Ripped off designs are getting a little bit to common these days, with many brands who hold a lot of weight in their industry making a joke of themselves by trying to invade the sneaker market with a style already made available to us by another company. Take for example Levi’s, a company I dearly love for their denim, who went and copied the styles of Supra, Vans and Converse, and in my eyes simply made fools out of themselves by doing so.
Some people will just never learn that we don’t want what we already have. We’re a market looking for the next best thing. Knowing this you have to approach us with caution as we will be the ones to determine if your sneakers become buzz worthy for a good reason or a bad reason which could have negative effects on your company.
Being a fan of Jay-Z, my favorite rap artist, I’ve come to support the Rocawear brand out of respect for the man behind it all. As some of you probably know already Rocawear made a break into the sneaker industry last year with their own footwear line consisting of sneakers and boots for men and women. We took a look at some of the releases, such as the R+ Revolution which launched the whole collection and weren’t all to bad as far as style goes, but when it comes to the company’s new shoes, the Roc the Boat, I don’t know how Jigga let these fly.
The Roc the Boat by Rocawear, a casual pair of boat shoes, is clearly a ripoff of the Sea Star Mid, a well known model originated by Converse. Being the man of style and grace he is I find it hard to believe Jay-Z would let the corporate heads at Rocawear release something of this nature, specially when he’s consistently being looked over by onlookers and judged on his selection of clothing. Not that they aren’t nice, I’d rock em if the Converse Sea Star Mid’s didn’t already exist, but the fact is they do and I can’t respect a knockoff.
We’ve seen Jay wear his Rocawar R+ Revolution’s before, numerous times actually, but is he really telling us he’d rather Roc the Boat then wear a pair of Converse Sea Star Mid’s which started it all? I know I wouldn’t, no offense to Jay, or Rocawear, a man and company I both support, but would you buy an imitation Fiero Ferrari over the real deal? If so you can get the Rocawear Roc the Boat through Finish Line for $70.
Last I remembered Jay-Z sold the Rocawear brand for 204 million dollars. Although he’s still in charge of overseeingthe marketing and product development, I doubt the originality of the products is he main concern. All he cares about by now is the royalties and dividends given to him every year for his stake in the company.
Even though they look similar to the converse Sea Star Mids they look way better. The converse joints are not rockin like the Rocs period even though they look similar which one would you rather rock?….yep the rocs get my vote dey nice