Deion Sanders' Nike Air Diamond Turf 3 'shock drop' sells out in minutes over Super Bowl weekend
In a surprising move, Nike ‘shock dropped’ a batch of Nike Air Diamond Turf 3's to the public, which sold out in record time over Super Bowl weekend. About five months ahead of schedule with a projected release date this Summer.
For the uninitiated, a “Shock Drop” is when a manufacturer releases a portion of their allocation volume of a product to the public with almost zero promotion or advertising. Nearly all of it comes by word of mouth. Nike didn't post a date/time until it happened and there was nothing ahead of time. You just have to happen to be looking in the right place at exactly the right time and then maybe you’ll secure a pair. It's a tactic used to get people excited about the actual release.
Nonetheless, sometimes a shock drop makes sense. On February 17, Nike will release the Jordan 4 “Breds”. This is a highly anticipated drop that the vast majority of sneakerheads are interested in due to it being NBA All-Star Weekend. It's a shoe that has historical relevance and with such high anticipation for its release, it would seem logical that the allocation volume of that shoe would be north of 200,000 pairs. And a shock drop would not be surprising. The Jordan 4 marks a point in time when Jordan shoes became more than just “sneakers”. Nike has about 12 shoes over the last 30 years that all but demand a large allocation volume, this is definitely one of them.
Here’s where the story shifts. The Jordan 4's were shock dropped on February 6th, two weeks before the actual release date set by Nike. It's different strokes for different folks, but that's five months away for the Diamond Turf 3's. Nike wanted to catch the Super Bowl wave and prematurely send a wave to the market. This should encourage them to increase the allocation volume of the sneakers ahead of its release.
Some new details have emerged on the Diamond Turf 3's from Coach Prime by way of Reach The People Media. Here's a few things we've learned.
Sanders and Nike have revealed four Diamond Turf 3 colorways, along with Nike Air Diamond Turf 1's coming soon. In each case, this is referring to cleats, not shoes as of yet. The hope is that at least the Diamond Turf 3 in the black and Colorado gold colorway will eventually be available to the public in shoe form. At least that's what is being projected in videos. The Diamond Turf 1's has also been shown in cleat form. This one is intriguing because it is the original San Francisco 49ers colorway, which understandably would look strange with the Colorado Buffaloes uniforms. The important detail to take from this is that Sanders revealed that he is very happy with the colorway choices they decided on.
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The Nike rep visible in the Reach the People video admitted that the worldwide leader in athletic apparel conducts weekly engagement meetings to gauge growing interest in this product as they move towards the global release date. This is extremely reassuring considering the shock drop. The idea was conveyed that this process is ongoing. With an immediate sell out on a shock drop, plus all of the celebrities being gifted the shoe and the social media machine doing its thing, Nike is noticing a growing interest in Sanders' global brand recognition.
Looking ahead to next season, Nike’s initial plan was to outfit the entire Colorado Buffaloes football team with Diamond Turf 3 cleats. It makes sense after a select number of players essentially test drove them last season. Then release the shoe in 2025. But due to the success of Prime’s media machine promoting it, Nike elected to move up the shoe release this year.
The Sanders family was present in a meeting with Nike and gave their feedback. A new admission was the story behind the inspiration. Everything that is designed takes inspiration from somewhere else and "tells a story." Coach Prime admitted (two separate times) that a black and white shoe with a little gold was intentional and there is a story behind it. Based on that conversation, we feel confident that when they officially release, each colorway will have a story of inspiration.
During the “OGs of AIR” panel during the Super Bowl ramp up, Sanders shared a little known story about the design of the Diamond Turf 3's. The forefoot strap on the shoes was intentional. It was not a feature found on many lateral movement dominant shoes prior to 1995. A version of it appeared in certain basketball shoes prior to that year, but it wasn’t a mainstay. Prime admitted that part of the contract when an athlete signs a signature shoe deal is that they cannot cover any portion of the shoe with “Spat Tape.” Since high school, a young Prime Time would use spat tape on his shoes. Sanders knew he would not be comfortable with his foot moving around within the shoe, therefore requested the forefoot Velcro strap found on the Diamond Turf 3's.
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Another interesting detail is that Sanders' influence was the way the shoes were advertised. During the 70s and somewhat in the 80s, it was not uncommon for shoes to be advertised showing the front of the shoe. Like looking at the headlights and grill of a car. Coach Prime explained where he’s from. They pick shoes based on the side profile, not the straight ahead look. In the 90s, Nike popularized the side profile marketing campaign almost exclusively. In most cases, those ads would show the shoe’s side profile as if it was floating in air, with the orange Nike swoosh, a phone number you could call for more information and almost nothing else.
One question was asked on that panel about the introduction of air into the shoe design. This one requires a little context that was not provided. By the start of the 80s, Nike decided they wanted to incorporate "Air" into most if not all of their shoes. If you saw the movie AIR last year, they hinted at this referencing the “Air Sole line” which spring-boarded into calling Michael Jordan’s line the “Air Jordan line.” At first as a marketing angle and later as a function of the shoes. Technically, any polyurethane based athletic shoe midsole by nature utilizes infused air into the "foam". Even the "air bubble" was not a new thing in the 90s. The first appearance of a dedicated air bubble was in 1978, when Nike released the Tailwind running shoe. The first Jordan shoe with an air bubble was the Jordan 3 which debuted in 1986.
Sanders admitted that the air addition wasn't his idea. What's really interesting though, is that the shoe Nike plans to roll out in the summer and the shoe Deion has been gifting is actually the third shoe in the line. In both cases with the Diamond Turf 1 and 2, there was no dedicated air bubble. There was a dedication to function in the Diamond Turf 3 that was a dramatic design change from the 1 and 2. Another reason why the DT3 has such cultural relevance.
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In the same year as the Diamond Turf 3, Nike also released the first Nike Air Griffey Max, which was the first of Ken Griffey Jr's signature line. It was specifically a baseball shoe that not only had a dedicated air bubble, but also seven windows into that bubble creating the illusion of running Max Air from heel to toe. Two small windows under the forefoot on either side and 3 windows revealing the heel Max Air bubble. Nike was already applying the full court press on pushing the Max Air heel bubble and had already begun working with shoe styles that would eventually have an entire heel to toe max air system.
The white and black as well as the black and white DT3 models will be available for high school players. While the white and gold, and more importantly the black and Colorado gold will be part of the Colorado Buffaloes rotation. It's also the one not likely available to the public. We are still holding out hope that the black and Colorado gold shoes, not cleats, will eventually be made available to the public.
The release of Nike Air Diamond Turf 3 is expected in early July, but wasn't confirmed by company reps. However, we're told they'll be available later this year.