How Did Sneakers Become Collectible Art? (Collector Culture Documentary) | Real Stories

I think that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription required download really now [Music] a sneak ahead to me is when your wife comes home with groceries and she can't find room in the floor in the kitchen to put the groceries down because it's full of shoes and boxes and you're trying to figure out what's what that's when you know you got a problem and that problem is being a sneaker [Music] foreign [Music] so I show up on the morning of and it's just Insanity there's hundreds of people on the Block cops are already there and they're asking what the hell's going on over here kids would not move and the cops are saying if y'all don't move we're gonna start arresting you guys kid's been sleeping out there for four days they're not moving you know what I mean so Cops start arresting kids and one kid was like holding on to the gate like you wouldn't let go [Music] on top of that there were people that brought weapons to the thing they brought baseball bats they were knives there was a machete found like a [ __ ] jungle machete we then had to set up a way for them to exit out the back door of our store and the police actually set it up so that taxis were waiting outside the back and the police were like just get in the cab and get out of this neighborhood and it's all over a pair of basketball shoes [Music] but they know [Music] 85 an hour [Music] a sneakerhead is someone who learned Roman numerals by collecting Jordans the word sneaker is usually attributed to Henry Nelson McKinney an advertising man who popularized the phrase way back in 1917. since Marquis Converse founded his classic company kicks of transition from the playground all the way to the runway as recently as 50 years ago consumers had far fewer choices you could get your cons first dubbed All-Stars and higher low top and only made of canvas [Music] a German company Adidas founded originally by the dosler brothers introduced leather and suede sneakers into the marketplace in the early 1970s when Pro players in the Harlem Rucker tournament started wearing them an entire New World opened up the early 80s saw the emergence of Brands like Reebok and Puma but the true watershed moments came in the mid-1980s in 1984 the first Air Jordan dropped on September 15th Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe on October 18th the NBA threw them out of the game okay but what's wrong with the coloring this uh what what role do we violate here well it didn't have any white in it huh goodness well neither does the NBA two years later Run DMC released their hit song My Adidas and encouraged 16 000 fans to hold up their Adidas at Madison Square Garden [Music] the boom of signature kicks in this era provided the necessary elements to birth a community where the goal was to wear the freshest hardest to find limited edition models that have grown to almost Mythic proportions what began as a subculture is now omnipresent I think you could definitely trace it connected to the growth of hip-hop where white kids in the suburbs they didn't want to look preppy anymore they wanted to have a little more flavor because they love the music so they want to dress like that so they just bought the same sneakers and I think that's absolutely the turning point you know you talk about the beginning stages of like the Adidas shell toe Air Force One High I think sport had a lot to do with that because Sports along the way stop being just about Athletics it became pop culture [Music] so we looked at pop culture and made it mean something more to us than just average things like is it good leather so Run DMC My Adidas with the way they wore Adidas they had the first endorsement deal for a non-athlete with the million dollar contract with Adidas hip-hop started going mainstream then what rappers wore started going mainstream it's Street culture as hip-hop emerged and this new style culture that came along with Jordan's skateboarding came along the same way and Blended all aspects of design and Street culture hip-hop skateboarding and sneakers have changed the world athletes wanted to be rappers rappers wanted to be athletes you know like everyone had a clothing line and a record deal musician Entertainer movie star those things are seamless now they've really merged somewhere along the lines in the last 10 years kids started to really look for that third party validation and because music is such a big Cog in our cultural wheel you pay attention to what these musicians are doing it's the kids trying to emulate their Heroes by wearing the same thing they wear the idols their icons rock this so for them it's like oh it's a piece of them that I can take home with me and I can come correct you know I think you had a whole generation of people looking to wear sneakers whenever they possibly could you know in Norms shifted history technology design celebrities retail business all this stuff all packaged into one subject one culture that a lot of people can relate to even if they aren't collectors the UPS man he might have some chocolate Adidas on or Nikes sneakers are everywhere before we go any further let's get a few simple terms out of the way colorway refers to the combination of colors used in a particular release retro is a shoe that has been reintroduced sometimes with a few cosmetic differences collab refers to the marriage of an outside artist or designer with a particular model isn't Jeff Staples legendary pigeon dunk or Frank the butcher's New Balance 999 Kennedy deadstock is a brand new shoe that has never been worn offered in its original box often collecting dust in some shoe store basement limited edition is a shoe produced in limited quantities and only available through a handful of retailers Nike calls these quick strikes [Music] I would love to have every Jordan but I don't know how attainable that would be any of these shoes that you see in here I do not wear you'll need Jordans that I do wear would be Jordans that I have two of or three collecting became big about five years ago with the whole idea of the one to stock when to rock will be in bed he'll be on the internet he'll get up at three o'clock in the morning because the releases I'm like what are you doing he's like it's almost five o'clock the releases are coming up I'm gonna get online and I just hear the F-bomb droppings because he didn't get it and it's a game I mean it's that's part of what this is about is who's up the earliest who's the fastest some people probably look and look at me and say you know it's really strange that that you enjoy the doing this that much it definitely became a part of of My Life um The Cult the culture uh the stores I visit where we go it's his own little world Sneakerhead to me is somebody who appreciates the sneaker culture as a culture as