Did you ever have a shoe you really wanted growing up and couldn't get it for one reason or another? Mine were the Nike Air Zoom Flight '96, which Dominique Wilkins wore his sole year as a member of the San Antonio Spurs. I couldn't afford them at the time. Shoes don't brought back a couple years later and me being a 13 year old at the time had the attention span of my dog when it sees car drive by, a person running and a bird flying at the same time, so I forgot about them. When they got re-issued in 2008 I missed out again. 12 years is a long time to wait for a shoe you missed out on the first time (I hope I still have hair the next time they come around). The shoe game is a little different nowadays and our attention spans are certainly shorter, so hopefully they come back around soon. But aside from my wants and desires, there's another reason we could see your favorite shoes get re-issued earlier than what has been common.
Re-issuing shoes is nothing new to companies like Nike and Adidas. Hell, several types of Air Jordans get re-issued a year in different colorways and sell like crazy. Same goes for the Nike Air Penny, and various Nike Air Force shoes (1's, Barkley's, etc). What we have not seen until recently is guys still in the league getting their shoe reissued.
It started when Adidas debuted the rebranded Crazy 8 in 2005, which originally known as the KB-8's, but had to undergo a name change because Kobe Bryant jumped to Nike in 2002. 2008 came along and Nike decided to release the Jason Kidd's Zoom Flight 95's in honor of his inclusion on Team USA for the Beijing Olympics.
Now, Nike is releasing the Zoom Flight 95's and exploding the marketing behind it. The Air Zoom Flight Jason Kidd Career Pack features colorways from his time at Cal and the New Jersey Nets (Dallas and Phoenix colorways are coming).
The fact that these shoes have been released twice with Kidd still in the league speaks to his amazing ability to keep playing long enough that his signature shoes are re-issued as throwbacks.
This is something we might see more of, except there are not too many guys still with the same shoe company they were with when they came into the league.
Tim Duncan, for example wore these recently re-issued Nike Total Air Foamposites, at the beginning of his career. Duncan, unfortunately, has been an Adidas guy for the last decade.
Likewise, Kevin Garnett sported various Nike Foamposites that have recently been brought back, only Garnett now wears ANTA, the Chinese sneaker company. Dwyane Wade made big money to with Li Ning.
Rest assured, Kidd's 95 Zoom Flights will not be the last career pack to come around the bend. Just wait 10 years from now when we see these LeBron 8's re-issued in colorways for St. Mary's St. Vincent, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and whoever else James plays for the rest of his career. So sit tight, if you missed your favorite shoe the first time, they'll be back and hopefully sooner than later.
