what are GR, quickstrike, hyperstrike and all that nonsense?
Tier simply determines where the shoe is made and the level of technology used.
Tier 0 - Japan - Exclusive and limited design assembly.
Tier 1 - 110 US factories - Assembly using sophisticated technology.
Tier 2 - Taiwan & S. Korea - Where more sophisticated technology and work process is used.
Tier 3 - Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam - Moderate level technology.
Tier 4 - China - Assembly using low technology.
Tier 5 - El Salvador, Honduras - Assembly using lowest technology.
Tier 6 - Hidden Factories - These are factories not being reported by Nike and factories the subcontractors send products to be worked on.
to sell nike shoes, you need a nike account. There are quite a few names for Nike account holders which basically tells you what sort of shoes they stock.
Known Nike Account's:
1. Nike - most basic of all
2. Nike Retro - sells retro re-releases etc
3. Nike SB - sells nike skateboarding shoes. this only includes the GR (general release) of SBs
4. Hyperstrike - basically shoes that more often than not, released to frens n family of the designer
Hyperstrike- These shoes are very rare, usually 50 or 25 pairs. Usually hyperstrike kicks are given to a store owner or artist that worked on the shoe to give to friends and family. Lots of times two different versions of a shoe are made. There is a general release that people can buy for retail, then there are the very limited hyperstrikes that are given to friends and family only, that usually have extra detail (laser, different tag, etc.)
5. Tier-0 and Quickstrike -
Quickstrike shoes are usually the most common out of the three (quickstrike, tier 0, hyperstrike). Most sneaker botiques have a QS account and get these shoes. QS shoes never have an "official" number of shoes released, but it is probably a thousand plus. Even though QS shoes aren't that rare, you cannot walk into a footlocker or footaction and buy them, they only go to botiques.
Quickstrike is a limited release, typically tier 0 or tier 1, some quickstrikes have hyperstrike models with additional accents (ie. laser etching, real horsehair, scuffed and burnished leather.) The shoe examples I gave are as follows, laser etching hyperstrike on the Stash AF1's, real horsehair on the Year Of The Dog AF1's, scuffed and burnished leather on the DQM Bacon AM90. These shoes were all released as both hyperstrike for the family and friends of the designers (read: shop owners) as well as a quickstrike which was sold throughout the world at primarily selected accounts. There are more rare versions of Quickstrikes that have a more limited release, but that is purely dependant on the shoe itself.
Tier 0- This refers to shoes that are released at the most select sneaker shops. I'm not sure about the exact number of tier 0 stores but it is said to be about 8. Some stores with tier 0 accounts are Huf SF, Nort/Recon (SF and NY), UNDFTD LA (x2), Alife NY, and a couple stores in Europe. Usually tier 0 shoes have very limited numbers (not like hypers though) of about 500 pairs or less. Some recent tier 0 shoes that dropped were the stash air force 1 and air max 95 as well as the CLOT air max 1.'
1 comment:
Informative content.
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