When Nike released its Air Force 1 Low, the widely described “perfect white sneaker,” in the late ’90s, the footwear cost roughly $60, and in 2002, rapper Nelly released a single paying homage to the shoe. As the sneaker’s popularity increased, so did its price, which currently sits at $110. The St. Louis emcee recently appeared to take the blame for the price hike. However, critics on social media aren’t sold on this.
While sneaker shopping with Complex, the “Just a Dream” emcee reflected the likely impact of the smash record “Air Force Ones,” suggesting that prices went up after the song’s release.
“When we first started rocking Air Force 1s, they were $59.99. We did the song, eight months later they were $100,” he said before adding, “Now, we ain’t get no residuals. So, Nike — yo, holler at your boy.”
He added, “Let me tell you something. … Everybody that got Nike shoe deals need to be thanking us right now because we opened Nike’s eyes to a lot of that,” Nelly claimed during the recent interview. “At that time, they weren’t doing it. They were just basically on some, ‘They gon’ win regardless.’”
The rapper did acknowledge that the sneakers were released well before his song but maintained, “when you say ‘made em famous,’ you gotta understand that Air Force 1s were more of a New York, East Coast thing. We didn’t rock Air Force 1s in the South or the Midwest; they wasn’t rocking them on the West Coast. Until we did what we did, Air Force 1s went from $59.99 to $100 in a year.”
It wasn’t long before critics began to chime in on the rapper’s statement. Several fans did admit to being taken by the “Dilemma” rapper’s influence, including one Twitter user who wrote Nelly was definitely a trendsetter in the early 2000’s. He had everyone rocking the Fubu jerseys with y’all city names on it and Air Force 1’s. That was a time to be alive.”
Another person added, “Nelly did that s–t, he guilty, as f–k, ever since, he made the song, Air Force 1’s, the prices been going up, I remember, them s–t’s used 2 be $74, for the lows & $80 for the highs.”
However, not everyone was moved, like one critic who declared, “His popularity at the time contributed to sales no question but he didn’t start s–t, Air Force 1’s been poppin.”
