All right, and like promised, we do have a very knowledgeable speaker here who's going to kick start the show before we actually unveil the 50 brands here tonight. We have, and with a loud round of applause, I'd like you to welcome Mr. Rahul Agarwal, managing director and CEO, Lenova for India. He's had over two decades of experience both globally and internationally leading businesses and marketing functions. And Mr. Agarwal, if you're happy with the applause that you got, we can move ahead. Otherwise, I would recommend no. Thank you. We're getting started. Thank you. Thank you, Pitch and Anurag for inviting me to do this keynote. I can tell you it's lovely to spend an evening where you're not working either to generate more revenues or to generate more profits. So I'm hoping that I'm really going to enjoy this evening with you guys. The subject of marketing and branding is a vast subject and my belief is that anybody can talk a lot about it. And there are no set of rules that you can talk about that you can follow diligently to make it a success. It's a bit of art. It's a bit of science. What I am going to try and attempt today is to give you a perspective that I've built over the years. And I've been fortunate enough to do a few roles which have given me a very unique angle to this whole field of marketing and branding. I've done role in my earlier part of the career as a marketing manager. I've also led the marketing for Lenovo when it just started in India. And when nobody knew about Lenovo and they thought, hey, it was some cheap Chinese brand. I've also led the worldwide marketing communication for Lenovo for three years. And last couple of years, of course, I've seen marketing from a very different angle. Sometimes something that is avoidable expense, too. Something that I am very passionate about. But as a primary provider of revenues and profitability, you sometimes have that view, too. So I was talking to Anurag in the morning, and what he said is that, look, we could make it interactive, and that's how I really like it. So I'll try and share my thoughts with you. And as I said, I do not claim to be a master. I do not think it's easy to be a master of this field. It's constantly evolving. There are multitude of views, multitude of perspectives, and what works for one company and one individual may not work for the others. So with that disclaimer, I'm going to just share with you what I think of this subject. Now, as I said, we can talk about this for hours, but what I thought is that maybe I could focus my speech or my address to you on one very specific element of building brand, which is how to build a brand through customer experience. But before I dive into it, can we move on to the next slide? Can you give me the clicker? Yeah. So let's just spend a minute on the subject, and I want to just capture a couple of words here. First is challenging. I, without a doubt, building a brand is a challenge. It's always been a challenge. I've myself seen it when I did marketing roles. And the fact is that customers don't really care for you as a brand. Customers really care about their needs and wants. They care about their gratification. They care about their experience.  And therefore, it is always challenging. And the other keyword is distracted. I think everyone knows how the world has changed about 10 years ago when smartphones came. They change everyone's world. And today, husband and wives have a tough time getting undivided attention in my office. And I'm sure you do it too.  And that's just one aspect of being distracted. So clearly, this is very, very relevant how to deal with this. The world is going to stay like this. I get very upset when I see my son on the phone all the time. But the fact is that I have to accept it and I'm going to be a parent. I have to learn to be a good parent with him being a distracted son all the time. So I thought we could just start this with the context. It's always good to see a slightly long-term context of how is the humanity evolving if I'm a fae. And if you see this slide, it talks about some major trends which have happened over the last century. And these changes do not happen suddenly. They evolve as civilizations evolve, as human behavior evolves. And today, people are saying that it is the age of the consumer. And I'm sure this is not the first time you've heard about it. We've been hearing about it for maybe a decade. But there are some very good reasons why we should believe that. Firstly, the whole word of mouth has taken a very different meaning with social media. You have a good experience. You can share it with thousands, lakhs of people the same moment and vice-versa. Secondly, especially in the Indian context, the division makers are youngsters. I remember when I used to do marketing, I used to look at an average buyer of a PCS, a 40 to 55-year-old individual, and you would organize your life around that consumer in a certain way. Today, everyone is under 30, if I talk about my category. And these people are more demanding. These people are not easy to be convinced. They have an element of risk-taking. They want to do research. And therefore, to get them on your bandwagon is far more difficult because they have their own mind, which is much stronger. Third, people say that the real age of discovery or the real age of innovation is behind us. Very rarely do you see innovations happening, maybe once in five years. And if innovations happen, they are very quick to be replicated by competition. So as a brand, you always are on the back foot. You're always on the back foot because there are two or three, or if I look at phones, 70 other brands who are pretty much trying to offer something very similar to what you offer. And therefore, customer has choice. And if customer has choice, customer has the division making in his hand.  So if you look at these three or four points, it is fairly obvious that customers today are far more powerful in this whole process of purchase. Now this just further makes the point that customers are distracted because there are so many avenues with the advent of new mediums, social media, websites, phones. Customers are always shuffling from one end to another. And therefore, the traditional approach of how do I build my awareness, convert into consideration, into preference, into purchase and loyalty may not be the optimal one. It may work for a few organizations, but it may not work for many others. Therefore, the key really is to understand how the customer is doing this journey. What he or she is undergoing, what is the thought process they're undergoing when they go to a website, then they go to a retail, then they do search marketing, then they go to a referral website to get feedback on things and then again go back to the retail. We found out, for example, that 70% of the people who buy in retail, buy computers from our retail stores, do extensive research on the net before they come and decide. So the battle is not really being fought at the retail counter today, but the battle is being fought at multiple places, also at retail. You know, brilliant salespeople can still turn around, but the battle is now spread over multiple places and that's a big, big challenge to the marketeers. So if customer experience is what we want to really show and what we want to choose as a point of differentiation because, you know, the differentiation otherwise