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Slow Shipping This Holiday Season

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I’m sure it can’t only be me, but has shipping packages this holiday season been slower than previous years? I don’t ever recall having so many parcels delayed or even damaged. I even thought one of my UPS packages was stolen only to find it delivered five days after it was reported. Must be the sheer number of online orders is putting a huge strain on USPS, FedEx, and UPS. Almost every delivery service seemed to have suffered this season.

In years past, purchases with Amazon Prime shipping to Hawaii arrived in 2-3 days, really unheard of compared to the typical 5-7 days of free shipping. But this year, I was lucky to get my Amazon deliveries on time. One order was literally destroyed with only the box label delivered. Yup, just the box label, no actual contents of the box.

Like I said, I had thought a UPS delivery was stolen since it was reported as delivered. I couldn’t find the said-delivered package so reported a lost package and started a claim over the Christmas weekend. Nothing came of it during the weekend and by the time I received a response, the package showed up even though the reported delivery date was five days prior.

I was supposed to have received another Amazon order on Wednesday by 8pm (via USPS by the way). At 8:11pm, I checked the delivery status and saw this.

How was your shipping experiences this holiday season?

 

Skipped the Undefeated X Adidas Prophere

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adidas-x-undefeated-prophereWhile I considered the new Adidas Prophere done up in tiger camo in collaboration with Undefeated, I ultimately passed. There was an online release on Saturday after being released at select Undefeated locations. Anyways, there was still stock when I checked but not in my ideal size. Remember, these Prophere run big and the Undefeated site even mentions sizing down.

While my normal size 10 was still in stock, size 9.5 was already gone. I had the 10 in my cart, but the final hurdle when checking out was the $25 shipping charge. The normally priced $120 Prophere already had a $40 premium, retailing for $160. Then on top of that, add $25 for a total of $185?!? Compared to other collaborations, $185 is not bad, but I’m guessing it’ll be available on Adidas at some point, or there are many more colorways to follow.

The Adidas Prophere Is Heavy

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Adidas’ latest silhouette, the Prophere, debuted today, and I did a quick try on at Champs Sports. First thing you’ll notice is its weight. Very heavy compared to the Ultra Boost and AlphaBounce lines. Then I noticed the nubs on the midsole. They really are pronounced and the entire midsole has a sheen to it. Think a matte finish would be better.

Lastly, there’s that odd Adidas sizing. My true-to-size fit felt way too big, and I had thicker socks on as well. Space in the toebox and wiggle room in the width. Probaby could have gone down half a size. So pass on the Prophere for now…maybe that camo version though…

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A Waste of Paper?

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Why do I have the feeling that these raffle tickets for the upcoming Yeezy Boost 350 “Blue Tint” are a waste of paper?

Do I trust that Foot Locker and Foot Action will hold legitimate raffles for these shoes or will “associates” of employees coincidentally be rocking them Blue Tints?

Update: Yup, waste of time. Got no call back and sadly, the Foot Action reservation system via its mobile app was invalidated, changing to a first come, first served system. I kinda liked the mobile app reservation system since it felt less prone to human tampering.

Is Cyberweek Better than Black Friday?

Somewhere over the years Cyber Monday became Cyber Week with sales going on through the entire week following the shopping madness of Black Friday. Sure Black Friday has all the deals and sales… or maybe not.

Stopping by Ala Moana today, I noticed that many stores with Black Friday discounts still had sales for Cyber Week. And it seemed like these deals were better than those from Black Friday. I guess the main difference is that inventory of popular items would be wiped out from Black Friday. But of the remaining items, their prices now are better than what I remeber from Black Friday.

Anyone else notice this?

 

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My Greatest Pickup Ever!

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Truthfully, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. On Instagram, I was seeing a lot of images of resdesigned, classic Nike silhouettes with that telltale red zip tie. These images were tagged #offwhite and #theten. Then I learned “The Ten” was a collaboration with designer Virgil Abloh. But as soon as Nike announced the launch of The Ten on the SNKRS app, the hype went into overdrive. Every few hours Nike would release a few models of the Off White collaboration starting with the Presto and ending with the Jordan 1.

off-white-presto-confirmationHad to try, right? But also had to expect disappointment when taking the loss. But then I didn’t. Instead of “taking the L,” I got a confirmation from Nike for my Presto order. Despite online ordering delays caused by invalid payment types (yes, my credit card is not a debit card, Nike), my order went through quickly. Too easy so must be a wide spread release I guessed. Then I checked the demand at Stockx and was amazed.

