Point of View

This past week I was in Eau Claire, Wisconsin for work. This wasn’t the first time I’ve traveled for my job, nor will it be the last. Since I work for a sneaker company, I always like to try and find the store I’m helping out’s resident sneakerhead and get their thoughts on what the sneaker culture is like in their town.

I’ve been from Sioux City to Eau Claire, and I usually hear a variation of the same things: “Well nobody here really cares about that stuff”. “I have to drive a few hours to the cities to get releases because the stores in town rarely ever get anything”. “Nobody really understands why we do this”. read more

It seems like just yesterday I started collecting sneakers. I was 15, and had just started my first job at Champs Sports. I had always loved basketball, and with that came a love of sneakers. Growing up, I’d get a pair or two before school started (who remembers the 2 for $90 deal at Champs back in the day? Nothing better) and that would be about it.

However, with my discount at Champs and paychecks coming in, I was able to bump up my collection until it swelled to a mildly ridiculous size. I’ve been collecting for seven years now, and it still sometimes feels like I just started last week with how excited I get over sneaker news and new releases. read more

The sneaker world was abuzz this last weekend with the release of the Lance Mountain-designed Jordan I SB’s. Both SB and Jordan heads clamored to get their hands on a pair, and local shops like Cal Surf and Familia had hundreds of people turn out to get a raffle ticket (in the words of a Cal Surf employee “Yeah man, that’s pretty much all we’ve been doing all day.”)

Now that all the craziness has subsided slightly (if you want to see a few shots of the shoes, be sure to take a look at yesterday’s post!), it’s time to take a look back on the sneakers with a slightly more unbiased perspective. Here’s my thoughts. read more

Jordan Brand is the undisputed king of sneaker brands. Everything they put out gets snapped up with haste by voracious consumers who just can’t seem to get enough. They’ve built an aura around their products that, quite frankly, is awe-inspiring. People foam at the mouth about their releases months in advance, and grown men and women have been known to act like little children on release day if everything doesn’t go exactly as they had planned.

With all this hype around the brand, and the crazy demand that their products create for themselves (they don’t even have to work the hype machine! The sneakers hype themselves up!), some complain about their lack of innovation, and how they just recycle the same things over and over, changing the color or just slightly tinkering with the layout of the sneaker. It’s an interesting topic, and one that I felt I needed to add my two cents on. read more

Over the last few years, there have been lots of colorways that have had their moment in the sneaker industry. A sick shoe comes out, everyone falls in love with the color, and from there all kinds of models of different sneakers from different brands start getting pumped out in that colorway. The first example that comes to mind is the South Beach LeBron colorway, with the most recent being the all-red inspired by the Nike Air Yeezy 2.

Although both of those are dope colorways, one could argue that they are becoming somewhat played out. It seems that there have been endless all-red sneaker releases over these last few months, and it may very well be time to move on to the next “hot colorway” if you will. read more

In the sneaker world today, it’s important to have a plug. With all the hype surrounding certain releases, you can’t always manage to get the sneakers you want on your own, you need a little help sometimes. That’s where your plug comes in: whether they work at Foot Locker, Finish Line, or just have connections, it can be crucial to have that helping hand.

On the flip side of the situation, maybe you’re the guy who is being asked to plug people. You’re in a position that enables you to get the sneakers that you want, and you’ve got people hitting you up frequently for help with releases. I’ve been in that position before, and wanted to share my two cents on the topic. read more

We all know the feeling: You see that tweet informing you there’s a restock over on NDC. Maybe you hurry over there and grab a pair that you’ve been wanting since you missed out on the original drop. Maybe you run over there, and there’s nothing left that you wanted. Maybe you don’t have any spare cash and you just have to let it pass by. And maybe, god forbid, you don’t see anything until it’s too late and you miss out on everything completely.

I’ve heard a lot of different opinions on surprise restocks. Some people love them. Some people find them annoying. Some people don’t care one way or another because they don’t have the time to stay up to date. I personally think random restocks are great and here’s why: read more

There’s no dictionary definition for “sneakerhead”. You could ask ten different people what they thought, and you’d very likely get ten different answers. There are lots of different types of folks with different levels of interest in shoes, so how do you determine who’s a “sneakerhead” and who isn’t? Here’s my two cents on the topic.

In my opinion, the main requirement is that you have to have a certain level of knowledge on the topic. Anyone can use their money to buy a bunch of sneakers, but what sets someone who’s a real head apart from someone who just owns a lot of shoes is what they know. It’s like the difference between a person who owns a nice camera and an actual photographer. There’s a level of knowledge that’s required. If you can speak intellegently on sneaker history, the sneaker culture currently, and where you think the culture is going in the future, that means you’re more invested in the culture as a whole as opposed to someone who just mindlessly consumes. read more

Although this article is similar in nature to the valuable sneakers piece that was put on the site on Sunday, I still thought it was a topic worth touching on.

Sometimes it’s hard being so attracted to material things. A lot of people don’t understand it. “You have how many sneakers?” they say. “You spent how much on that pair of sneakers?” they say. “You know they’re just sneakers, right?” they say. Usually someone like that is easy to ignore, but sometimes it can get bothersome. read more