Is CO JP responsible for international sneaker love today?

I'm not sure, but we're going to get into that this time on Fire Footwear.

Welcome back to Fire Footwear, everybody.

As always, this is your host, Matt Fraits.

I hope that this finds you well and I as always want to thank you for coming back to this podcast that means the world to me.

We have some really exciting things happening for the rest of this year and possibly even into next year, and I'm very happy that you're on this journey with us.

Last week I ended with a release of the week and I talked about the CO JP what the Dunk Low.

And I did mention that it wasn't something that I was a huge fan of.

I'm not a particular fan of what the collaborations in general because I feel like they just aren't wearable.

They don't look practical to me, but I understand the significance of them.

They're trying to pay homage to all of the different releases that have happened for a particular brand, a particular collaboration, whatever it is.

But I mentioned it because this week I wanted to talk about Code jp and the reason why I wanted to do that is because in the social media posts about this what the Dunk Low, I noticed that there was a lot of consistency in the comments.

And that consistency was apathy.

And apathy in sneakers is never good.

It's actually the antithesis of hype and that is not what you want.

And I wonder today if perhaps many people don't understand the significance of CO JP and what it actually has meant to the culture over the last 20 some odd years.

Because in today's world, where everything is accessible, international releases don't necessarily come with the exclusivity that they used to.

I kind of wonder if maybe people have forgotten the impact that they had.

And so I wanted to take this episode to actually go over some of the history and try to remind people or maybe even educate in the first place what CO JP meant.

You got to remember, today is different.

And today, much like back in the day, though different cities around the world did have in whole different spaces within the sneaker culture.

Even within the United States.

You can go to a ton of metropolitan areas all across the country, Boston, New York, Louisiana, even within the same state, you will find a lot of different cities have different cultures.

The DMV, the Washington D.C.

area where I currently live has its own culture and people are very proud of those cultures.

And throughout the years, throughout the decades of Sneakers, those cities have continued to define themselves in terms of their own culture and also within sneaker culture as well.

Sneakers now are a worldwide phenomenon.

And I think Japan is a top tier country, Tokyo a top tier city in terms of its contributions to the culture.

I think if people were to name a list of like the top five most influential cities or top five sneaker cities, and I think I even did an episode about sneaker Cities early in 2023, Tokyo is going to be on the list.

It just is.

And the reason for that is because way back in the late 90s, Co JP was an initiative that Nike started to try to tap into the different culture and the different sort of fashion sense that people in Japan had more specifically in Tokyo.

And during the early times, you got to remember exclusivity was really, really huge.

And Nike wasn't able to just distribute everything across the world.

Collaborations weren't available to every single person, every single time they come out.

There was a lot of legwork that had to go into it.

So Nike as a business, and let's all remember Nike is a business, they are a sportswear business, but they are tapping into fashion and streetwear nowadays.

And they started to do that in the late 90s, because now we're very heavy into the Michael Jordan and Jordan brand era.

Michael Jordan at this point is retired and about ready to come back and play for the Wizards.

But they've already been through how many iterations of Air Jordans And I think the love of Air Jordans and what it was doing for the culture, what it was doing for Nike was starting to wane a little bit.

And Nike needed to find a different niche.

And what they decided to do was to create Concepts Japan, which is what CO JP stands for.

And they did that in 1999.

And this is where they took their sneakers and they took all of their business and they tried to tap into this market in Japan.

And it allowed Nike to create Japanese exclusives.

And what that did was create almost this mystical allure globally to what these CO JP releases were.

And you got to remember again, back then, sneakers weren't readily available online.

If you wanted something, if you were a collector, you had to have relationships, you had to initiate trades or in order to cop these exclusives, you had to know people in those countries in order to do so.

And CO JP with all the fire that they were releasing and the exclusivity that came along with that, it was causing a global phenomenon.

Sneakerheads all over the world were trying to get their hands on these.

And if you really think about it, if you Dive into the core of what this truly means.

I believe that Concepts Japan was actually laying the very core bricks of the foundation of what we know today as sneaker reselling.

Because I think that sneaker reselling has happened for a very long time.

What I think has differentiated it over time is the for profit nature of it.