is difficult and if we say that the customer journey is complicated and the customer is distracted and the customer is powerful, then who owns this customer experience? And this is, of course, provided that, you know, as brand custodians, as marketing custodians of your organization, decide that you will take the path of customer experience. Now, somebody who sells a product which has a life of a few minutes, let's say a chewing gum, may look at it very differently, but somebody who sells, let's say, a refrigerator, the life of which is 15, 20 years, may look at it very differently. But the key question is who is the custodian? And let me tell you, my belief is always, whether I was a marketing manager or a CMO or now, I've always felt that building the brand is not the number one job for the CMO or for the marketing department or for the advertising friends. It is the number one job of the CEO and therefore customer experience, if it has to be the one that will create differentiation, has to be the number one job of the CEO. The CEO has to champion it. The CEO has to galvanize the organization to make sure that everyone is aligned to it. However, a CEO will agree to it but not spend a lot of time on it, because that's a practical reality. And in that context, when the CEO is willing to lead it, somebody has to truly embrace it and make sure that the entire organization sings a song and dances to that tune. And that, in my opinion, has to be the CMO and that has to be the marketing function. And it has to go much beyond what CMO today does, because customer experience is about what happens in retail, what is the website experience, what is the experience of people on the call center. Now call center is one of the most underestimated bridge or platform to talk to a customer. Now, in the context of customers being distracted, that is one time when you have the undivided attention of a customer, undivided. He's excited, he's emotional, or she's emotional because they have some issue or they have some query, you have their ears. But most organizations, including us till sometime back, used to have a target of closure time. We used to minimize the time that our call center agents are spending with the customer. We never took interest in the quality of people, the script of the people talking, but they were talking as Lenovo, right? And I'm sure you all have call centers, either pre-sales or post-sales, and just give it a thought as to who in the organization is really spending time on what the customer experience is. So it goes much beyond what marketing does. It goes much beyond what typically the organization looks at. And if the customer experience has to be the pivot to build the brand, then it has to be, of course, led by the CEO, but championed by CMO by getting every part of the organization together to be aligned on it. Now, I'll just spend a couple of minutes on sharing with what we did at Lenovo. We, of course, realized that we got a long way to go before we can be proud of the way we do things. Let me just say it as simple as possible. And here the context is what customers thought about us as a brand and what customers thought about us as an aspirational brand. And we did a very honest study through the whole journey. And you can see that right from the beginning of the journey till the end, we found that there were many areas where competition was actually better than us. So if you see, a full black circle is good. And where we are, the arrow is up, which means that we are better than competition. So it was a very honest audit that we did, which went on for months and it required even me to go and talk to customers and partners and get that. And we found out that there were many people who loved Lenovo, but there were as many people who did not like us. Who didn't like the way we dealt with them in the retail stores, who didn't like the way we spoke with them, who didn't like the way we solved their problems, and sometimes they didn't like the fact that there was a problem in the product. And we thought we should do something about it. So me and the entire senior management team, we spent almost 24 hours in the call center. So we took calls, I took dozens of calls, spoke to our customers. And that, I can tell you, was one of the best experiences that I had. Till then, I really didn't get a feeling that I was doing a real job. And after that, the way we run a call center totally changed. The customers, we reached out to almost 7 million customers through that campaign that we did because we went live on Facebook, we did a bit of social media to tell people that, hey, the entire senior management is listening. And we were able to convert a lot of negative emotion to positive emotion. Now of course that was a one-time event, but you got to do a lot more of these things to really be liked by your customers. This is the service campaign that we did, that I was talking about. So let me come to the end of my address and then hopefully we'll have some questions that I, Sanjeev and Ragh, maybe all of us can collectively discuss. So first, I'm assuming that this community by and large is marketing. Is that right? Are you all marketing? So I don't want to be standing here and just be thought provoking for the sake of it because it's very easy to do that, but it's very difficult to actually get really provoked. But I want to leave 304 messages here because that's all that human mind can retain. Probably after a week, we'll maybe retain one or two points. So my urge is that, you know, let's try and remember one or two things and see if they are relevant to our daily life. First is the role has to be redefined. The marketing function today, and I don't want to get dramatic because not everything is true for everyone. It's basically a spectrum. You go to see where are you in the spectrum. You got to be somewhere in the middle. The left and the right is, left is past and maybe the right is future. But you got to understand and you got to realize, and I say you I am saying I too, that we are no more the author of the brand. I think the days are over when you could broadcast, when you could really spin a story and customers would just listen to you. And the role of marketers and CMO has to be much more than just marketing communications. That's point number one. And this has to be not just, not just discovered by you, but it has to be agreed by the CEO of the organization and the entire CXO chain of the organization. Second point, got to be clear what is the differentiation. Now we, for example, realize that when it comes to computers, we like to believe I can actually talk about 15 things that are unique about Lenovo laptop or Thinkpads or our phone from Moto Mods or yoga books. But the fact is that customers, you know, at a high level, do not really care too much about this fine differences. But what they do care about is the experience. And when they hear about a good experience of a product that last four, five years, I think that is what truly, truly influences them. So the thought that I'm going to leave here is that, do you think your organization would want to go this way? Because this is far more sustainable. This is, I can tell you, having done a quarter of the journey that it is not the most difficult thing to do. But if you do it, it is very difficult to replicate. And this is the only way, in my opinion, real loyalty can happen. The third point, go back to the slide, please, where, you know, we were talking about the customer journey. What is extremely important for organization is, and marketers have to lead that, is to really, really understand the customer mindset, the customer journey. You know, what is the customer thinking? What are the customer needs?  