Another Saturday, another Jordan release. People camped out, sites acted funky, lots of people were left empty handed; nothing we haven’t seen before. However, the Carmines (while much welcomed) brought to light that after years of highly sought after releases hitting online “shelves” most company’s haven’t mastered the sought after online sneaker release. With that said I figured it was time to rate how 4 companies handled the most recent Carmine VI retro and here are the grades. Keep in mind this is not a rating of how an average transaction is conducted its just a rating for how limited/high demand releases are handled. Feel free to vote in the box below and drop a comment.
By 8 AM I had Nike.com, Eastbay.com, Finishline.com and Dickssportinggoods.com all open in my browser.
Eastbay.com showcased all the sizes but when you went to add them it appeared that within seconds, every pair was in someones cart with no way of you knowing whether or not you would be able to secure any pair let a lone your own size. No, instead you had to refresh the page every few minutes and try to add your size again with the HOPE that you’d be able to add them to the cart. For a highly sought after release it leaves to many questions marks and to much wasted time. Grade = C –
Dickssportinggoods.com was a welcomed change from the usual and so I figured this would be a good one. Instead I was able to add the size to cart, put in all my information and when I clicked submit? Error, the size was no longer available. In 2014, once you have a shoe in your cart at the very least you should have 10 minutes to enter in all your information to check out or be prevented from entering it all together. Not a good look at all. Grade = D
Nike.com was a disappointment. You would think that the company that’s actually making the product, especially one as large and in charge as Nike would have the best system. Nope. Nike’s site was leaning more on chaos. If you were “fortunate” enough to add a pair and get that spinning wheel, you wound up waiting to see if whoever it was in front of you would snag the same pair you were in line for and you more than likely did so for nearly 30 minutes. After such an extended time some would probably suggest you just give up, but those that have done this before know its a toss up. No, you waited 30 minutes until you received the dreaded out of stock message. Then, somehow after selling out, a full size run shows up and that too sells out in seconds. In the end, the system isn’t set up that well and only slightly better than Eastbay. Grade = C
Finishline.com Hands down, handled this release like a pro. I opened their page and they automatically refreshed the page for me (clearly instructing me not to do so myself) and although it took me approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes to get through once I was in it was smooth sailing. There was no crashing, no lag on the site no uncertainty of what was available no spinning wheels no need to refresh pages myself non of that. I added my size (sizes sold out were darkened), put in all my info and clicked submit. Within seconds I received a confirmation and that was it. Finishlines system proved to be the absolute best system for handling releases like this and is the closest to waiting inline outside a store in orderly fashion. Of course, you don’t know if they will have your size once you’re in, and yes you will have to wait, but once your in you know what your dealing with and there’s no chaos. This is a system that all the sites should adopt. Grade = A+