understand, everything is happening right now to everybody. Everybody's feeling it in some type of way. So one thing that is great for right now in this current time is buy the shoes that you like. Yes, but shoes like the Fire Red Threes and classic OG colorways, the Playoff 12s came out. Different stuff like that, the carbines are sitting for the low. Different shoes like that, when you start thinking about those sneakers, those are classic iconic models. And what does that mean? They're never gonna go out of style. They have so much history and nostalgia behind Jordan himself. Yes, there's other Jordans and other colorways and different things, but if you always look at the history of the OG colorways, for each and every model, they are always successful over time. When they retro, they go up. Next thing you know, it's a $400 shoe, $300 something shoe, and the prices continue to rise. As inflation goes up over time, da-da-da, whoop-doop, next thing you know, the new threshold is a $600 shoe. Who knows what it may be on the next rise of sneaker wizardry and all the things that are going on in the shoe game right now. But to get what I'm saying is, if you are right now and you wanna invest into shoes and all that stuff, why is decision, which I would recommend, in something that I have done in the past, I don't really need to do it now because I'm not really into reselling shoes. I'll just be collecting stuff. Now I really, yeah, that, I'm past, it's just too much work. But either way, when it comes to that, get the classics, get the Fire Red Threes, pile up on the ones that you love because you can rock them. They're gonna be aware of something later. You can't go wrong with it. They got nice materials. They have a lot of nostalgia. And there's a lot more backing that type of sneaker than an alternate colorway of that same model. So there's a lot of different things to think about like that. I don't know, hopefully this was just kinda helpful for you guys to just go ham in the comment section. And I'm sure there's something in here that I said that is gonna trigger somebody. And they're gonna be mad at me for no reason and all the other stuff. And they're gonna all, well, no, I do have, I get it, I understand. Like everybody is up on end right now. And then there's a lot of other people that are very happy right now because they're able to go find sneakers for good deals. And you know, there's just, it's a very interesting time. I've seen this time before a couple of different times. Yeezy, there's a lot of stuff going on with his brand right now and his shoes. And is that the end of it? And what are we gonna see from there next? And all his shoes are going down in value. There's a lot of different stuff going on, not only with Nike's and Jordan's. Y'all know I love talking about Nike's and Jordan's the most, but the shoe game itself is very interesting. Oh, and that's one other thing. For the people that did still make it to the end of this video, because you know, people don't make it all the way to the end. We get some people that click out at some point. But I always talk to people about this. I say, people say the shoe game is dead right now. They say the shoe game is over. They say the prices are down. Everything is terrible. Then why is it that the reverse Mocha Travis Scots are still hitting for $1,500 and they just came out? Why is it that the green off-white Air Force ones are still going for two bands right now and they just came out today? You know what I'm saying? You gotta think about all those things. I understand, oh yeah, they're limited and all the other stuff. Well, if the shoe game was dead and everything was down and everything was plummeted, wouldn't those be at least like maybe like a five or $600 shoe? And I mean, it's just crazy because shoes are gonna hold their values. And at the end of the day, a grill is a grill. You're gonna like what you like and it's gonna continue to rise in value. A classic PE is a classic PE. A Oregon Duck PE is gonna go for money and it's not gonna stop, it's not gonna change and they're gonna keep coming out with more ones in the future and the values are gonna be high. No matter if you like it or not, it's just what it's gonna be. So if you wanna be in the shoe game and it's a part of it and you understand, this is an expensive game and if you wanna collect cars and you wanna collect watches, you wanna collect anything that has a monetary value, any material item in life, typically, vast majority of things, this is what it is. It's an expensive hobby, it's an expensive lifestyle but if you're strategic about it and turn your hobby into a hustle, then you can understand and know the game and then you know what to purchase and then if you sit on the right items, now you can take those sneakers and you can use those as assets to then use to leverage, to purchase properties and different things like that. Cash flow off the properties, next thing you know, you're buying more sneakers because you got no worries because the properties is paying for your shoes. You know what I'm saying? That's just, I mean, we can talk about that stuff. If you guys wanna follow my other YouTube channel, DJ Willingham, I talk more about real estate on that channel but that's how I got into real estate. I got a few properties under my belt. I know a couple of things when it comes to that stuff, short-term rentals, you name it, all the different stuff as well. So again, that's a whole other topic but yes, the shoe game is very interesting right now. I'm happy because as a collector who spends a bunch of money on all the different stuff on sneakers, it's a great time. I can get a lot of shoes for a really good price. I'm happy, I'm excited about it because I know it's not gonna last forever. It's things are gonna go back up, people are gonna pick what they wanna pick to be the driving demand of the shoes and then Nike, they always have an agenda. You know, they got the Air Jordan 2 agenda right now and they're pushing energy behind it. So Jordan brand Nike, like they're always gonna have that agenda for us in the future and for the people that are wise and see what the year is like Air Jordan 7 is gonna be, you know, that transition of this year and next year and then we see the Travis Scott announcement and stuff. So they put energy behind certain models and that kind of drives the prices. So as you learn the trends and understand the game when it comes to that aspect, that's where you know, hey, I can still make money in this downtime. Just like same thing, stock market is going down. People are still making money every single day when stocks are going down in price. So for all you stock gurus out there that wanna correct me and act like you know everything even though none of us know everything. I mean, I get it but you get what I'm saying. Like stocks go down, people make money. So you can make money at any point in the game whether it's up or down, but just be careful. And at the end of the day, most importantly, just buy what you like. Like just buy what you like, bro. That's it. Like because you won't be worried about it. You will not be worried about it. You'll be happy with what you got. Even if you overpaid 50 bucks or 100 bucks or 200 bucks right now and then the price goes back up later, it don't matter. Cause the shoe was gonna be in your collection either way. If I've been collecting for 15 years, I got shoes that I've been have from high school. They're still in my collection. I don't care if the value is high or not because they're for my collection. Now if I wanna use them as an asset, yes, that's great. Again, another strategy thing, but at the same time, they're for the collection. So I feel like I've repeated myself a couple of times. I don't know. I'm just talking again, like I said before, there's no script, there's no rhythm, there's no rhyme. I appreciate you guys as always. Let me know what you guys think about the shoe game right now and how you guys are feeling with what you're purchasing and what you're holding off on. If you plan on spending money or not, all those different things, I'd love to hear it down below in the comment section. See you guys in the other one. All right, y'all, I'm out. Yo, if you enjoyed this video and wanna grow your collection or make extra money on the side, I built a VIP mastermind that will teach you everything that I've learned about growing my sneaker collection over the past 15 years. This will also give you access to the DNA fam in my VIP community where we talk about investing outside of sneakers. And don't worry. If you don't plan on joining the VIP community, it's okay. I'll also set up a private DNA fam community that gives you access to all the behind the scenes looks from the studio and multiple chances to win free sneakers and gear from weekly and monthly challenges. So all you need to do is click on the link down below in the description or the first link pinned in the comment section. That will get you set up and into the community. I'm excited to see you guys on the inside.