After getting the Prestos, I knew why. It’s the details and the amazing number of details in this collaboration remix.

PB244313 The laces, the stitching, the folds, every aspect of the shoe appears to be tailored to be different yet the same as the classic Presto. I can understand why there’s banter that this model could be one of the top releases of 2017 and easily my greatest pickup. Alas, I didn’t luck out with any other members of The Ten. But these Prestos… PB244324

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Scored Yeezys with the Foot Locker App

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The second lucky pickup of the week was thanks to the Foot Locker mobile app. For the launch of the Yeezy Boost 350 Beluga v2.0, Foot Locker was promoting their Launch Locator and reservation system in the mobile app. Being a super duper old school member of the Foot Locker VIP club, I signed up for the Yeezy launch and was given a 6-minute headstart.

Then I forgot all about this. On the afternoon of Black Friday, I got this notification.

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Checking the FL app, I stopped as I saw this.

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But wait, pickup was set for Friday by 3pm?!? It was already 1pm, and I still had time but in my mind, I thought I was misinterrepting this message. Only one way to find out!

Surprisingly getting to Waikiki in the middle of the day on Black Friday was super easy. No traffic or slowdowns whatsoever. At Foot Locker, there was a line for the Yeezy reservation, but guess what? It seemingly meant nothing since you couldn’t actually pickup the Yeezys that were officially launching on Saturday, November 25. The FL employee had a (long) list of reservation winners, and he simply made sure your name was on the list. He didn’t cross off or mark your name indicating you showed up by 3pm as the app instructed. Why I had to go down there I still don’t know and neither did a lot of other irate Yeezy fans who wanted their shoes then and there.

Anyways, being on the list meant my pair was reserved, right? I didn’t want to take a chance of pairs running out, so I came back early-ish on the 25th. Others had the same idea with a queue about 10 deep.

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The line moved along as pedestrians asked what the line was for. After about half an hour, I had my first pair of Yeezys.

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Thanks Foot Locker!

The Adidas Outlet at Waikele Is an Outlet

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Okay, let’s keep expectations in check. The Adidas store at Waikele Premium Outlets has recently been renovated with its grand re-opening today through November 12, 2017.

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But just remember that this is not an Adidas store but rather an Adidias outlet, located in Waikele Premium Outlets. You get where I’m going with this? Don’t expect the high demand merchandise. Don’t expect to see Ultra Boosts (discounted or even at regular price). Don’t go looking for NMDs. A PureBoost may make an appearance, but for now, the AlphaBounce line reigns at this renovated outlet. There are rows of different AlphaBounce colorways. They’re cool, but at $80+, I’m happy with my $45 pair of “worn and refinished” AlphaBounce from Nordstrom Rack.

Other than that, I didn’t see anything worthwhile. In fact, the shoppers wore better shoes than what’s avaiable in-store. There were Harden Vol. 1 in red and white and some EQT. Otherwise, there were CloudForm variations of higher end lines. Probably the most catchy shoe I saw was the Tango indoor soccer shoe in a sky blue to black fade colorway.

Compared to the old layout, the men’s section is flip flopped, now on the right side of the store with the womens and kids on the left. Gone is the section with oddball finds, but I’m hoping this potential trove finds its way back.

Go ahead and check out the grand re-opening deals but just keep your expectations grounded.

Apple TV and Netflix – No Audio

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Not exactly sure what happened, but the Netflix app on the 4th generation Apple TV (non 4K) stopped playing audio. I have a feeling there was an update to the Netflix app and the update is implementing digital copy protection. Maybe this could be related to the future inclusion of Dolby Atmos in the 4K version of the Apple TV???

I do have an external receiver connected to a sound bar and speakers. The Apple TV is connected to the TV via HDMI, and I use the optical out of the TV to feed the receiver. All this time, this setup has worked out. As an interim solution, I changed the sound settings of the Apple TV to stereo. It’s good enough for now, but I have a feeling more changes are coming when and if my AV setup is complete. My current (non-HDMI) Dolby surround receiver won’t be able to handle the protected signals so will eventually need replacing.

But I have read up on HDMI ARC (Audio Return Channel) to see if this will fix things.

Catnip Hotel, I’m Intrigued

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I must admit that the advertising for the Catnip hotel has me intrigued.

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I don’t know what pheromone therapy is but more importantly, I really want to know what movies are shown on the big screen for the cats.

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