When did everything become a collab ? Sneakers, streetwear, luxury fashion, tech, fast food, and so on. And when our Sneaker of the Year list came out filled with nothing but collabs, you guys cooked us for it. Maybe points were made. But now we're making collabs out of the collabs, and so I have to ask: when did we lose the plot?

A collaboration is about two parties coming together to create something new. But somewhere along the way, we went from collaborating on ideas to collaborating on audiences. Because when you start seeing a chicken wing on a Croc or an Aaliyah x Sacai collab in 2026, you have to ask yourself, who the f*** is this for?

Think about Virgil Abloh's Nike "The Ten" or his Ikea collab . Both brought fresh perspectives to everyday products and challenged how we looked at them. They weren't just products, they were cultural moments. And no, every collab doesn't need to be groundbreaking. But make it make sense.…