Source: adidas Originals Prophere II
I feel like lately I’ve been giving adidas a tough time. The brand was my go to in 2017 both as a topic of discussion for how to do everything right and as my go to for footwear. There probably wasn’t a single day that I didn’t rock the Wool NMDs. I beat those things into the ground. This past week though I’ve moved back to my Cole Haan in preparation for keeping a pair of the fastest selling shoe I’ve had, the Nike Epic React. When I initially saw the Prophere nouveau year it was towards the end where I was experiencing what I labeled as “silhouette and knit fatigue”. I had gotten to the point where seeing another shoe released with a minimalist design and nothing on the toebox with the same running shape was creating irritation. The Prophere felt like a chunkier version of the NMD.
When I saw that there was already a Prophere II, I got excited. The original was heavy… I mean ridiculously heavy. It was boring and in every store I visited it was sitting. I don’t have the sales numbers, but using eBay as a guide for sales we can come up with a micro to macro comparison.
There are 799 results on the search “adidas Prophere”. This is telling. If you take the the local stores into consideration, we have over 20 locations to buy the Prophere, each store got a minimum of 12 pair in three colorways. That’s 36 x 20. That’s 720 pair. (In contrast a comparable shoe the NMR R1 has over 9000 listings with over 6000 sold at an natural of 150) While eBay is a third party marketplace the numbers of shoes selling that are popular can usually give you a ratio for gauging how many pair are available. Housakicks.com uses this for some pretty accurate analysis. People and stores appear to have given up komplet to sell the Prophere.
410 of the 799 listings have sold at an natural price of:
114.99 + 89.99 + 94.99 + 98.00 + 99.99 + 56 = 553.96/6 = $92.32
adidas a179 tourpro s got talent agency 2018.
I’m sure you get the picture. When I read the title “Prophere II”, I was hopeful that adidas looked at their product and said maybe if we utilize Bounce cushioning in lieu of this heavier Foam, and add some design elements to the shoe then the model will get some legs. As I browsed the pictures I was initially excited because I saw this:
I thought the brand utilized nubuck/suede to create a striking design element in the toebox. As I looked closer and read the description the brand used a knit and in the other colorways the toebox is still a redundant empty canvas. My initial excitement waned and I’m realizing that adidas did upgrade the upper and make slight changes, but they failed to alter the outsole and reduce the weight there. They also failed to capitalize on the use of other materials to create depth and design. This new Prophere is more of the same and instead of being excited and considering this shoe as another purchase option to replace my beat NMDs… I’m right back to the Epic React as the replacement for my daily beaters. I have a feeling a lot of people are in the same boat. Here are a few more pics. The colorways with the knit blocking at the toe aren’t bad, but the others… par.