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Vice Blog

LONDON – HELP, I’M A SELF-HATING SNEAKERHEAD

I collect sneakers. I have over a hundred pairs of Nikes. Jordans, Air Max, you name it, I probably have a vintage pair. The problem is, I hate people who collect sneakers. You know that look: Supreme caps, rucksacks, Bape hoodies, and baggy Evisu jeans, usually accompanied by bad hip-hop and a Japanese girlfriend accessory. These guys are the reason Pharrell fucking Williams exists…

OK, let me backtrack a little bit… I got into collecting sneakers when I was 12-years-old reading the classified ads in the back of Shoot magazine. The subsequent 15 years has seen my collection has grow and grow. I've worked out that even if I stopped buying today I'd have enough pairs to last me the rest of my life.

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I wear all my shoes. The pair I pick depends on my mood that day. They’re still precious so I’m selective about when I wear them and where. I've got some really good pieces which are pretty valuable. But I collect because I love classic sneakers, not because they’re rare or expensive. That being said, I've had to sell (reluctantly) a rare shoe or two during times when I was skint.

Now, I started hating sneakerheads around the time they started smearing their bad taste into my eyes. The very idea of a "scene" makes me sick. I collect because I have a personal connection to the shoes. But for sneakerheads it’s about being seen by their like wearing fruit-coloured, patent leather replicas with fake air bubbles that were made in the future by aliens.

For me it’s about the history of the shoe and classic design. It’s about going to Japan’s specialist Harajuku shops to hunt down a pair of red and white Jordan VIs. For them it’s about buying rubbish shoes on eBay for extortionate prices and then never wearing them.  Sneakerheads have hijacked a lifelong obsession of mine and turned it into Pokemon. It’s embarrassing.

I don’t want to let a bunch of rich kids ruin something so dear to me. But the whole scene has become so ridiculous I feel like selling up. Then when I remember how much I lusted after certain pieces and how long it took me to get them and I just can’t do it. Am I in denial? Maybe I should just grow up and do it. Maybe one day I will. For now though, I'm just going to stay in the closet, an angry self-hating sneakerhead.

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To seek some help I caught up with one of Nike’s global design gurus, Jesse Leyva, and we talked about my problem.

Why do you keep releasing new versions of vintage sneakers? Why fuck with a classic?
Jesse Leyva: Well, for example, Levi’s have the 501. I’ll buy different jeans, but 501s are always going to be a staple. If you’re talking about cars, the 911 is a classic model. Porsche tweak it a little bit, they do the Cayenne, but at the end of the day you know a 911 when you see one. Everything ebbs and flows. Well, these sneakers are "icons" that people really identify with. So, everything we put around those classic icons will change depending on where we see a market going, or if there’s a new innovation that lends to making a classic model a little bit better.

What do you make of so-called sneakerheads? Their whole scene really bums me out.
Our sneakers are continuously spawning subcultures. The subculture of sneakers in London is totally different from Tokyo and totally different from LA and New York. In New York the culture of sneakers started when basketball intersected with hip-hop. We were lucky our sneakers were there at the right place and the right time. That city’s passionate about it’s music and it’s also passionate about the game of basketball. Those guys don’t care if the shoe gets bigger and bulkier. If it plays well, they respect it and they’ll wear it. It integrates into their culture. In Europe and in London it’s different. The culture wasn’t built around basketball, it was built around runners and trainers that are lighter in weight. It’s a different aesthetic.

Maybe I just wasn’t made for these times.
For me and the culture I came in through, we identified with the shoes because athletes wore them. I knew I was never going to be one of those athletes, but I just wanted to wear them because I loved the pure design. The younger generation are different.

Yeah. I feel like there's a lot of bandwagon jumping going on.
I still love it when I see people wearing a pair of classic Air Force 1s that are really old and beat up. But the younger generation want their shoes to look crisp and clean. I met a ton of kids like that in Paris when the Pedro Winter sneakers were released earlier this year. They love it for a whole different reason.

Maybe I should just chill out about it.
Yeah dude, maybe you should.

BARRY BRADSHAW