I have discussed authorized vs unauthorized sneakers many times on my youtube channel (heskicks) and most of you know how I feel about unauthorized kicks. Some call them high quality fakes, others call them “100% authentic” (which shows how intelligent people truly are). Now some variants are better than others, and some are spot on, while others have visible differences a child could see the difference between.
On this topic, here shows a reason we don’t really know what we are getting from these prerelease sellers, claiming “100% authentic” sneakers.
Here is the first images of the Doernbecher Jordan 5s via Sole-Up.
Now here are the released pair:
(images via Nike)
Notice anything different? Yes the laces are different, but they come with 2 pairs. Look at the lace lock. its definitely not the same.
Now, some of you are thinking “who gives a shit about a lace lock?”. Well this is a small example of subtle differences, we have no idea how the inside of the shoe is made, it could be just as shitty. I for one, dont understand how the early release market works, I am sure its pretty complicated however there is much corruption in that area, and tons of illegal activity. I just want to get back to the days of not having to worry about picking up a fake pair of sneakers from ebay, or even worse, having kids buy the fakes on ebay and being told they are legit, then turing around and trading / selling as legit.