Shoe Game Glossary

Welcome to Shoe Game Glossary where you will learn the common language/slang used in the "Shoe Game".  These are some words and terms you might see often.  You’ve seen all these before and know some of them, but had no idea what some of the others mean.  

DS - Dead stock commonly misused to mean "BRAND NEW" only. The original meaning of dead stock is; unsold older stock "DEAD STOCK". Most people use this word when describing a brand new shoe.

VNDS - Very near dead stock

NDS - Near dead stock

LE - Limited Edition

PE - Player Exclusive

SB - Skateboard

OG - Original

AM - Air Max

SE - Special Edition

3M - Reflective Material

ID - Individually Designed

DT - Diamond Turf

ACG - All Conditions Gear

JB - Jordan Brand

AZG - Air Zoom Generation

FT - Feng Tay (Nike Factory in Asia) usually seen on the box tag of sample or promo shoe.

NL - No Liner

HTM - A set of shoes designed by Hiroshi Fujiwara, Tinker Hatfield, and Mark Parker. HTM is the first letter of each designers name.

CG - Cool Grey, usually used when talking about the Air Jordan 3, 4, 9, or 11

LS - Lifestyle which is a Jordan product that is usually associated with matching clothing and is geared towards trendy fashion than towards athletic performance.

DMP - Defining Moments Pack

J’s - Jordans

AJ - Air Jordan

AF1 - Air Force 1

GS - Grade School

HOA - History of Air

GR - General Release

BRS - Blue Ribbon Sports

NIB - New in Box

NWT - New with Tags

SBTG - Sabotage the world famous custom designer

SVSM - Saint Vincent Saint Mary, Lebron James High School

DQM - Dave’s Quality Meat a shoe shop in NYC

UNDFTD - Undefeated a shoe shop in Los Angeles, CA

G.O.A.T. - Greatest of all Time

CO.JP - Concept Japan

NT - Nike Talk( Forum)

ISS - Instyleshoes.com (Forum)

NSB - Nikeskateboarding.org (Forum)

LBJ - Lebron James

X - Usually stands for "and" for example Nike "x"(and) TheShoeGame.com Air Max 90

Heat - Hard to find shoes usually older models but can also be newer models. This words gets over used, but the owner determines if the shoe is "Heat" based on their opinion.

Holy Grail - Your most wanted shoe that may be very expensive or extremely rare.

Sample - Usually a test shoe that will be released in the future or made to see if any changes need to be made. Also, a sample may be made, but never released in stores and the common "Sample" sizes are 3.5 Youth, 7 Women, 9 Men. Although there are "Samples" that exist that are in bigger sizes, this is very rare.

Prototype - Sample that is never released may be called a "Prototype" (in most cases the first model)

B-Grade - A shoe that’s produced in the factory that may or may not have flaws. A certain amount has to be marked as "B-Grade" even if nothing is wrong with the shoe, and usually found in outlet stores.

Beater - A shoe that's worn without care, usually a shoe that you wear all the time. This is also the same shoe you don't mind getting stepped on, scuffed, or dirty.

Retro - Re-Release

Retro + - Not an original Jordan colorway

Quickstrike - Only released at special Nike account stores, in most cases may pop out of no where in limited numbers.

Hyperstrike - Ultra limited and available at Nike shops with a Tier 0 and 1 account. Not many shops have these accounts because they are very hard to get. Also, some people may call shoes numbered at 500 pairs or less a "Hyperstrike".

Uptowns - Air Force 1

Bred - Black/Red Air Jordan colorway

P-Rod - Paul Rodriquez a skater for Nike with a signature shoe line

Premium - Usually made with high quality construction or material, and will most likely cost more.

Camo - Camouflage

Hype - Is too much attention/talking about a certain shoe. In most cases "Hype" causes the value to go up because it’s now highly sought after. Hype, normally causes a person that doesn’t like the shoe to eventually want the shoe due to it’s "Hype".

Hypebeast - One that likes a shoe because of it’s "Hype" or one that attempts to over exaggerate a shoe.

Euro - Usually indicates that the shoe was only released in Europe