an art and um somebody who appreciates buying a sneaker as more than just buying an article of clothing I've been a die-hard sneakerhead since the sixth grade [Music] I remember going to the store and my dad you know looks over and he goes you like those I'm like yeah I love these and I'm in you know I'm in fifth grade you know what I'm saying and he's like all right get him and I'm like hey for real and he's like yeah I bought a pair of Jordan threes I felt like I was part of a crew I felt like I was in on a secret I had to buy something every time I went in there because I just wanted to like I wanted the salesman to think I was cool [Music] when I was about seven or eight my uncle gave me a pair of pro kids [Music] [Music] first shoe that I had to have was no doubt Chuck Taylor first parakeets I was really excited about was the diamond Turf one that were in the clearance they didn't come with a box or nothing but I got them you know I'm saying that was my first pair of like you know like cool shoes and you know that moment on it was on now I got the shoes that the 16 17 year old guys on my block are wearing so now I feel totally different the metrics we had to evaluate one another was that chain or that ring or those shoes you know when you meet a guy he's like hey man what's up man and good to see you man damn wow there's a handful of things that can Define who you are without saying a word and your shoes are one of those that first pair of sneakers changed the way that I looked at everything well he's a brand you could have a great looking shoe and it could be a spalding and people be like what what is that and as soon as you say oh man I got a a Wilson on it they're like [ __ ] you [Music] we wanted to be as fresh as those guys who were achieving amazing things [Music] connected to an emotion it's connected to a moment in time [Music] I thought aesthetically it was going to be really cool right to throw a ball in your house but I don't know if they make a safe large enough to put all the stuff I wanted to put in that safe to make sure that when I leave you know I have peace of mind that my shoes and collection are protected for a lot of people it's about the sneakers and it's about that whole sneaker culture for me it really started with just looking up to to Michael Jordan as an athlete the more you get involved the more time consuming it is and the more overwhelming it can be I'm just trying to get Air Jordans and that in and of itself consumes you know a big old chunk of my day every single day so I'll tell you what like nothing gets me more excited than seeing that Memphis uh written across the United States of America that means we got something good in the mail so let's see what we got on this one here you just go with the straight rip looks like some Jordan threes by the looks of the box a little powder blue so it's a pretty good day right looks like maybe a Air Jordan 10 retro Chicago Bulls this is a new colorway record for the very first time nice little tumbled leather right there yeah it's nice you know this what this what gets you uh this is what gets you excited I guess I'll take them into the Vault huh it's awesome a sneaker head is someone who gets a little tingle in their stomach when they hear the word exclusive colorway before internet you had to either know some place know someone or know something to get your hands on certain releases the art of the hunt was the discovery so when it when I wanted to see when you sneaker was coming out I had to leave my house walk to downtown Worcester go to Kangaroo Crossing look up at the chalkboard see what the [ __ ] is happening you know you would go to a sneaker store and see something on the wall and that might be the first time you ever saw it we used to go all the way to Yonkers to go see Packers shoes just to see what does he have and then it was what do you have downstairs it was a contact sport back then I had to get out and touch and feel and figure things out there was no easy way to do it we would go to a store like Foot Locker or athletes with our models and we would look at the whole wall and we'd be like oh this one on the bottom shelf I bet my boy didn't pick that's the one I'm gonna make hot and we made it hot by what we rocked it with it was just about picking that flavor off the wall that you were gonna bang people in the head the next day [Music] prior to the internet if you were really a sneaker collector you would have to travel to different cities to get certain models and there was actually this I-95 Corridor between New York Baltimore and Philly especially for Air Force Ones I would take a bus to New York to go discover things oh look at this Air Force One it says NYC on the side why I would take that shoot I'll bring it back to Massachusetts you were in Baltimore and you walked into Charlie rudos and he had these sneakers and then he told you oh we'll probably get a new color next month and then you're like oh my God how do I get to Charlie rudels to see if he got a new color in my age it was like oh there's a shoe that came out in Tokyo I need to book a flight to Tokyo get a hotel figure out the guy that I need to talk to to get like the hookup to get in on that line and then buy it and then kind of get home with it now you you're bringing a pair of shoes home you met 40 people and traveled 8 000 miles to get so back then these things really meant something to me I'm a sneakerhead I love sneakers but I hate to say my life revolves around him I'd rather say that revolve around me my parents you know both came from Croatia my dad was just real old world they've been supportive in different ways but they've also you know never understood it it's hard to understand what do you think you have a room full of shoes and they say oh you're doing something with it you're taking a break from your future to do shoes I said don't worry about it this is something that's gonna it's gonna work my collection holds about 2500 but uh left over here is probably about a maybe a thousand the Jordan 11s came out in 96 that's when I gave up because the black and red 11s were coming out with the patent leather so anybody that was a blood wanted that Jordan 11 that black and red if you're 16 years old right and you see like a big blooded out gangster putting you in front of line I just stepped back and I lost my pair at that point then I started looking on the internet that's when we found Nike Park Nike talk and we found eBay I was going to school in finance so what I did I bought like a couple extra pairs put them up on eBay sold them for like 20 bucks more and got my pair for free boom it just opened up my eyes these are the the Paris dunks Bernard Buffet Artistry was sublimated on the canvas it's kind of like where Nike SB really just took off Wu-Tang dankai's this is probably one of the last few like brand new Dead