2 weeks after Kobe died, I went out and had a beer with an old friend from college. ⁣
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Every time we get together we almost always end up talking about one of two things – either the financial markets or sneakers. He’s a finance guy and doesn’t give a damn about sneakers in the least, but knows how deep into it I am that he asks me all kinds of questions in order to figure out a financial angle. ⁣
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1 beer in – we talked about family (he has two little girls, I have two little boys) and the housing market (we’ve both been trying to figure out how to buy homes for our families) and our jobs (he’s a suit wearer and I’m a sneaker wearer) and Bitcoin (he’s short, I’m long)…⁣
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2 beers in – he asked if I was able to capitalize off of Kobe’s death. All of my Kobe gear sold the day before he died – the day Lebron passed him on the points tally – so I didn’t. And was kinda glad to sit that one out. But to me…I felt the whole ‘we’re going to stop selling Kobe stuff’ was a bit misguided. I mean, I was sad and emotional and I understood the sentiment of the consignment shops and re-sellers and collectors…but all I could think of in that realm was Nike capitalizing off of this thing in innumerable ways. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but who do you think is going to walk away from this thing with the fattest pockets of all?⁣
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For example – this post by @ehawker23 – customs? Doesn’t matter. Immediately upon laying my eyes on these – ‘Nike Zoom Kobe 1 Hollywood Sunset’s’ – I saw the future…stories sell emotions (or do emotions sell stories?), and people buy emotions…the emotions associated with the Kobe story are through the roof…far greater than any other storyline Nike sells – there’s no way this is lost on them. ⁣
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I don’t know if I’m explaining my point as fully as I’d like, but what are your thoughts? What did you think of the ‘let’s stop selling Kobe products’ while Nike sold all Kobe stock and ended up saying the same exact thing? How long before the first emotionally charged products start coming out?⁣