Source: Nike Zoom KD 9 ‘Aunt Pearl’. Nike+ SNKRS
The Aunt Pearl is made to celebrate the life of KD’s Aunt and her battle with cancer. The shoe also benefits the Kay Yow Cancer Fund (I think there are much better funds to support, but that’s not the name of this post.) It almost seems to be a bastardization of commerce to resale shoes like this or the Doernbecher Freestyle series, but supply and demand drives the market… well not so much with the KD, but you get what I mean. Traditionally the Aunt Pearl has always been an eye catching shoe. The Aunt Pearl began with the KD 4 which is by far the best version in my opinion. So what will happen this year? Will the Aunt Pearl KD 9 be a second consecutive dud in the Aunt Pearl line for resale? Let’s get to it.
*** I’ve been neglecting to say that I’m writing these for those people who don’t have a hookup or discount. On almost any Jordan Brand release if you get a discount you can flip it for a profit.
Since I do 3 checks before my decision I will weight them on a scale of 1-9. The max points on a scale = +3
*** New addition to the rating system: Tier 1: 0-25% = +1 Tier: 26-55% = +2 Tier 3: 56% and up is +3
First check: The Flight Club Check is on deck and as I thought, the shoe is not available on FC. As soon as I saw this release, the details are too muted. There is nice embroidery and pops of crimson (pink),but from a distance the shoe looks like a GR, and it will be a GR. None of the KD 9s have popped on the resale market. They are strong retail shoes in comparison to last years model, but there isn’t any hype behind this Aunt Rose and with such a muted colorway, I don’t see any hype coming. I can’t rate on the FC scale, because it is not there.
Rating = N/A
Second check: My second check is always on eBay. The eBay Check is always easier to make an estimation. This is the thing though, there are only 3 listings under “Nike KD 9 Aunt Pearl” and of those 3 only 1 sold listing is available where the seller sold 4 of 5 pair at 164.99 on 1/21/2017. This is a resale check and at 164.99 which is the retail price plus tax and free shipping, this isn’t even a Tier 1.
Rating = 0
Third check: My third check is now a combination of Twitter hype, launch locators and StockX, but I’m not going to drag this on. I will move on to the Air Jordan 8 Take Flight (Undefeated) to give you something that might be better. If you are going to buy to add to your collection, cool, but this colorway really isn’t any different than the Olympic Rio version.
Rating = N/A
My final ruling: Collect this joint, don’t you dare try to flip it… unless you have a connect and you’re paying Nike Store prices. I don’t even think it will sell out at retail locations.