stock pairs out there so Dre what's your security for all this you know I have my dad and his two by four that's good enough security right there there's no hunt anymore it's yo this is where it's going to be at this how many pairs it's going to be information destroyed what a guy like me would know to be the sneaker game so the boom early 90s it's a whole different game you know I remember when eBay was we'd search Ebay you type in the word Nike Dunk and maybe 28 searches come up you type it now this 50 000 you know listings it's just too it's so saturated sneakers are just a byproduct of that you know uh corporate takeover which is now every shoe is limited every shoe is a co-lab every shoe is a retro every era of sneaker dump exists simultaneously now with the internet with reselling with the right price you can get any shoe you want that's the great thing is you can be a sneakerhead from anywhere if you were a kid in Iowa before the internet where do you go when you have so much and at such a high frequency they mean less to you there's a difference between like looking online looking on eBay clicking bid and buy two days later FedEx two day you get it in in the mail and you open it up and it's it's there and you put on your feet and you rock it I think there's a bit of like Okay now what's next I gotta find the next thing you know what I mean I call Nike's Unlimited Edition I don't believe any of it conceptually we model it after a bodega and it's pretty much a perfect metaphor for the product that we carry we designed this shop with the idea of creating a physical representation of what it is to hunt for great sneakers the internet's great but you don't really have to put in the work you're just sitting behind a computer we want to bring back that sense of Discovery and people showing up and be like oh my God this is crazy and then telling their neighbors and just really bringing that experience back because that's what it's about five years ago I did a project with Nike called Black Friday I made sure no one ever saw a picture of the black Fridays so when the shoes came out you had to be at the store to see what it looked like but I gave the Mystique of Discovery do I want this or do I not want it that's what we used to do walk in the store see a shoe do I want it or do I not want it to actually see something in person and see the quality of stitching leather and interact with people within the culture that's more important now the dawn of the New Millennium brought the internet and a sea change in the sneaker game what was once a regional subculture became an international marketplace [Music] narrative Michael Jordan basketball schedule in Japan style detail and functionality are just as important as who is wearing the shoes foreign [Music] [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign foreign his dream turned into skit today there are four skit locations across Japan in kamamoto's inventory exceeds 15 000 pairs but his path to success was not an easy one less than five years ago he was homeless and lived in a park only half a mile away from his most successful shop in Tokyo his enormous collection began with just 10 pairs which were housed in a one-room apartment that is now a local salon the business is resale only much of his expertise comes evaluating collections large and small they come in shoe boxes garbage bags and sometimes buy the car or truckload [Music] um [Music] something just as improbable as the path of homeo who got his start importing vintage Adidas and Air Jordans in the early 90s homeo saw opportunity and seized on it you know I'm not a good student uh teach us here oh you [ __ ] up do you know okay I cannot go to the university I had the chance I go to Philadelphia Tempo universe Empire they are not Philly they have the erratus the Phoenix store daika Air Force One 1982 original Air Jordan 1 1985 you know after I graduate the temple I come back to the Japan I'm working the trading company I remember they have a lot of their vintage shoes in the U.S is a vintage shoe every month I go to New Jersey Philadelphia always bring back to the 200 300 period I negotiate how much generic VP generation 500 or 500 all good you know like I believe it is here you know I said to 300 that you know oh [ __ ] you know like I'm making today good money you know Sneakerhead is a person who has OCD obsessive consumption disorder we have to think about what it means to have a relationship with an object like a shoe would you call an obsession or an addiction or both both a disease yes how do we distinguish normal collecting from hoarding disorder you know unfortunately I haven't been able to determine quite yet when enough is enough like there was a point in time like my parents they wanted to know what was wrong with me you know what I mean it went from from from three to Thirty and and then it went from 30 to 300 it's kind of a behavioral addiction so to speak you want more and more and more of it so it's been recently maybe in the last uh you know six seven months that I really thought to myself you know what I want them all that's when you got a problem you just have stacks on stacks of shoes with no purpose for them other than making sure that you all know I have no idea how many shoes I even have anymore I lost count well I'd say well into you know well over a thousand at this point that number change every day man it's like the national debt [ __ ] like 700s how many pair do you have personally I stopped Counting after like after what a thousand after a thousand but I didn't get obsessive until like around maybe 95 96 and then it didn't become a problem until like 2002 2003 you know when I have you know almost 2 000 pairs of shoes it was worse before I might have had like five thousand it's all that they can think about I find myself focused on it uh quite a bit if I put them all in one place like I probably have a panic attack you know it really took over kind of my thoughts and and how I wanted to you know what I wanted to wear what I wanted to spend my money on and they collect so much that it actually inhibits their ability to have relationships to be able to use the rooms in their home I would always get a two bedroom and supposedly for a studio except it would just turn into the sneaker room outside all the [ __ ] I would wear the Jordans the new balances and here is like the second wave that I might come in here and look for something then the third wave is Star Wars unit boxes that are still tape I've never actually been to storage to be like I want box number three people were like yo man you got for real problems and I'm like yeah I know that man you know so it's basically like Frankenstein you know you create a monster that needs to be fed it's like a horror film of just this sneakers just creeping closer and closer and closer I mean I have so many in