And the basics of marketing is to, you know, help people fulfill their needs and wants and demands. But how do you do it? So with the change context and the changing context, I think it's important to spend a lot of time, money, resources in really understanding, talking to the consumers, doing research, understanding what goes into their mind, understanding what really is the dynamics that goes on in a retail store or when people are, you know, browsing.  In four seconds people, you know, decide whether the brand appeals to them or not when they go to a website. So these things are really changing the dynamic and it's important for successful marketers to be able to write a book on their customers. When I was younger, we used to say, can you draw a pen picture of your customer? And if, you know, people would be able to draw or create one page about the customer, we would say, hey, you know, you're the dude and you'll do well. I would say today a good marketer should be able to write a book on the customer. And lastly, and this sounds a little motherly and I apologize for that because that's not my approach. But I've been a part of many marketing discussions in different roles where people would forget what they are but they would spend hours and hours on what would make sense to be positioned as, right? And they would look at vacant positioning points in the customer's mind, looking at market and competition and would want to occupy that. And then they would rush into finding brilliant ways to communicate and add agencies, you know, would of course do what the marketers would tell them. But because of all that we just saw, social media, the empowerment of the customer, the customer being young, the cluttered customer, the fact that differentiation is low, I think it's time to be really authentic and do some soul searching as to what do we stand for. I can tell you that that question is very difficult. I can stand here and tell you that for many of our product categories, we struggle to find what do we really stand for? What are we that customer would come to us not go to our good competition? And I think it's something that is required. It's something that is very, very difficult. It's something that people will fail to do when they start to do. But if brands have to stay relevant in the changing times, this is one approach that would do well. So I guess that's what I had. Do we want to take any questions now? Thank you, Mr. Agarwal. Yes, requested to please raise your hands in case you'd like to. You can offer an applause later. We're not yet done with Mr. Agarwal yet. We need you to answer some questions. So if there are any questions, please raise your hand. Introduce yourself or the company that you represent. Yes, Ram, we will come to you. But I do have a question, Mr. Agarwal. So like we all know that, and you mentioned as well, when somebody comes to buy a product at one of your retail stores has already done their due diligence online. And a lot of times we figure that the price at which it's available on e-commerce platforms may be much lower as compared to your retail stores. So how, or maybe if it doesn't affect Lenovo but at least if you can talk about it holistically, how does a marketer handle something like this? No, it affects Lenovo very much. 20% of the computers today are sold online and one third of the phones today are sold online. So it affects us a lot. It's something that as a brand you've got to be agnostic to. It's different channels fighting for market share. It's like when the LFRs came, when the Kromas and the Reliance Digital came, the traditional retailer cried because they had the muscle that they didn't have. So it's a new channel and people are getting worried about it. As a brand you've got to play fair. You've got to make sure as much as you can that there is price parity and there are no disadvantages being given to the larger players. But I think it is the battle that people have to fight. Smaller retailers are getting affected. Online sales are going up, that's a reality and there's nothing that you can do because that is how the world is evolving. So you're endorsing unlike a few other brands that have actually gone on record and say that these may not be authentic products online which are being sold and you have to buy it from our authorized retail outlet. Yes, so we did all that at the beginning. I think nobody knew how this whole, how this online world is evolving. Now, you buy something on Flipkart or Amazon, it's authentic and I tell my friends and family that look, you do the comparison and buy what makes sense to you. All channels are legal. Sure, yes, Rahul, do we have the... I'll hand over my mic to you here. So it was indeed very inspiring. What you have done, what Lenovo has achieved in particular in the Indian market. Coming from what you said, cheap Chinese product to a very reputed brand. It is indeed a very good achievement. So my question is, based on your white good experience and laptop and mobile phone experience, what is your suggestion for other products which are more of experiential in kind? Say for example, it may be healthcare, it may be in any other segment, so which primarily provides experience. So what would be your advice for those brands? You know, it's dangerous to give advice on something you don't have a direct experience on. So I'm not going to really, you know, bite that one, but I would say that it fits, you know, even more into what I said, that brands which are service brands which are experiential brands, then customer experience can be the differentiator that we spoke about. Even more for a product organization or a product brand. We have one there. Hi, Rahul. My name is Raj Kavan from Silver Push Technologies. Rahul, one sees a lot of disruptive innovations across the multiple discipline of business, whether it is manufacturing and everything else, related to design and R&D and everything else. Of course, the innovations that one observes there also puts pressures on marketing. No doubt about that. And even the time when you were into the marketing role and things like that, the distribution channels which used to be there earlier, which was a brick and mortar and the investment that really went into it, had a particular strategy in place. Now you have the entire digital innovative spaces like the e-commerce perspective where the complete change is possibly required in the way one looks at marketing the way Philip Kotler had defined at one point in time. Do you think with the innovations that one sees elsewhere, marketing also needs to rethink and possibly strategize in a manner which takes cognizance of the multi-screens. Of course, Lenovo also is quite responsible for the multi-screens that have been created and the disruptive audiences that you said. Yeah, look, without a doubt, I think that's the key point that I wanted to make today that marketers need to change starting from the way they look at their roles and the way we connect to the customer. Broadcasting is going to become less and less relevant and reaching