Over the weekend a video of a Zoom call between John McEnroe and Travis Scott went viral, as they argued while discussing the design of their collaboration Nike shoes, ending in McEnroe telling Scott to “show some respect!”
Since Nike’s announcement in June of the recreation of McEnroe’s Mac Attack shoes in collaboration with Travis Scott, not much has been heard about the shoe’s revival until this weekend. The viral Zoom call showed Scott suggesting the new shoes be called “Cactus Jack,” to which McEnroe did not take kindly, suggesting they be called “Cactus Mac” and losing his temper, saying: “God damn it, Travis. Jenny [Nike employee] is right, okay? Let’s have a little bit of a compromise.”
The video was taken from an unknown member of the Zoom call & began by showing both McEnroe and Scott’s video displays on the conference call. As the argument became heated, the camera turned away from the computer to face the ceiling while it recorded the remainder of the conversation. The video hears Scott making the point that “Cactus Mac was never a thing.” Triggering McEnroe even further, he replied saying: “Come on, man! Show some respect! This is my shoe!” Scott seemed to stay calm and even-keeled throughout the discussion while McEnroe continued to lose his cool.
Travis Scott told McEnroe: “I’m not really like feelin’ it. It’s, like, something about it feels off… We ain’t trying to take none of that away from you. Ain’t trying to disrespect. I ain’t trying to do anything like that. Trust me, I know more about the value of the shoe than anybody else. But right now, the young racers really the ones kind of pushing me for what is going on right now. I mean, you got to trust me on this.”
The video ended after McEnroe stormed out of the Zoom meeting and the rest of the people on the Zoom meeting calling after him to come back before deciding to “circle back” since “John left.” Following this viral video, another video surfaced on Instagram yesterday from ‘The People Gallery’ of McEnroe showing off his “Cactus Mac” merchandise.
The camera man stops McEnroe on the street, where they ask him a few simple questions about himself and ask for a fit check. While showing off his outfit of the day, he flexes his Attack’s with a custom logo, as he crossed out “Jack” on the “Cactus Jack” logo and wrote “Mac” instead. He also shows the camera the t-shirt he is proudly sporting that also says “Cactus Mac” on it. As he’s showing off the defiled “Cactus Jack” logo on his shoes, he tells the camera he “was wearing these things in the ‘80s before this guy was born. Now, all of a sudden Travis Scott’s got this thing, Cactus Jack, so I just made it Cactus Mac. I mean, come on. A bit of respect — that’s all I’m asking for.”
Originally, the public was surprised to see the viral Zoom argument between the two icons. However as it has continued to develop, fans and loyal Nike customers are beginning to wonder if the beef between Scott and McEnroe is just a publicity stunt instead of a true argument. Set to release next week on December 19th, it doesn’t seem too far fetched that Nike would conjure up a collaborative spat to get the public’s attention back on the upcoming release.
Only time will tell. Until then, you can watch the video of the Zoom meeting here on X & the video of John McEnroe here on ‘The People Gallery’ Instagram.