storage now and they're like I have a binder and it has pictures of each shoe and which box they're in and everything just super crazy all of what you've acquired is going to wind up in the storage space somewhere you know just sort of hidden away and the glory of display and all the dreams you had of how you're gonna set it up and show people that moment passed good luck with that [Music] so what's interesting is that Fairfax went from being predominantly quiet Jewish little neighborhood in the middle of LA to being the epicenter of streetwear Diamond Supply Company is right here I mean even across the street you have KO which has now moved down here which is DGK and some of the biggest skate Brands so extreme of course was one of the first down here and really helped set that scene and even now you'll see kids lined up to get some of the new Air Force Ones that cut up you see some people like Freddie Gibbs right there what up sir and this is kind of the first original consignment shop here in La Flight Club LA right behind me where every day kids are dropping off their shoes to sell people are coming in to buy some of the rarest most exclusive and most importantly kicks you can't find in any other store the Buscemi brand and what we're doing here is rebelling against a steamer trunk company from the 1800s called Louis Vuitton right they make steamer trunks right but now if you walk into a Louis Vuitton store they have dog leashes and basketball sneakers like okay what's happening here I don't understand I don't understand what's happening right but then you just if you walk down Rodeo Drive or montanapolioni and Milan or Central Hong Kong or any luxury Market you're basically walking at the streetwear stores right that's what it is okay we started this so now it's time for us to take a little bit back for us so we launched the brand with an array of accessories and obviously we launched a brand with 100 which is a basketball inspired sneaker I wanted to make the best sneaker possible the best sneaker on the planet how could I do that and also to compete against like I said the bigger luxury brands in the world so we took an inspiration from a very famous handbag and we kind of married it with a basketball sneaker a real Sneakerhead knows everything about sneakers about that shoe why it's cool why it looks good beginning in the 90s the popularity of the limited edition collab took off major sneaker companies began teaming up with celebrities graffiti artists musicians specialty retailers who put their own stamp on customized models released in small quantities only these collaborations intensified the frenzy driving more and more collectors to the burgeoning limited edition Market this all created yet another opportunity for The Collector [Music] before sneakers I was a trained graphic designer so we did a lot of magazine work editorial design logo design and I already had our clothing line staple pigeon that started in 97. that was really underground but a lot of people you know had a strong following for staple pigeon as well the day that I finally got to meet with Nike it just clicked they were like wow you're a designer uh you do you have a clothing line you have a store you're a sneaker head you you're knowledgeable at shoes like we need to work together it was easy at that point Nike approached me and said uh the dunk which is one of the most iconic shoes we're having an anniversary and we want to celebrate it in various cities in the world that like we're epicenters of sneaker culture so they said we would like you guys to do the New York one if you'd be interested and I was like [ __ ] yeah am I allowed to curse okay what I want to do the most iconic shoe for the most iconic shoe company for the best city in the world and have me do it yeah I think I want to do that one you know I was like it's like let me think about it yes [Music] one of the reasons why we gravitated towards the pigeon is actually because of the dope colorways that just embody what the bird is so it's like different Shades of Gray and then you've got Pops of white pops of black and then of course the pigeon pink bottom which is a must-have in terms of material choice too you know we went with like a new Buck over here so that it felt soft like an animal this might have been the shoe that changed sneaker culture forever because after this hit and after this was on the front page of the of the papers and of the Evening News old ladies that live on Central Park West all of a sudden we're now knowing that people were doing this for sneakers it just opened the floodgates and it was because of this guy right here [Music] you know [Music] on the west coast Brands like Asics known for their lightweight running shoes are now turning out one-of-a-kind collabs that sell out instantly in Beverly Hills boutiques like blends we know that scarcity is is currency the bolster that currency the Asics brand is relied heavily on New York designer Ronnie Flagg owner of kith current standout sneaker store in Manhattan he gets a lot of credit for where we are today we've made beautiful shoes in in concert with the partners that we've collaborated with when you look at the suedes when you look at the letters you look at the balance on the shoe and the way it's actually put together it's beautiful [Music] 70s you got graffiti boom illegality 80s our movement surfaces uh gain some recognition Keith Herring Basquiat you know some famous names of Street culture the 90s mixed media t-shirt culture Lifestyles emerging my first involvement with sneaker culture is like 2002 three I was in my office one day and a man came in uh holding my book it turned out to be Mark Parker who was the then kind of global creative director for Nike and prior to that you know I never done anything on a sneaker the first couple of shoes didn't have any actual artwork content on them you know the uh the Flom shoe Flom is an acronym for Love or Money love more money give me the option if I had Love or Money I'll take love every time I'll take love the Dunkle which everybody goes crazy or I see a posting of a Dunkle daily on Instagram it's a shoe that's pretty much like a Futura shoe with the uncle characters that I created for moax records in the 90s and and I never really liked it authorized but it was a little bit like yeah okay you know thanks for asking me although we invented the pink box it's not so much about all the hype it's about the content of what is actually there [Music] foreign [Music] shortly after Atmos opened its doors in 2001 Nike approached homeo about doing the first ever collaboration on the Air Max One a highly sought after shoe in Tokyo the project was kept Under Wraps until its release when it sold out instantly yeah even Nike Japan people doesn't know you know finally yeah yeah you fell foreign foreign [Music] film to the American