Sneakers drop every month, just about. Some new, some retro silhouettes. But regardless of the sneaker’s debut, (or re-debut, if that is a word), one thing is always true, and must always remain true: every sneaker has an OG colorway, if not multiple.
By simple process of creating and releasing a new sneaker, the first few options made available to you are the original colorways of that shoe. As time marches forward, the sneaker comes out with more and more options, some even being exclusive/collaborative/novelty colorways. Think about the Huarache, for instance. When first dropped, it had a few colorways that really shook up the sneaker game. Nowadays, you can get a Huarache in any color on the RGB and CMYK scale, if you wanted. With sneakers dropping in new colorways in droves, we oftentimes forget about OG colorways. It isn’t until many years down the line when the sneaker relaunches do most of us learn and get to know about the original colorways. Think Adidas’ recent resurgence of the EQT line a few years ago. If you copped one of the original EQT models that dropped (not the newer silhouettes they pushed out on the campaign), you most likely received two things in that shoebox: a pair of sneakers, and a large stock card illustrating that certain model in one of the OG colorways that it first dropped in, when it first dropped.
But that’s an older model that relaunched. What about newer sneakers that come hot off the line and on the shelves every month? We see the OG colorway(s) live in person. And then a few weeks later, we see more and more and more colorways dropping, and the OGs slowly, but surely, start to disappear. Take the Adidas Deerupt that released. It came in 2-3 original colorways, Red/Blue being that flagship combination, and a few other colorways that didn’t matter so much (in my opinion). Now, in my emails, I see countless colorways on the model. Same idea follows for the Continental 80. It came in 3 colors: white, off-white (which looks like someone just rubbed a stick of butter on the white pair), and black. That was sometime in June/July. Now, come August/September, they already released a few new colorways more reminiscent of pastel colors. But even as you browse Flight Club, Goat, StockX, and other various places to cop your kicks, you’ll notice that original colorways on these sneakers will go for a slightly higher price than the latter renditions. For models where the OG colorway is sure to never re-appear for the next 10-20 years (or ever, like the React 87’s initial release), they’ll be a lot higher.
And then let’s think about another point: who are the sneakerheads that harp on the OG colorways of a model? Hard-Lined OGs that were around when the sneaker first dropped. Think on all the old-heads growing up in the Jordan Era, as possibly the most prime example of this. Those original colorways are the holy grails to those heads. They’ll go on and on ad nauseam about them. And for sneakerheads like myself in this day and age, while we don’t have OG Jordans to talk about, we’ll have our own offerings of sneakers and models we’ll go on and on and on like Erykah Badu about when they relaunch years down the line. Hell, I’m already talking about the Iniki (I-5923), and it’s still on shelves. And don’t get me started on the Deerupt: I can’t explain why or how I love that sneaker so much, but I knew I had to have that OG red/blue at the drop. I know when that shoe re-releases, assuming it does, I will be one of those sneakerheads talking about how I copped the original colorway and for what I got it for when it dropped. The same goes for any other sneaker I’ve really loved in my time as a sneakerhead.
So, are OG colorways a must-have? It depends on what sneakers dropped in your time, and just how much that sneaker meant to you.
Leave a Reply