Kendrick Lamar is already set to have one heck of a Grammy night with seven nominations, and one for the top honor of “Album of the Year” for DAMN. To add on to that, the rapper’s collaboration with Nike Cortez is set to drop on January 28, 2018, the very same night. Get hyped, friends, get hyped.
We first got a glimpse of the collab via Lamar’s Instagram about a week ago when he posted a photo of someone, presumably him, trying on one of the new shoes with the caption, “DON’T TRIP. CORTEZ KENNY.” The words “DON’T TRIP” in the caption refer to the shoe’s black lace holder (for the shoe’s black laces) that has the words written in white. The rest of the shoe is red and white with Chinese characters on the outer toe. The shoe is set to be sold for $100, which is not too bad considering other Nike prices.
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Nike Cortez sneakers, also known as “Dopeman Nikes,” hold an iconic place in West Coast fashion and history, so it is only fitting that K. Dot. would represent for his coast with his first shoe collaboration. As legend has it, the shoe — originally called the “Corsair” — was introduced by an Olympic track coach who wanted a better shoe in which to teach distance training. Once Nike got a hold of it in 1972, describing it as “…thick, long wearing outer sole, full length sponge with a mid-sole cushion to absorb road shock and reduce leg fatigue,” drug dealers (dope men) in Los Angeles began to trade in their dressy shoes and Chuck Taylors to be able to better run from the police.
Many rappers escaped drug and gang culture by means of hip-hop, so it’s a perfect match for Nike to collaborate with a woke artist like Kendrick Lamar for the new Cortez release. Lamar is being humble about the release, not mentioning much more about it than the Instagram post, but if there’s anything we would gladly let him brag about, this is it.