people European people oh this college I like it the American people doesn't care you know like at this stage I like it America people doesn't care during the stage we care about their detail foreign eventually homeo brought his designs back to the U.S where it all started for him today he's widely considered one of the most influential figures in the business [Music] I grew up amongst a culture that really made me who I am so every time I came around my friends who had the luxury of not having any responsibilities and hanging on the street it'd be a joke and I'd have my uniform on hey here's Frank the welder Frank the mechanic and it landed on Frank the butcher one day we all looked at each other and it was you know we kept that kept it rolling starting with you know I have a rap group and we need a tape cover we need a T-shirt and that's that's why I started getting my chops up like designing Photoshop illustrator kind of learning those skills I was introduced to the to Concepts local shop that was a major player that is a major player so it was an amazing opportunity amazing opportunity and um I took that opportunity and continued to run with it I think the one that seemed to be the most impactful um to the market but also still my favorite sometimes that don't happen right is the New Balance 999 Kennedy the theme was John F Kennedy's roots in the area and his love for nautical life and sailing you know use that as a story and build out the shoe that had materials and colorways that were kind of led to that nautical story nautical Flags for us we were just doing what we're doing I'm just working on a shoe but when it came out it became something else it was gone a half a day it released on a Saturday and by Saturday afternoon it was gone in the crustacean World finding a blue lobster as one in a million chance so everybody feels the need to tell me fishermen called the storm like I found one yeah I don't care I don't even need Seafood the packaging store in the Red Lobster was outstanding but this one needed to be above and beyond so here is when we invested a ton of our own money into ensuring that kids would need to have this shoe we created this whole scare that um blue lobsters were attacking Boston uh eating dogs killing fishermen you name it it took on its own legs and and now people were scared people don't want to go near the beach we had a kid for the blue lobster he it was a six day line by the third day he got a phone call his girlfriend had been in a car accident back in California fractured our pelvis and was in the hospital this guy flies back goes and checks on her and is back in another two days to go wait in the line that his friends that held him was spotted if that's not dedication I don't know what is I've always been sort of a girl immersed in sneaker culture I grew up dirt poor not being able to afford like a name brand anything and I think for a lot of people when you can't have something as a kid you sort of grow up with an obsession and you know for me Jordan's were always the epitome of cool it's like the equivalent of having like a BMW like in junior high and in 2009 I was about to have a birthday party and I was like I know what I want my birthday cake to be I want it to be a giant version of a Jordan 3. this sneaker cake came out and I was so in love with it I was like we're not cutting it a couple months later I'm just walking through Soho and I've run into a friend who had been working at Nike so going he tells me he's now at Grand Jordan and I was like you should have me design a Jordan he was like what do you mean you're into Jordan's and I'm like did you not see my birthday cake so I show them pictures and he's like oh my God you should design a Jordan and you know in in the world people say like oh you should do this we should do we should have lunch we should do you know literally this man called me the next day had me on the phone with people from Portland and we were discussing the beginnings of Designing this Jordan the silhouette was the Jordan 2 because it was the 25th anniversary and so basically that was presented to me as um as a Jordan that I got to design I clearly jumped on it and uh became the first girl to design Jordan this is her DJing isn't exactly a job where you want to be wearing uncomfortable shoes because you're just especially when I started I'd be playing from 10 to four in the morning six hours on your feet [Music] kind of really just started rocking Supras the Sky tops so I did a collaboration with them I did the little red it's my nickname and I did you know a Jordan colorway and it did red black and white the second one I did were black and gold they were the indie and then now I just did the samikaze we only do like 400 pairs [Music] I like started sketching shoes around 15 16. I had turned Pro DC became this real opportunity to evolve the skate Footwear Market that first one came out and exploded at one point I had 30 different shoes that I was getting paid off of right I designed like a third of the entire line all right this is my very first signature shoe it's one of my favorite colorways is Navy with cream this thing was really thick tried to make more of a running shoe here but kind of more traditional running shoe style didn't work this thing kept getting bored kept getting caught on it number one rule I blew it I blew it uh this one another major technology move here was the hidden outsole right so it wraps around it I just love the idea of creating this like pure cup sole that looks like a running shoe like this it didn't sell it didn't sell one thing that I did after my 15th shoe I just took every single one of them got them all cast in Gold I'm the only person alive with a shoe chain of all their signature shoes like what is that it's my signature shoes in Gold what else is that go ahead man just wrap your head around in the sneaker world you got guys who are really like a r to the sneaker game they really that's what they do they they find sneakers I have a reliable source so I can say a very reliable source it's a swag concierge you know what I mean like hey you know we you get these and is that a rhetorical question you know I mean what do you mean can I get these of course I can get them do I want to get them for you I don't know [Music] the politics and politics the guys who call and you know they warn you about this shoe I think I'm gonna have my hands on a Retro 3 number seven next week get ready how much uh I'm still playing with the price you're like all right well let me give this guy a work study he's the manager let me give him 300 bucks the joke was to be like hey what size are you like I'm size 8 to 13 you're like what do you mean you said so give me a size 8-13 I don't care what it is and I would take all the 10 and 10 halves but everything size you know eight to thirteen I took because that