I think reselling for a very long time came with a love of sneakers that I think many more people shared back then.

Sneaker culture has changed a lot.

I believe that newer people into the culture, or at least over the last 10 or 12 years or so, especially since the advent of StockX and goat, I believe people are in it for personal gain, more so than the love of the culture.

And underneath all of that, underneath the greed, underneath the money, is the true culture that I love, the true culture that I like to talk about on this podcast.

And I think that when you look back on what Concepts Japan was doing, I really believe that it is laying the foundation for so many things culturally, whether it's good or bad.

Because you can say that resale is a bad thing if you're somebody who doesn't participate, who has to pay high resale prices, it's bad for you.

If you're somebody who does participate in resell, you may be making or have made a lot of money up until this point.

And so I think that Concepts Japan is a forgotten concept in the fact that people don't realize that back in the late 90s, early 2000s, not only was CO JP providing iconic colorways of iconic shoes, but they were really laying the groundwork for what sneaker culture is like today.

Because now it's not just Japanese culture, it's not just American culture, really.

Even though we have cities that have their own culture that are defined or uniquely defined by what they have always been.

Culturally, I believe that sneaker culture is more global.

I believe that people identify as sneaker lovers all over the globe.

I mean, even in this podcast, people are listening from all over the world.

And that blows my mind.

But they're all listening to the same thing.

They're all listening for the same content.

And again, I think we forget about the roots of how this started.

So think about it.

Here are some of the most popular CO JP releases that have happened over time, starting in 1999.

You have the Dunk Low Plum, first released in 1999.

That's an iconic Dunk Low and it's one that has been retroed a few times over the years.

And it has always had the kind of place in Sneaker culture, especially in dunk lows, that people want it.

And every time it releases, I believe people want it.

But do they understand the history of it?

I'm not sure.

The Jordan one, of course, is going to have a place in history, no matter what kind of collaboration you're talking about, no matter what entity or historical entity you're talking about.

And Obviously, the Jordan 1 has a place with concepts Japan.

The Jordan 1 Midnight Navy.

It recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020, which was an interesting year for sneakers in general.

Again, the presentation, the premium materials that people heard about back in the day, now, again, we take them for granted, but people knew about them back then.

They wanted them, they were coveted.

Also, the Jordan one, neutral gray, another one that has retroed recently to help celebrate this 20th anniversary of concepts Japan.

Again, these are coming with a premium material, premium presentation.

This is something that we don't normally see in sneakers today.

I believe that they're doing better at it.

But you got to think to the late 2010s, even the early 2020s, until this major boom, materials were bad for like a whole decade.

Sneaker materials were bad.

And I think today we are a little bit more accustomed to nicer materials, nicer releases.

They obviously don't get it right all the time, but I think they're doing more due diligence in that fact.

Every single release to continue on this trend.

This recently retroed.

Earlier this year, the Air Force won linen, the brown, the pink.

It was something that people said, must cop.

And I think they.

It is a must cop for them because it's one of those shoes that they knew about.

And that's where I think some of these are maybe lost in translation, because I think it might be like what I talked about last week with Nigo.

If you knew, you knew.

And today you maybe don't know, but maybe you don't care.

And I think sometimes when it comes to sneakers, the idea of apathy in the culture, the idea of apathy as it relates to the past sometimes hurts me.

But I also think about the culture today and think about younger people today and realize that I, as somebody who loves the history, can't tell people how to participate in the culture.

I can't tell people what they should and shouldn't know about sneakers, what they should or shouldn't hold in high regard.

I think it's important to share knowledge, and I think that's something that maybe we don't do enough of, because I think there are creators, I think there are sneaker people.

Who think that they know more than somebody else.

And I never think that.

I try and remain humble.

I try and understand that I'm still learning.

There are so many stories, there are so many facts, so many historical elements about the culture of sneakers, not just since Michael Jordan, but beyond that, that I don't even know yet.

And I can learn those from other people.

And that's where I try to bring this podcast and this YouTube channel whenever I do YouTube content to try and educate or at least remind people of how we got to where we are.

And I think that when I see apathetic comments or I even see negative comments about the what the dunks nobody cares about co JP it makes me sad because you should at least care to understand why certain people like it.

