Gaming and live streaming have become an extremely huge industry in recent years, partially due to the pandemic lockdown years where most of us had to spend our time indoors. Many online personalities such as Adin Ross and IShowSpeed essentially became overnight sensations, while already-popular streamers such as the Offline TV group reached never-before-seen levels of viewership.

Another YouTuber-turned-live streamer is Kai Cenat III, who is best known for his comedic live streams. While he was already popular on YouTube beforehand, he only began his live-streaming career on Twitch in February 2021.

In the space of two years, Cenat has grown into becoming one of the biggest streamers on Twitch. In fact, he was named the “Streamer of the Year” at both the 12th Streamy Awards last year and the 2023 Streamer Awards as well. These days, he averages around 45k followers every time he goes live, a figure that only the top percentile of streamers could ever dream to hit.

On 28 February this year, Kai Cenat broke yet another record. He became the most-subscribed Twitch streamer of all time during his “subathon”, where he streamed continuously for a whole month. Achieving this feat prompted officials at Twitch to send Cenat a present to congratulate him on his success.

The care package, however, wasn’t exactly what Cenat nor his fans were expecting. Opening the box live on stream, Cenat pulled out a shoebox that came with a personalised message from Twitch. As he opened the box, Cenat’s facial expressions went from anticipation to just—for lack of a better term—bewilderment.

The shoe he pulled out looked to be a custom-designed Nike Air Force 1 High. One that comes in black and Twitch’s signature shade of purple, their brand logo, and even a “King of Twitch” text printed on near the toe box. In theory—there’s nothing wrong with the idea of the custom-designed shoe itself. In fact, it’s a great idea. Who doesn’t want their own custom shoe?

However, it’s the execution that many were criticizing. Cenat is a pretty big sneakerhead himself, so it’s really no surprise he’s perplexed by the shoes. The design was slightly out of touch and a little tasteless in the eyes of Cenat’s fans and many other personalities online. It’s just not a very pretty sneaker in general. That being said, after Cenat got over his initial confusion, he did what he does best—he tried his very best to turn it into a funny situation for his viewers.

Check out the sneakers via the top slider above (as well as Cenat’s reactions). What are your personal thoughts about the shoes?

In more regular programming, here’s a first look at the upcoming Nike Dunk Low Premium “Burgundy Crush”.

Images courtesy: Kai Cenat, @lucidfootwearco