was how I flipped it 350 was my rock bottom I remember one time even the hall monitor came up to me because they thought I was selling drugs because they saw somebody give somebody a box of shoes and me take cash and they were about to arrest me and I said no it's shoes and then they went and looked in my closet in my locker and I just had nothing but Air Jordans because I was importing them and you know you know getting different colors from different places in the world getting things early from what I sold today I can buy five amazing shoes and still go home with more money than I can who are we to say no you got extra 300 and I'm you gonna help me buy these Tiffany's you want them altitudes I'm trying to get these daylight Souls they have some stuff that I don't have so we're gonna do a little barter trade you know you know and it was just that was the game for eight years I did everything solo and then boom you know I started dealing with people in Japan dealing with people in Europe meeting new people in New York and started creating a bit of a network and that's what created projectblitz.com we started with an inventory of 10 000 pairs Nike Dunks Air Maxes costumes Janoskis Vance Supreme Reebok 14 years ago when something was gone it was gone is not only a website it's like a gallery it's like art you're buying it collecting it moving this moving that and by that I'm able to keep a few for myself every time so this is the second part of the warehouse where we have all the Jordans the Nike Nike basketball pennies KDs we've got these cool Adidas they're the the money prints I mean these are still going probably like three four thousand easily I'm not proud of that reseller label because I I feel I'm more of a curator than anything else without mentioning names we've had celebrity clientele here's the Nike mags the one that Marty McFly wore in the Back to the Future movie with the light up soul Great Piece goes for six thousand the easy ones one of the actual sample pairs made for Kanye West himself that he wore on stage Kobe Jordan 8 hand signed by Kobe himself and game Warren this is the price of a C-Class Mercedes but the most talked about sale of all time has to be a legendary pair of kicks worn by MJ himself most basket fans will never forget Michael Jordan's famous Flu Game back in 1997. now the big story here tonight the story concerning Michael Jordan's physical conditions he is suffering from flu-like symptoms well I developed relationship with him you know earlier in the season when they were there in November walked up to him because there's no one else around and you know it's just asked him you know I just said can I get your kicks after the game and he kind of looked up at me and I was like oh am I in trouble Jordan scored 39 points in the pivotal game five between the Bulls and the Jazz cementing his legacy and providing Preston with a one-of-a-kind opportunity after the game there was it was craziness in the locker room obviously they just won and a couple times people would come and reach down and grab the shoes and he was like no no those are for him and he pointed over at me and that's when I was like wow he remembered it was a couple weeks after I started looking for a safety deposit box and that's where they've been sitting ever since well the shoes that he wore on that day hit the auction block and they just sold for a stunning 105.00 that's crazy to think that you know a pair of shoes could fuss that much money sneaker heads is a cult fueled by the internet Nike really has control the amount of pairs of Jordan that go into the marketplace the whole success there is built on unrequited demand meaning that there's never enough Supply to meet the demand sneaker Fanatics are lining up all over the country to grab a pair hundreds of people were standing in line for hours to pay a hundred with the mega success of the Jordan Line Nike mastered the art of the limited release in the early 90s Wednesdays which later moved to Saturdays took on new meaning for collectors as this was the day the newest models debuted this led to the camping out phenomenon where obsessive sneaker heads would spend two or three nights on the sidewalk year-round awaiting the most desired models it's hype it's hype from the media it's hype from your friends and it's just hype from your community this position of people that are genuine enthusiasts it's people that just like to be fly people that are in od into sports and then you got people that are just bastardized and just trying to jump onto a current wave they'll camp out for a night or a week they'll pay exorbitant prices to a reseller or on eBay so that they can be validated as cool I don't get it all these people online for sneakers oh yeah some of them probably even camped out all night for sneakers Vince these ain't just sneakers these are limited edition fukijamas spooky what else happens months in advance you're learning about these releases these Foamposites are only going to be released in Orlando because the All-Star games there got to camp out these three locations the sneaker that's available today will probably be sold out tomorrow people have this sense of urgency this sense of if I don't get it now I'm never going to be able to get it because people will come around like two o'clock AM and then people start lining up and then the hype just Builds on hour after hour and it's just Supply does not equal the demand most of the limited release Jordans and when I say limited release can be as much as four or five hundred thousand pairs those shoes sell out in a day and that gets the kids all fired up for the next shoe that comes out they're trying now Lottery systems they're they tried to have people sign up by Twitter [Music] back when I did the pigeon dunk in the entire Nike Corporation there was probably four people that handled limited edition product at Nike now it's like an entire building at Nike campus with hundreds of employees all they do is think about limited edition product but what kept so-called sneaker heads in line from coast to coast was the signature foot gears out of this world resale price with limited Supply resale prices escalated creating a new breed of Sneakerhead the reseller retail is 240 dollars the resale of the 2015 the three maybe up to 4 500. so if you're going to pay me a couple thousand to sit outside for a couple hours I'll be sitting right here as doctors not making money like this right now a sneaker that is so obsessed with sneakers that they're willing to forego paying the rent to say they own a shoe that they will never wear foreign at the mall this morning two days before Christmas it was chaos all over a pair of Michael Jordan tennis shoes and the crowd got so unruly this morning that officers had to step in with pepper spray Riot police tried to calm nearly a thousand Shoppers outside of