Benz and a Backpack

If you watched Christmas Day NBA basketball, saw Bron-Bron dominate and Kobe shout at the refs ’til his voice was hoarse, then you saw Nike sneakers. D Wade and Juwan Howard (Air Jordan Retro 1), Melo (Jordan Melo M6), Ray-Ray (Air Jordan Alpha 1), Josh Smith (White/Red Air Jordan 12), Kenyon Martin (Rising Sun Air Jordan Retro 12) VC, Rajon Rondo, Brandon Roy, Mo Williams, Grant Hill, and Sheed were prominent stars that all contributed to making it a Nike/Jordan-filled Christmas.

In addition to the absurdly large Nike/Jordan presence on TV this holiday season, anybody following sneaker releases was sure to be on top of the numerous Retro drops happening this month. For hardcore Jordan heads, December was heaven. Two colorways of the Retro 12′s (white/red, black/red), plus the Nike Spiz’ike winter boots. The cherry on top was, of course, the December 23rd release of the black-on-black Air Jordan Retro 11′s, commonly referred to as the Space Jams (pictured below) because (surprise, surprise!) MJ rocked them in the movie Space Jam.

Call it a reynolds, because no company can even touch that lineup alone. Throw in the mix Preem’s new AF1 collabo, the black/white Jordan Motorsport VI and Six Rings, the Jordan CP3 III’s, and the Blazers/Air Max/Kobe v. Lebron’s pictured below, and the lineup fills out into something even more untouchable. What can competing sneaker companies do to counteract Nike’s dominance in mainstream sneakerdom right now?

Reebok’s got Allen Iverson’s classic The Answer (and Danilo Gallinari, lol). Adidas hopes that Derrick Rose, Flight Howard, TD, and KG can hold it down for them, but without any truly signature basketball models the outlook is not-so-good. UnderArmour has Brandon Jennings- and that’s all UnderArmour’s got. Converse lost D-Wade, and Fila wishes Grant Hill still fucked with them. Expect Nike to use its intense holiday dominance as a jump-off for 2010.

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Other notable drops include…

Clarks Desert Boots (classy but comfortable):

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UNDRCRWN dropped some firey hoodies (and let’s be real, I’d much rather rock UNDRCRWN for a pinky than BBC for an arm and a leg):

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A few fresh ones from Burn Rubber Tees:

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Lastly, some innovative fitteds from A Continuous Lean:

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Just in case you haven’t seen it, the Iron Man 2 Trailer:

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