out to customers at a platform where they're really listening to you, where you have credibility with real-life experiences is going to go up. So if you are able to, you know, cultivate, curate your customer experience and capture it and find a way to disseminate it. Let me give you a very simple example. Today, you know, if you spend some time on TV because TV is still, I'm told, 62% of the advertising in this country and it's not really going down, you have creative stories. The key platform that people use is at, you know, entertainment because the client says, hey, I want ad which has memorability. I want to entertain my customers, which in my personal opinion is too ambitious because your job as a marketer is not to entertain because you end up entertaining people who are not relevant. People who are relevant to your category at that point of time are not looking for entertainment. They're looking for real, good, important message. So for Lenovo, it could mean, for example, instead of, you know, having an ad with a celebrity which I'm guilty of introducing to the PC industry, we actually get real-life people to talk about their experiences. The ads would be boring, but I think they will resonate more and they may not win awards, but I can tell you they'll win more sales. So likewise, technology, the way technology is really everywhere. Marketers need to know how it's evolving. SEO is a big science. Today, I'll give you an example that knocked me out when I got to know about it. It's scary, actually. At least to me, it was scary. So there's a technology available. So if you are sitting in your living room with your family and you see a Lenovo ad, right, and your smartphone, of course, is always next to you, we can make sure that seven out of ten times or seven out of ten people who have seen our ad, in the next half an hour, when they pick up the phone, they will see a Lenovo online ad on the smartphone. Now that is scary because it's kind of almost invading your privacy, but these are the kind of technologies that marketers need to be aware of and, you know, be there. So the whole TV alone or print alone or outdoor, the whole idea of 360 is evolving and is changing pretty rapidly. I think we'll take just one more question. Yes, the lady here will give the lady a chance to ask a question and then wrap up. From Godwaj, I had sustainability there. So my question to you is, these days in India? Sustainability? Yeah. Like for Lenovo, if conflict minerals, would that be a reason for you to have a plank on marketing and conflict minerals in your product? Yeah, see, we can take the route. It is not a route taken by a lot of marketers. And it takes a bit of courage and conviction and somebody higher up to take the route. But there are companies who've done it. P&G has done it. I remember we ran a campaign in 2006 where we tied up with Cry and we said, that look every PC that you buy, we donate a certain amount of money to Cry. And when we do sales slash marketing to our B2B customers, we talk a lot about what we are doing to create a sustainable environment. How do we really take care of the old products, the e-waste, what kind of packaging we do which is environmental friendly? The reality is, and it's a crude reality that it's still not the top one, two, three reasons why customers make a choice. And unfortunately, when we work for a commercial setup, we go by what motivates people and we get motivated by that rather than maybe what is the larger good for the society. Thank you. Does that answer your question? All right. Thank you, Mr. Agarwal. Thank you for taking the time for being here. Requested to please stay back. We'd like to acknowledge you. Requested to please stay back. We can do better with the applause. Now is the time to acknowledge the gentleman here who started with his information and his experience with you. Request Mr. Rajiv Biotra from In The Sun Times to please come up on stage and offer a token of appreciation on behalf of the Exchange for Media Group to Mr. Agarwal for having taken the time for being here.


Today we're gonna be going over all the Air Jordan sneakers set to drop this month in March and I ain't gonna lie They definitely got a few bangers in the mix. Let's go ahead and get started with the first shoe We have the Air Jordan one golf mule UNC colorway It's a mule for sure.  So They're doing like I was something the other one was a OG colorway, right? Yeah, this is like a retro OG color blocking different switch up with the materials This looks like the retro that came out a couple years ago Like the color the materials and how the outsole is like that more bright blue But it's just like a golf version for the slide and everything like that So I think people are gonna be impressed by the materials, but then like why do I want this type thing? I think that's gonna be the scenario I don't think this they should not do this for me. I would say hard pass don't make these I Couldn't find nobody on the golf course wearing anything like this. It's when they come off the golf course. No No, either way, it's a pass for both of us. Yeah for sure I don't plan on spending my money on those any time soon If I did get them it'd be for a video and then I'd probably return them or something You can return Okay, next up right here we have the Air Jordan 20. Oh, no 38 low sunshine so Let's see This is a 38, but they did a low-top version and the Tatum's was like that. What on one part. What do you mean? This shoe Who else is no, this is Jordan 38. It's like a Jason Tatum. It's a low top version It's the same shoe. It's just a low cut.    No, that would be clean. That'd be a good hoop shoe. I Don't know. I'm struggling with these 38's man. The colors just has to be like the perfect color for me There was like a all-red one. I think are all orange high top. That was like the women's basketball one. Mm-hmm Those ones was clean. Okay next up right here. This is all like the first of the month type stuff Like they're just coming in hot. Yeah, but it's like firing left and right All over the place. They have no target Okay, so the spizzikes low tops bread colorway, so bread is black and red I think they did this in a high top, but I don't remember like this. I'm not the spizzike connoisseur But what I can say is These are cool. That's what I said. I like this. I like this This is a cop. I think this is cool and it also reminds me so I don't know if I can There's a couple samples out there that looks similar to these That's the Jordan retros and the threes and the fours, but the world might just not have seen them yet So it kind of reminds me of those, but now it's just brought on to this shoe. So I don't make some few different shoes to make this shoe. Yeah very interesting I think one of those shoes that you you walk in a footlocker and So-and-so's dad picks it up and they grab it and add it to their rotation. Yeah, I think that's what it's like Yeah, I don't think it's gonna go off the shelves like that. No, never, but I think that it's worth a cop I think nobody hate on you that you picked it up. What's the retail 160? No, they're too bad and then everybody in the conversation.  