a shoe store unfortunately the marriage of the hype and the explosion and resale prices led to a predictable Dark Side several people were trampled While others crawled over them to get inside violence associated with sneaker releases is cropped up across the country you know growing up here in New York we've seen the kids getting jacked for their sneakers you know that was a normal thing see a dude on the subway and he's got no shoes on you know he got a sneakers taken I brought a lot of jealousy it brought a lot of you know Envy when it comes to you got a Jordan and I don't have a Jordan there's some deep down like need desire to be seen in something you know clean or fresh or something that is desired or something that's highly covered that's the desperation of today's youth that's that's a desperation that is pretty sad that's that's thoughts at home that's not even about sneakers that's about home [Music] [Applause] there's always been people wanting what they can't have it's just an unfortunate things that happens with anytime you have something that people want no one asks the president of GM to do something about carjacking [Music] but it didn't surprise me that kids would become violent and and really ferocious about these shoes because the way they Market them they're marketing them as if they have the dream [Music] they can absolutely be more responsible they can change their release schedule they can change how the shoes are released the shoe company should be able to grasp that they have control of what can and can't happen the question is are they willing to take a step back in time it's a really touchy subject because in business oh people are lining up for my product people are so excited about my product going out that they're making websites they're taking pictures they're sharing their thread like that's what you want in business right but you never want to cross that line where people are killing each other for your product Shadow watching from an Open Door praying for praying for Sirens but I'm all [Music] in December my son went on a Monday morning to purchase a raffle ticket in order to get the new Bread 11s that were going to be coming out December the 21st I went to the mall purchased the shoes had no problem they were being followed and stalked the strange car shadowed them to their neighborhood and opened fire on the young men Joshua was shot in the head and died later that night my son was 22 years old when his life was taken asking Lord wishing that it was me and his place instead of him because he has a son to look out for you have individuals that are charged with capital murder because of this incident their life is gone their family is going through something I will forever feel this pain I will forever go through this and that has that is what inspired me to come up with the organization life over fashion every single year somebody life is taken over a pair of shoes I want to make sure that when your child or even you go purchase these shoes you don't have to worry about anyone going to hurt you you don't have to worry about the violence associated with it for a while they were releasing shoes at midnight they found out that people were a lot more aggressive at midnight than they were at eight o'clock in the morning so they move the releases to eight o'clock in the morning to try to keep to keep some of the uh routiness down and it's worked but it hasn't been eliminated totally it is an issue and I I think it's there's no magical solution right now Lucky D contact me I spoke with one of the VPS of Nike and to this day we are in constant communication I actually spoke with Michael Jordan he gave his condolences and I asked him could we meet and talk about a solution foreign just outside of Portland Oregon there's a special place where sneakers are doing some real good and even creating a market of their own Doernbecher Children's Hospital is a full-service tertiary care children's hospital we take care of kids with cancer kids with kidney disease and needing kidney transplantation the Doernbecher freestyle is a big fundraising program for us here at the hospital and it started when a Nike executive joined our board his son suggested why don't you have Nike design a shoe and sell it that morphed in the idea of having patients design the shoes it's grown from a very small program to now one of our major fundraisers [Music] in 2012 I got to design a Nike shoe and then I was one of the freestyle kids we went to a meeting and they gave me a big stack of papers with the shoe style in the bottom of the shoe and it got to decorate it however I wanted so I designed the Nike Foamposite ones that they hand you a shoe to design and then you get to go home for about a month to work on it then you meet with them again after the reveal day the next morning he woke up and he was shocked to see so many followers start following him on Instagram and he was kind of confused the shoelaces are like bubbly that's why I chose them and they have stars right here and then on the side door like there's like these stars with peace signs in it I chose red because I went through a blood cancer and blood is red to me that was a no-brainer it's kind of like a ballet flat material right here in this area and the Nike slush is really sparkly on the insole of the shoe I have a bracelet design that I got on my 13th birthday and my parents gave it to me and it to me it remains family and strength and connection and that really helped me get through my treatments on the day we visited the hospital we brought along Kansas City Royals starting pitcher and Sneakerhead Jeremy Guthrie for a surprise visit there's something cool that you might be able to break in and have ready for your season come spring thank you so much you think that's cool yes [Music] we should go out and toss a little bit thank you so much the kids who get picked to design the shoes come back years later and still talking about what a great experience that was and how meaningful that was to them and to their families the shoe design was really cool it kind of helped us you know take all the bad sides of this and have some fun we thought it was just designing the shoes and you know hopefully money goes to Don Baker but it was much more than that a sneaker head is me a Doernbecher designer and a 15 year old kid foreign the Sneakerhead subculture grows larger by the day but now collectors are not just hunched over their computers there is absolutely a community created by sneakers the simultaneous explosion of social media and the now endless supply of limited edition kicks near Mythic personalities have emerged these Gatekeepers are able to connect the dots and tell the story of how certain shoes came to be more importantly they tend to separate that which is truly special from that which is merely new you have this worldwide