Vans X UBIQ

[Cold World]

woke up at 555 AM, ready at 6... nothing til 635. Timed out til 720. finally checked out with sk8s and eras. Got lucky. Email conf from Ubiq. Payed via paypal so it says pending but we shall see what happens come monday...

[tmrsn]

A lot of the stock is on eBay the day of the drop.

And the FSR that was up the day before got canceled and relisted at higher prices.

[chrisVH]

26 pairs and 9 sold already...that's just ridiculous.

[48waffle]

This right here is some Bull.....^^^^

[LV_1790]

This right here is some Bull.....^^^^

+1

One of the worst releases of all year. Well still hopping to be able to pick a pair of the sk8-his in 9 not for rape price

[DJGuamstyles]

... Sounds like there was a lynch mob outside the shop.

They have their local "homie of the shop" reseller to thank for taking up a big chunk of their inventory, just to help pad his pockets. I just feel sorry for Philadelphians who this is their main sneaker shop. Being from Los Angeles, a lot of us here forget how spoiled we really are. I can totally understand how shops like SoleClassics took care of their locals first, and I bet that might be why they "messed up" on their online release. Any excuse was a bad one, so why not make it look like it was their fault. The "server problem" excuse is one a lot of shops default to, but I believe it's all for hype. Why won't they just use online shops like bigcartel if that was the case? They had to have known that they didn't have the supply to meet the demand, yet they kept hyping up the release all the way til the supposed 9AM EST drop time, with news and tidbits about the release. It's all for attention, and it's pure bullshit.

[Stoopz]

It's been a while since I checked out UBIQ's site, but it looks like it's had a major overhaul since the last time I looked at it. I doubt they're doing much of the development or testing of anything on the site: probably just have the framework for adding new content and controlling some of the backend database ordering channels. I'm guessing they receive a service and pay a fee - which makes it more difficult to recover from traffic issues, because you can't get directly to the source of the problem. Not to say that they couldn't have dealt with this in another way, because they definitely could of.

I remember when Supreme started online ordering they ran into this all the time...they essentially where doing a release every Thursday and getting hit super hard, which is kind of a unique architecture for a small online ordering site.

Maybe you're onto something though - 1 off online retail sites for "special releases" tested and proven to handle loads that your normal ordering channels can't handle.

[samcolt12]

It's been a while since I checked out UBIQ's site, but it looks like it's had a major overhaul since the last time I looked at it. I doubt they're doing much of the development or testing of anything on the site: probably just have the framework for adding new content and controlling some of the backend database ordering channels. I'm guessing they receive a service and pay a fee - which makes it more difficult to recover from traffic issues, because you can't get directly to the source of the problem. Not to say that they couldn't have dealt with this in another way, because they definitely could of.

I remember when Supreme started online ordering they ran into this all the time...they essentially where doing a release every Thursday and getting hit super hard, which is kind of a unique architecture for a small online ordering site.

Maybe you're onto something though - 1 off online retail sites for "special releases" tested and proven to handle loads that your normal ordering channels can't handle.

Good data.

I personally believe that if UBIQ used a Big Cartel site, which I use myself for Gppdshoez.com, it would have been able to handle the traffic and the release would have went much better. The cost of a Big Cartel site is cheap. And there would definitely be an open book to how many pairs, and of what sizes, were available. I have bought from other stores in the past who use a Big Cartel site for their sales, without trouble.

I'm still feeling a lot of smoke and mirrors with this release, and I feel an overall mistrust. I made 3 phone calls during the release also and eventually I was told that this was an exclusive release and if I got them then I got them. Stated with a basic lack of caring at that point for whether or not I remained a customer or not in the future. And no phone orders at all. No exceptions.

One of the mornings tweets during the release crash from the UBIQ twitter account was " UBIQ ‏@ubiqlife 9 Nov
You guys must really love these shoes. Just stay patient and hope to get through check out. "

Maybe I read it wrong that morning during my frustration but I question why anyone would wish that we "HOPE to get through checkout."

UBIQ is not a new company. I'm trying to get over my negative feelings from the release but I'm having a hard time with this one.

I have decided that I don't need to own either pair of these. And I'm not happy about that completely since they are both absolutely Fire!

I won't say that I will never purchase from UBIQ in the future, but I don't foresee that happening any time soon.

I don't mind missing out when the playing field is level. I personally feel like it wasn't during the release. But that's just my own feeling. I am happy for everyone who got their pairs and for those that will purchase these from eBay in the future. I won't be competing for the size 12 pairs.

[DJGuamstyles]

Yup, when shops partake in the "Fuckery", then they get treated as such. They create a mutual disrespect, for lack of a better term. It doesn't stop us from using them to get certain releases, but it's going to come with a "give me my shoes, and I'll get the fuck outta' here" type of attitude. There's a reason why our favorite shops, the ones who acknowledge us even, tend to sell through their pairs of certain releases, while other shops just sit on theirs. We'll always try to go where we like to spend our money first!

[samcolt12]

Yup, when shops partake in the "Fuckery", then they get treated as such. They create a mutual disrespect, for lack of a better term. It doesn't stop us from using them to get certain releases, but it's going to come with a "give me my shoes, and I'll get the fuck outta' here" type of attitude. There's a reason why our favorite shops, the ones who acknowledge us even, tend to sell through their pairs of certain releases, while other shops just sit on theirs. We'll always try to go where we like to spend our money first!

" We'll always try to go where we like to spend our money first! "

perfectly stated sir

[Stoopz]

I would have liked to see what (UBIQ) web analytics were just for that day to see what their break point was…I'm sure it was far outside the realm of even high traffic for them, but laughable compared to most loads.

Bums me out to hear they were shitty about the release.

[Vandol]

Waiting to snipe on ebay for now lol

[silokinesis]

A lot of the stock is on eBay the day of the drop.

And the FSR that was up the day before got canceled and relisted at higher prices.

Are you saying that UBIQ themselves set a price, then pulled it and charged more at the last minute? As if people wouldn't notice?

and to all the big cartel comments... absolutely... even the free site which you can post up 5 items with can handle any traffic.. I pay 10 bucks a month and i know my site is pretty vanilla, but on days like the odd future OS, or the defcon release, I watch 100k people / refreshes hammer the page with no lag or error. out of hundreds of shoes sold I've only had one sole pair oversell... and now they integrate w/ stripe for seamless checkout and no chance of an oversell (unless you choose to let them.)

[tmrsn]

A lot of the stock is on eBay the day of the drop.

And the FSR that was up the day before got canceled and relisted at higher prices.

Are you saying that UBIQ themselves set a price, then pulled it and charged more at the last minute? As if people wouldn't notice?

I don't know who it was - just that it is fishy/shady/unprofessional/not cool.

A few days prior to release a person on Facebook was offering "pre-sales" on the Strictly Vans Facebook page. THEN - There was a full size run offered for sale the day before release on EBAY, then on the day of release when it seems a large portion of the "audience" did not obtain pairs the FSR that was offered was cancelled, then relisted by the same seller at higher prices. 3 Dozen pairs had been sold through EBAY before UBIQ had shipped out a single pair.
it seems like a deliberate set up.

[silokinesis]

^^ like every avenue / alternate channel they could use was being exercised to reap a higher price point....