Field Notes: Optimal Advisory’s Trip to Foot Locker for the Air Jordan 4 “Lakeshow” Drop

By David Katzman and David Schick and Jonathan Feeney and Jack Hermann Published on March 9, 2026 PDF

On Saturday morning, Optimal stood in line for the Nike drop at Foot Locker for the release of the Air Jordan 4 “Lakeshow” shoes (Optimal Advisory Managing Partner, Co-Founder, and Boston sports fan Jonathan Feeney was not as eager to get his hands on them). Most customers lined up early for a chance to buy the shoes before they hit the secondary market. But some were not previously aware of the event and were brought in by the crowd.

Highlights and takeaways from our trip and speaking with others in line and Foot Locker employees include:

Some of the people in line were clearly Nike release veterans and were passing notes after travelling between stores, looking for different sizes.
Several people we spoke with including a Foot Locker employee mentioned that the line for the prior week’s release of the Air Jordan 5 “Wolf Grey” shoes was much longer than this past week’s line and had stretched all the way down the hall (the employee also mentioned the Wolf Grey shoes had sold out quickly when we asked if we could see them).
We certainly heard mention that customers thought that the drops were becoming more popular, as Nike has tried to reduce the supply of certain sneakers in recent years, hoping to make them feel more special and exclusive again. They thought resellers could have made money on the Wolf Greys the prior week (which signals, to us, Nike’s strategy may be working).
The store was still promoting the Nike Air Max 95 shoes which had been released on March 5th one year after last year’s release.
We continue to see NKE changing with improving Gen Z relevance and traction in our analysis.

Below are some pictures we took:

The Air Jordan 4 “Lakeshow”:

The Nike Air Max 95:

Foot Locker’s Nike Shoe Section:

Source: Optimal Advisory

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