No, we say that all the time by what you like, but it's time to those golf shoes. Don't do that The orange shoes you can do that All right still coming in hot now this one this one I'm excited about but It's got like a little asterisk next to it So you got the Air Jordan one low 85 cut metallic blue. We talked about this for you more I think for like the spring summer type thing or whatever it was $170 is the retail see that's where they get me right there. They could have been everyone 50 so The thing is 140 the thing is for me.  This is like one of those shoes that just flies on the radar I think the white neutral gray or whatever smoke gray whatever the color what they call those ones those ones Aren't as nice as these ones. I think people like this one a little bit more, but at the same time niche audience for sure, so it's like Definitely gonna be adding these to my collection. I wouldn't I'm gonna be patient at the same time I wouldn't cop them like that, but I like them It's a clean. You know me in a 14 and 14 man. Maybe looking so big No, okay, so this is also an old top to this is an original colorway that we saw in 85 Right, so now we're getting the first ever retro iteration of the og 85 cut This is the first time for that. Yeah, so I think there's gonna be those type of So again niche audience for sure. It's a good looking shoe. It's clean simple So this is a hundred colorway for me a hundred percent cop But I'm being patient and I'm probably gonna get them for under retail and I'm gonna try to do my 70 that's what I'm saying. I just don't want to swim 170 on 150 hundreds and 50s. We can do that All right, what we got right here the air Jordan to this is the my bad the Tatum twos So we've been talking about the Tatum ones the Tatum right the Tatum twos is coming on the scene now Okay, and they start with the mama boy. They called the mama boy mama's boy, right? What do you think about these? I like it. Look at the model. I like it. Look at the colorway Look at the materials. Look at this aesthetic of the shoe What do you think better than the ones? I think better than the ones, okay? I think the the whole build of the shoe is better than the ones and of course that flower print and all that stuff What that's gonna change over time Why does it look so familiar and I just can't put my finger on it what shoe it is the best the Nike basketball shoe It had the bubbles on the side. I know the bubbles on the side. It's it's uh, well wait hold on grab that box right there Actually, I just thought about it cuz I have a pair. It's a the tan one at the bottom down there I can't put my finger on it, but uh, and it's actually funny cuz I just picked these up, too I don't know if you guys saw all my tiktok. This isn't really it though, right the penny No, it's not a penny. It's got a similar I can't put my finger on it But it's something and I'm almost thinking it's like similar to this shoe similar to the other one got two right And I'm two and I'm like I'm tripping right now, but I'm also thinking like is it that shoe Little sample little something Okay, anyways, but it's that it's giving at the end of the day it's giving me that 1990s shoe. What's wrong? Oh, you're talking about the flight positive three. That's what my idea is what I'm that's what I'm thinking That's a good one. Hold on. Let me show you okay This shoe was always thinking that that is true. Yeah, see I wasn't I couldn't figure it out It's got that flight positive three vibe. That's what I was looking see Allen Houston P. So that's what my mind was thinking the whole time now and right there. New York Knicks good P. So this P. E. Though, but you know, same shoe same shoe. Anyway, okay, so You get what I'm saying like that right in these two thousand like but it's giving you that vibe cuts is clean Everything's clean. I like this like I said that that's a cop And we know now and they can change these flowers and mama stuff on there Yeah, I'm interested to see what other color was and they've been I don't know if it's quote-unquote creative with the color concepts Because they've been relating it to so many different random things Either way solid shoe, I think I would pass on this colorway in particular, right? But very interested in what's to come what color ways and all those they could freak this out Yeah, they could freak this out like this especially with those pods Yeah, that lime green just really pot like that like I think that's clean So I'm excited to see what they do. That's a good one right there. That one's worth having a collection Okay, so now I think this is a women's drop because 170 bucks typically that's a women's drop It's a little bit cheaper and when it whenever you see that square patch on the side That's typically a women's drop as well But either way the Air Jordan one high. Oh, gee dusty clay now this shoe right here I want to hear what you think because I have I have my thoughts of it I love the shoe always, you know always like the high top all that the Jordan one for sure Okay, I'm always done with that the colorway not so much. Okay, it's a hard wear Like it's hard to wear this colorway. That's okay. So this is where I was going with it There's a shoe. They did a clot the Jordan clot Collaboration they did it with like the 14s and the 13s and stuff like that it's like similar like color blocking right and It reminds me of a clot collaboration like this could be a collaboration sneaker. It's a plot. All right, right, but I Really like this shoe and I think they're gonna We talked about the time they do a great job on the women's releases with the materials and everything But and I'm just like I think that I it's just again hard. I feel you on that It's hard to wear. I think this is gonna be like a well-respected sneaker fly under the radar great addition to the collection You're glad you had it. It's just what I think it's gonna wait I think yeah, I feel like it's gonna sit on shelves people some people gonna get it and then later on they go Dang, I passed up that shoe and I should have got it. Yeah, that's how I feel probably not even gonna be available in our size Right, so cuz the materials and everything look you look good. I think it's nice. I think it's materials everything looks great Now this next one. I love these. I'm for sure getting these But for some reason I feel like two hundred and ten dollars is too much So I'm like, let's see if we can catch these on a discount or something to 10 Air Jordan 5 olive is clean though So you didn't like the burgundies as much. No, I like these more. You like the olives. Yeah, like and I'm not if y'all know I'm not really that green, you know kind of person the browns and stuff, but this right here Olive green Yeah, I can wear the ducks colors. Oh, man It's I just got so many memories from like back in the day And these came out and having them and rocking them and all the different things the materials I'm excited again They switch up the cut on the toe because they give another og vibe, but either way at the end of the day great shoe I wish I had my old pair to do the comparison might have to go back and get an old pair Just right just to do the comparison right, but either way great shoe. They're good on this $210 is my 180-185 But to team they they have to be really selective of coming out $200 over these shoes and no understanding that Yeah, you're not the reseller, right?  