Maybe only the OGs like it, and that's fine.

But the OGs are what started this.

So Concepts Japan, I said, was laying the core of the foundation of sneaker culture in terms of international relevance.

And really it was laying the core of the foundation for a lot of what we have today in sneakers.

And if you're somebody who doesn't know this and doesn't care about this, that's fine.

But just understand that the people that came before you, the culture that was built before you, is what got you to this place.

And I think that Concepts Japan is very, very influential in making sure that that happened.

And I think that it's something that should be studied.

I wish that the releases today came with a little bit more of that historical relevance, came with a little bit more information because in 2020, when they re released the Midnight Navy, did they give us the full story?

Did they take the time to retell this story for younger people, for newer people in the culture?

And that is something that I have complained about a lot this year, and maybe complain is too strong of a word, but pointed out that Nike Jordan brand are not doing enough storytelling.

I don't mean storytelling in the materials of the shoe or the shoe itself.

I mean, when you have a retro, when you have something that is revered in sneaker culture, you should be telling the story that goes along with it.

They're trying to do that with the reimagined series and I do applaud them for that, but they're not doing enough.

When you release the what the dunk low for Concepts Japan and people don't care, you're not doing a good enough job.

Complex.

Telling me that it's important isn't going to be enough.

Nike, the brand has to do more in making sure that that is possible.

And I implore you, go look up CO JP releases, go look up the history, do a really quick Google search of what concepts Japan was and find out what it meant to the culture.

And maybe it won't make you buy a sneaker, maybe it won't make you care more, but you'll have some knowledge that you didn't before and you can share it with somebody else that maybe looks up to you in the culture.

And I think it's all very important that we do knowledge sharing as much as possible.

And before we get out of here, of course we have a release of the week.

Release of the week where I like to highlight a shoe that catches my eye.

It's not always hype and this week it is not.

It's just something that I want you to know about.

So this shoe, much like last week, ties into some future content that I have already put together for you.

And it is the Adidas Crazy 8 Low.

And it is $120 releases on November 1st, which I believe is next Friday.

The reason that I mentioned this is because this video recently came out on the Wear Testers YouTube channel and I was extremely fortunate to sit down with Chris from Wear Testers and we sat down for over an hour and we talked about very little sneakers.

Honestly, it was a great chat.

I'm going to put it out in audio, put it out in video, and I hope that the final product reflects just how amazing the chat was.

He is one of the most genuine and humble people I've met in sneakers.

And especially with the success that he has built, the success he and his wife have earned, I believe that staying humble and remembering humble beginnings is such a great trait.

And being genuine, being authentic, being accessible as creators, especially when people come to you and people have done that here with fire footwear to say, I feel heard, I feel seen, and I love that.

I love how humble he was.

And I cannot wait for you to hear that.

So that shoe was really a means for you to go to wear.

Testers subscribe to their YouTube, Instagram, all that good stuff.

Watch that review.

It's cool.

And it also speaks to a time in Kobe's career where he was still with Adidas.

I think nowadays we're so used to Kobe's coming out and being Nike retros, but his time with Adidas did have some fire.

And I think it's worth a look back, just like it is for Concepts Japan.

How do you feel about CO JP releases?

Is it something that you knew about?

Is it something that you feel like you are in tune with the history of or is it something you don't care about?

You can always let me know by calling the Fire Footwear hotline, area code 202-643-9170 for my international listeners.

Don't forget to do that country code of one.

Since I am in the United States, of course you can follow me on Instagram at Fire Footwear Pot is the handle at Fire Footwear Pot on TikTok.

If you want to watch the show on YouTube, Fire Footwear sneakers Talk is what you would search.

If you go there and you like the videos, please hit subscribe.

It means a lot.

I'm trying to build that and give you some different things because as a content creator I just love making content for you.

I hope this finds everybody well fam.

I hope this finds everybody safe and I appreciate everybody's listening ear and I will talk to you next time.

This is Fire Footwear.

The opinions and viewpoints expressed on Fire Footwear are those of Matt Frates and his guest and not necessarily those of the Maddie Ice Media Network.

Fire Footwear is exclusively owned by Matt Freights and is brought to you by the Madi Ice.