almost competition where if you have an Instagram or a Twitter I mean you're posting whatever you're wearing every single day if you like follow donkey exchange or like people with like a lot of sneakers they'll like post them and like say like the price or like something like how much you can get them for hundreds or thousands depending on who know who you are if people are seeing that so you know there's almost more pressure to have something new almost every single day which of course winds up with people having 100 pairs of shoes On Any Given weekend in cities around the globe obsessive sneaker collectors commune with one another to buy sell and trade their most coveted kicks the new Hunt is on just as the shoes are marketed constantly to Ego consumers so too are these gatherings that attract thousands of like-minded sneaker heads looking for a fix is in mainstream cultures were sort of casted out as freaks who buy hundreds of pairs of shoes and like resell them so to come here and not have to explain why you do what you do or why you love what you love it's nice to be able to do that you know two bear come on come on 220. and I'll put you in a movie I started sneak events back in 2002 in Australia when you know there was no sneaker events anywhere when we first started the crowd was in their early 20s up to 30s I think now it's a lot of the younger kids the younger generation has picked up the culture and kind of moved along with that it's sometimes a little bit mysterious like you never know what's going to work you know that shoe even if it's ugly or sin it's going to be selling for 500 600 700 an extent and you keep inspiring people man thank you it's going to be hard to expand the business people's closets are full storage units are full consignment shops are fully at some point it's like how many more shoes can you sell to the same kids you know I own a store so I just see people coming in that last year weren't shopping for sneakers at all you know what I mean so I think it's just going to keep growing and growing I've never seen people like my mom wear free and fly meds and bright colored Souls on their shoes if you open up the Chinese market if you figure out India the trick is selling to different people not selling similar products to the same people recently with the popularity of sneaker culture it's really obvious now that you have all these high-end companies that are doing sneakers that they've never done before [Music] rich people walk into Gucci and buy Gucci sneakers because they have Gucci Snickers that not because they automatically were like oh my God they're the most amazing sneakers they were like okay we have sneakers for us this is like the highest labor cost in the world you know the highest material cost the rubber's the best the hardware is the best you're getting your money's worth 100 maybe 150 I think I could sell these shoes for double the price and we'd sell just as much I like it it provides an opportunity for um some sneaker enthusiasts to evolve a lot of us is pushing 30 now a lot of us is getting families and falling in real love you know I'm saying and like you you just kind of want to look at your pictures back then and look at them now and see some type of broke the streets have been referencing the high end since day one I just think now it's nice that there's an open dialogue and a conversation happening you know besides being an enormous business the sneaker culture is now an integral part of so many different worlds from Fashion to music to sport kicks are everywhere sneakers has always been a reflection of like who you want to be who you believe you are or where you come from how you're going to represent yourself and how you're going to portray yourself to the world through Footwear is what sneaker culture is all about really that's the bottom line choose Define Who You Are you know sneakers are the status symbol for a generation that other Generations don't understand with people who like I'll see someone staring at my feet and I got some you know whatever Retros on and I'm giving a [ __ ] a flashback the young kids are like man you got them old schools on and and and the old schools is like man with a lot of sneakers and especially the Retro Market you have people who are grown trying to buy things the year they had when they were a kid or they wanted when they were a kid I appreciate something because it looks good as well designed all of the normal reasons that you would appreciate some but I also have the other appreciation because I lived through it without getting a Harley Davidson or a convertible or looking like some guy with a midlife crisis I think a way that you could really retain that youth is with sneaker culture it's an opportunity for people to stay connected to you know the life they had when you know maybe things were less complicated me taking home that shoe kind of signified things will be better you know what I mean my mom's my pops ain't getting along they ain't together I mean I'm living in the hood I'm the worst part of the city in the worst part of times you know late 80s and this was like a Beacon of Hope a lot of us who fell in love with sneakers at one point are were getting to an age where you're just like [ __ ] I can't wear a pair of wingtips and so that love of you know sneakers is it's gonna stay with a generation all the way [Music] every time I break open a pair of shoes man like I feel like a kid again you know like I'm lacing I'm lacing it really carefully and I used to do that when I was in sixth grade you know what I mean and I still do it that way to this day I'm 39 years old now I think I'm gonna feel that way for the rest of my life [Music] what is a sneakerhead I have no idea I'm just a guy who likes sneakers a little more enthusiastically than you foreign [Music] Rivera AKA Frank the butcher Boston Massachusetts my name is Jeff staple I'm the founder and creative director of staple design and readspace my name is Elliot Curtis I'm 26 I'm the co-founder of sneakerology 101 I am Brooklyn's Finest New York's giant God's favorite DJ my name is Clark Kent I'm from Brooklyn I'm Russ bankson and I'm the sneaker editor of complex magazine yeah yeah so yeah uh yeah I live in Tokyo my name is Lenny I'm a girl Leonard I'm from New York uh and my artist name is Future and thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 18,567

Keywords: Retro Jordans, athletic footwear industry, brand collaborations, collector's items, cultural influence, high-end sneakers, luxurious sneakers, popular sneakers, sneaker enthusiasts, sneaker fashion, sneaker history, sneaker market, sneaker trends, street style, unique kicks, urban fashion, urban lifestyle, valuable sneakers, vintage style, youth culture.

Id: FxBhdoYxcgc

Length: 69min 47sec (4187 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 26 2022