They be having to shoot for retail in outlet to they don't even be discounting it. I'm like y'all disrespectful Cuz they know what somebody It's the same price Okay, that is a for sure cop for me and what you say what you write about it in I Get him a nine out of ten for everything He likes five she likes five eight for sure Let me know down below in the comment section. Do you guys like fives or sixes more? I like sixes more. He likes fives more the five come on five team sixes. It's all Okay, here we go Air Jordan for it look like somebody just peed on the shoe man But I'm starting to get a different vibe on it. And no, it's weird because No, I just I don't know. I'm starting to get a different vibe on it. I'm starting to like it more Probably cuz I just picked up those two pairs of four. Yeah. Yeah Like even if this was a men's release or like I Think some special like PE or whatever. Nah, I would be like Oh, I think it's a must cop for most girls. No, this is gonna I was thinking about that too I was like women are rocking this shoe. This is gonna look icy.  Yeah, especially you have a size five Yeah, I think shoes Portions the colors gonna be good with a lot of fit size nine and ten gonna be a struggle But it's weird though because like I like also how they embossed a jump man on the tongue And they still did that 85 cut or the 88 88 89 cut cheese on the tongue and I don't know what you're with a cut was But they got that embossed. That's clean clean now look at the materials done that I haven't seen that Like that, they don't do it that often. I don't remember seeing that normally has a Jordan four patch. I Don't remember seeing a tongue like that. That's like a Jordan three tongue. It's embossed stamped into it Okay, typically got the square patch. So I think that's might be what it is The tongue is throwing me off because It's like a three but on a four that's why I think that's probably what it is Okay, either way look at the leather So they put these leathers on the shoes and as sometimes it feels like like squishy like foam almost like it's like weird material And like you almost want to like is this leather? What is this? I think in the other leather? That's be in this scenario. I'm like, what is the material is gonna be like when we see this in person? So I think there's a lot of things that just got me real questionable Now jump in on the back. Look at that. It's Yeah, stick out. Is that I don't know. Maybe I want to like The colors to blend even more like the outsole color to not be like that or something like I wanted to just be like Because I think of pure monies pure monies is just solid all white pure white everywhere with the chrome hit So when I see that and I think the outsole and the separation of the colors is throwing me off with the back tab I don't know. It's grown on me. It's gonna be one of those shoes in hand. You know when you get it for the wifey Yeah, show me like fours like that. I got her some Fores like that, but I don't know. I don't think it's a terrible shoe. I Just look at the jump in on the back of the hill though. Yeah I don't know that's different to and honestly, it doesn't even matter because it's probably not even gonna come in my size anyways, so Either way It's a cool shoe. I think a lot of people are gonna like it Jordan four still got a little bit of hype on them. All right right here So don't wake New York airships. Remember. We saw the red in the blue. You say you sleeping on those Look at the materials on these bad boys No, the material look fire this collab for the airship honestly out of all the airships Might be one of the better ones if you think about it Think about all the airships that come out for the retros that we've seen or yeah retro versions and then like collaboration versions, right? This might be like in the top three battle of all the different versions. I don't know. I'm just Me and the airships is real hard sales. So anyway, I don't know something about the cut that is fire right Wake New York in there That is whatever it said But I think the details I think the materials I think the execution and then there's a red pair and a blue pair Remember we thought it was like left foot right, right? There's like two different pairs in the pack I started looking at these pictures and I'm like They did they did give you some extras on the materials kind of cool Now it's weird though because airships. I'm just not finding that bottom being different color Yeah, that age look it brings you back to the AJ KO from like 2010 or whatever there was like they did that and people were like What is this? This is trash like and then years later it became like everybody wants that vintage look right and now We're slowly reverting back to like just give me the pure color. I don't want that So it's interesting seeing the shifts in the you know buying and what people like on those things in their culture But that shoe in general, um, I think I Don't know I might like that might be when I add I might add that to the collection I'll pass on that shoe. I think it's like unless I'm seeing it for like 125 150 I feel like what's the retail? It can't be more than 150 150 is a retail. Thank you. So I'm like, dude, if they go up there now, they lose and they dare no But that's all the airships. They're just sitting there's cuz it's a hard sale or something about the cut on the shoe It's not a one. It's not a door to one It's like a bland version. Yeah, it's hard. I get it. It's not a bad shoe. It's just not like Great issue of all time, right? And it's almost like if they to turn that all the way to a strap right that part on the top Yeah, they would turn that all the way to a strap to come across. Yeah, like a Yeah, I feel that okay. Well continuing on with the airships. We have the rust pink colorway This one and I actually like that one better $140 Now this is what threw me off the green on the tongue Why do you do that? Like bro, what? But the shoe combination is better because it don't have so many colors. Yeah, but I threw it off with it Come on, bro. They threw that off right there. The green My only problem I that's what it is with airships. My problem is like that The colors all in the front.  I'm old school. That's all school The vandals is hard. You had that strap hanging down. Yeah, if you had to strap on the backside and hang it down I used to walk around like that too That strap did it. I don't know if y'all old school used to use the vandals Whoever rocked the vandals, let me know down below in the comments. Yeah, you gotta flip it backwards and do a velcro right back Okay Air Jordan 3 what we got green glow. So they did a green glow 4 and now they're on the green glow 3 The green glow floor was like 10 years ago or something like that was like right 12 years ago I don't know it's been a long time Different materials different colors different scheme on that she was more like grayish kind of colors So this is definitely a big switch up like if you compared to two shoes You'd be like oh, I could see the similarity, but it's not really like the same type thing, right? That's kind of where it's at in that field, but what do you think about these? Well, you know me and this color combination It's great It's a black cement three colorway and they added they added the cement print like on I stay area in the middle of The foot yeah, which is something they typically do like on the true blue three compared to like the black cement or the white cement It's just like all gray right so that adds a little bit more texture to the middle of the foot I think it's it's like shoot a cop. It almost looks like it's so basic looks like a suede like tongue Or like a new book or something? Doesn't that was that like a suede? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah That's a nice little hint right there. So I think I'm going to sway I'm interested to see how the leather looks because it kind of looks like the even the hill Yeah, yep, it kind of looks like the black cement force like the you know, it's coming up that sheen to it Oh, I'm interested to see how this looks in hand. I think for me. I Got a lot of threes in my collection. I think this is a pass unless I get a pair for Warm once a hundred bucks.  It's a good-looking shoe. Would it come out at 150? No way Don't say that don't say more than that 200 So my thing like if I'm starting out my collection, I'm like, yo, I can pick you're not gonna spend $200 on that I'll start looking for a deal I'll be looking for a deal, but I'm like, this will be a shoe that I would add to my collection. Oh, yeah I can see that you could cuz realistically like the green is so subtle you can wear this with everything and We're possibly go up later Jordan threes have a tendency of doing that. So what happens is Even if it's the worst colorway ever, like give it time It's going up. I could name probably like Five of the worst colorways and we could go look them up and you'd be like damn 325. What like these came out at 160 nobody Like all that so I think in that case they take a little bit more time But it's a Jordan 3 it's classic. It's similar to the black man But we're getting the black cement and there be some people just confusing it for a black cement, right? They'll just be like thinking that's what they got So yeah either way Good looking shoe. I think I think definitely worth the cop 200. Next up the flint gray This was supposed to come out before wouldn't it? I think so. I think we talked about we talked about that Shoot before Nate they held off on it Air Jordan 14. I still like to shoot.  But yeah, if I could get it all that's for buck 50. I Get it You know what it does remember those duck shoes like that? What's it? We said it was like a knock off of the duck pee. Yeah, I get that I get that Yeah, and I think that's what they did on purpose so people could get something like that. Yeah But I don't know the colorway. It's cool. I don't know he wear Again, this is like starter pack You know I'm saying I think this is like great starter pack shoe. Yeah great like for me where I'm at in life Now I'm like I do not need to be added. You got extra pair back there already I'm like, bro. This is I cannot buy all these shoes like this is just too many releases No, you're in a different position. You have to be very selective. Yes, what you buy. Yes There's other people like I said start now. You'd be a good for the collection and that's what people like get Misunderstood like when we make these videos because I'm like nope not doing it. No, and they're like, that's great I'm like, yes, it's a great shoe, but like I'm not doing it and again buy what you like like I Like it too, but again, I'm I gotta make a decision. So I'm not gonna buy it You know, I like to make this decision over three pairs of Jordan ones didn't one pair of these Okay, the next one Right this one is I thought this was supposed to come out. I think it's actually coming out this month now The trophy room Air Jordan ones we went over this before we'll make it quick either way. It's a cop. This is a cop They did the business on this shoe right here This is a cop for sure all the shoe in hand. This is not part of a starter pack. This will be the pack It's a great looking shoe great look I'm very interested to because he doesn't have it I don't think he has any low low tops. Oh, you don't have any trove rooms and you don't have any low top ones You only have high top ones. I got you get some dunks. Oh, I got some low time What oh you might them diamond ones What I got, I don't know hey pretty soon. We're gonna be doing my collection Yeah, we're coming soon. We haven't done it yet in a while y'all see me get a couple pairs of shoes Yeah, his collection has changed a lot, but I don't realize video. Yeah We're starting to we forget what we did I'm like Okay on to the airships yet again, this is a month of the airships, but okay greenstone Materials is there colorways there easy to wear all the different things checks a lot of box I think it's a great shoe, but just don't pay retail get it for just I like this one better Let it go on sale. This is definitely gonna go on sale, but the materials look fire That a whole shoe This one is for me is one of the better of the airships because they didn't do all that color in front of weird and everything like that It's more evenly spaced on there You know so this color blocking in particular is a color blocking that you would prefer for sure out the front half having the Yeah, yeah, you saw again like the og Yeah, I see like I think the other ones are og color blocking too But I know this one in particular real simple when they put that in the front They're trying to be like a Jordan in the right. They messed that up like the black toes, but it's like missing something in the back Blew that okay. Yeah, that uh materials are good. Here we go one of the bangers of the month Highly anticipated. Oh my gosh, I can I would never buy a pair of these you are tripping. I'd buy two I'm like Air Jordan, I wouldn't get one pair. I get to Picture right here. I'm rocking the UNC. I had that outfit to remember. Yeah, I think you had it, too. I Still got my shorts. I got the white in the blue and still uh This is a color. Yeah, so These are just nice They can't go wrong with this shoe right here.  I don't think this shoe is gonna sit on shelves long. I think I Don't if people know like this shoes come through the hoop in I used to hoop in this It's come through the hoop in and it's comfortable wear. I Think this shoe will be sitting on shelves for a decent amount of time and select cities and select cities I think certain cities will sell out faster than others Yeah, but I think it's gonna be one of those like you pull up and you're like damn They still got these like I think it's gonna be select city type thing Some of the shoes it's like these gonna be available everywhere for a long time I don't think this is one. It's kind of like one of those patches Oh, you don't think if you bought two pair and then wait want to go up you sell the one pair to make yours free for sure But it takes time. Yeah, you got it. You got a really season that one because The way the market is right now the way all this stuff is going the price of it already, right? $210 $200 you need this shoe to go up to $400 that's gonna take a little while I'm saying so you're like a three-year window You know saying like we might be able to get an extra hundred out of it I don't know about squeeze a little bit get the laces for free. Hey, why would you like my two pair wearing both? No, but I think Like I tell everybody you can't go wrong with a classic. You can't go wrong with a OG This is one of those scenarios where it's it's hard for it to lose its value or to not be worth nothing It's it's just a good shoe. Yeah It's this shoe is comfortable, but if you got a white foot, I'm gonna say don't yeah this shoe it does stretch but I Think the narrow foots is a win on these shoes. Yeah, it's like man. This is good. Okay, so I had the retro and That was like 2010 or 11 or something like that when they retro I remember one of them years and I had those for a while I wore them got another pair had a dead stock pair and then you know like when I sold the stuff to get the houses I was like gotta let these go right. I was like don't retro someday and it's been for ever I'm just so ready for this shoe to come out again. Yeah in the olive nines Oh, man. I got rid of those two now. They're coming back out again. Super happy about that one, too But we're gonna be trying to buy another house here pretty soon. I know I know I know I Know I got a meeting with the lender tomorrow. All right so next up right here, we have the ivory craft og and This one is like the series. We've seen the threes the fours the five different stuff like that, right? They give us premium materials. They switch up the cuts do a little bit of different stuff This one you see they added the patch on the side. Yeah What do you think about it? I think the colorway is smooth I look like the materials is good only thing is I'm worried about getting that back dirty I was just thinking it's a shoe that's just asking to get dirty like Like the way the outsole is set up the back to the back heel area like One good wear and it better be on all carpet So now cuz the carpet be fraying up onto the back of the shoe, you know how that go So yeah, either way, it's a pass for me like yeah, I wouldn't cop that shoe. I'm cool off But I wouldn't cop that shoe 180. I'm not even give that to the nobody hundred This one is terrible. Oh my the Jordan Stadium 90 So I think this might go with it now this has nothing to do with those other this goes with the garbage. Yeah That's definitely where it's at What is this on the tongue the 20 they go get the shipment in a blocker and just put it right in the dumpster If this don't come out for 80 bucks or less These should be a don't been I say 110 or 120 140 oh, they blew that if anybody cop these for 140, please take a picture and show us that you wasted your money He's crazy. No, no, no, you didn't waste your money. You bought what you like. What was they doing nothing? I don't know what I don't even know. That's like worse than a team shoe. Yeah It's like these Yeah, I don't know. I don't know Air Jordan 3 floral. I think this is the last one $160 don't do this to you kid. This is madness. I think alright, so if I'm buying a pair of shoes for a kid like that and I'm like I'm trying to find a way to spend that 160 on two pair of shoes Or like a pair of shoes and a whole outfit I just don't see where they was going with the shoe Okay. All right, let's let's break it down. Let's break it down quick midsole Two-tone Decent matches with the front half. The strings how matches the other part Bad, I don't know it's a struggle for me. I think they got too many things going for it That's all but I know this too. Was that trees or something on the back?  You know I'm saying they like color. They like the whole thing very uh, I wouldn't have bought these for you When you was eight years old Well, you just give me all the OG But but you think like all the I don't know if you want what do you want to call it activity in the shoe? Like there's so much going on right like I think the kid might like in this era of Sneaker designs and where things are at even when you look at other brands that are competing that are creating shoes for kids Or young young adults whatever you see a lot of like design elements material is cool on it though The material is cool. I mean but I Don't know that the whole thing they got what is that print on the hill? It looks like cherry blossoms on the back, but I can't tell oh no, maybe it's not look at that right there Yeah, that's it's just floral just different patterns of flowers. I guess really I don't think it's a bad shoe I don't think it's a great shoe. It's just like one of those Maybe what if they change the laces?  You're like, okay, you're not even looking at it But 160 for your key 160 is crazy And those shoes is up there 160 is crazy. So, okay, let's run this recap back real quick Let's pick out at least three to five shoes that we like from the month starting from the top I think you said you want the spits likes. Oh, yeah, I thought you were gonna say them low top All right, so it's been like for him Navy one low metallic low for me. We're interested in the Tatum's, but it's not a cop The dusty clay, I think it's a solid shoe, but it's not a cop We got all the five The sale women's for he's leaning for towards like a little bit more for the women. Yes I'm still on the fence airships New York. No, I think they're clean and then green glow We think it's worth it, but not for us right for you. No, no, no, I wouldn't cop. Okay, okay But it is it's a better shoe. Okay gray 14s. Oh Wait, wait, we didn't get this one. Which one? That's the same one. We just talked about. Oh, no, no, no, no the green glow. Yeah It's a cop. It's it's it's right there. It's right there. I'm gonna say I'm gonna go back on it and say it's a cop. Okay. All right. It's a cop. Yeah You like the flint 13. Yeah flint 14s. I mean, yeah, okay Chopper room 100% for both of us. Sure 100% UNC OG 9 powder blue nines. I mean 100% boom everything else Straight to the dumpster, right? I'm gonna tell you what we're talking Which you this go this meal shoot Do not try that at home don't even put it by the front door I Would hate to go to somebody's house and they have those like I just use these in the house So like hey, no, just buy some slipper Money why Okay, oh Okay, it's all fun and games don't get too hurt in the comment section just buy what you like at the end of the day Why would you like it's just any what we like and what we don't like that's what we're here for That's what's important if you got the mills off. They're probably gonna be leaning Make sure you guys subscribe to his channel give to 10,000 subscribers follow my Instagram make sure you guys subscribe to me We are out Yo, if you made it to the end of this video and want to take your collection to the next level I built a full community with private meetups with me and other members in the community as well So if you want to be a part of that and get early access or behind the scene looks on how I run my businesses This is definitely gonna be a place where I can help you scale your collection and potentially start investing in other things Outside of sneakers like real estate So hit the link down below in the description and get signed up and I'll see you guys on the inside The only choice I like to make what I'm aware I would never let you down and send my DNA The only choice I like to make what I'm aware today. I was made for it


Macrophages are key players in both the defense against parasitic infections and the suppression of the immune system. Recent studies have revealed that these cells can switch between two distinct modes of activation, either TH1-mediated or TH2-mediated, depending on the type of infection. While TH1-mediated activation leads to the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the destruction of parasites, TH2-mediated activation results in the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines and the suppression of the immune system. These findings suggest that macrophages play a critical role in the balance between protective and regulatory responses during infection. This article was offered by Stephen J. Jenkins and Judith E. Allen.