Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
From MLS Dreams to 3D Kicks with JohnnysKicks
2 Playsin 8 hours
This week John Trottier aka Johnnyskicks is on the podcast. We talk about working with the Sneaker Surgeon. How he almost was a pro in soccer. How he grew up on military bases and how he got a British accent. When did he start designing shoes. Working with several customizers and what he is doing with Yankee Kicks. Where his inspiration for design comes from and much much more!
Follow JohnnysKicks:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/JohnnysKicks_
X: https://x.com/johnnyskicks
Podcast Linktree: https://linktr.ee/myfirstkicks
Sign up for the Patreon: https://patreon.com/MyFirstKicks
Music by The DoppleGangaz: https://thedoppelgangaz.bandcamp.com/
Chapters:
00:00 Executive Assistant Role with Shoe Surgeon in 2016
04:56 First Kicks: Iverson Fours and Sneaker Passion
09:42 Company Success: Relying on Others' Strengths and Overcoming Competitiveness
14:23 Graphic Design Journey: Photoshop, Adobe Suites, and Instagram Influence
17:52 Pursuing Art: Concepting, Maker Collaborations, and First Shoe Releases
21:30 Empowering Shoe Makers & Customizers: New Opportunities & Financial Gains
25:15 Personal Taste: Buying Quality Pieces & Examples of Influence
28:42 Lawsuits Impacting Sneaker Sales and Authenticity Concerns
32:37 Peter Moore's Design Legacy: Jordan 1 and Von Grock History
36:13 Von Grock's Original Silhouettes: Basketball, Pickleball, Lifestyle
40:16 Zellerfeld's Goal: Printing New Shoe Designs Daily Using AI
44:04 Footwear Design & Development: Palm Angels Collaboration
47:43 Tiers of Fakes: AAA Version and Quality Insights with Sniderb
51:29 US Manufacturing and Tooling Control for Limited Sneaker Editions
55:18 Acceptance of Fake Sneakers and Retail Reliance ️
58:44 Factory Money and Sneaker Production Insights
01:02:23 Surrounding Self with Successful People and Growth
01:06:32 Complex Con 2023 Content and Podcast Support
Recommended
Transcript
Early Career as Executive Assistant
00:00:00
Speaker
It was interesting. So in 2016, I actually had the unique opportunity to be the executive assistant um to the shoe surgeon. And I worked with under him for a while. And so I got to see, I mean, I was working with him 16 hours a day. Yeah. um So seeing his whole operation, seeing you know, the designers he hired for the photographers to the videographers, the shoemakers to to even quality control. Like they literally had somebody just hired to do quality control on the shoes.
00:00:29
Speaker
And then I saw the the clients that he was working with and I saw the brands that were reaching out and I saw like the first fully functional footwear operation like in the United States where I was like, this is kind of what you want to aim for in a way where you're looking at if you really want to be one of the biggest people in your industry, there wasn't really anyone bigger at the time. And, you know, he kind of was like the godfather of like custom sneakers. And so sure being able to work with him 16, 17 hours a day every single day and just seeing like the ends and the operations. And it's like it's crazy because the people that worked there with me at the time, every single one of them is splintered off and they're either creative directors, head of collaboration, ah huge customizers, run footwear warehouses.
00:01:14
Speaker
I mean,
Introduction to 'My First Kicks' Podcast
00:01:18
Speaker
What's good everyone? Welcome back to My First Kicks. This is episode 232 and this week I bring to you another special guest, Johnny's Kicks. Johnny's Kicks, right? Johnny's Kicks, yeah. Johnny's Kicks.
00:01:29
Speaker
Johnny's Kicks, yes. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks, man. A lot of people forget the ass. Yeah, no, was trying to say, and make sure i hadn't I knew it was like, all right, Johnny's Kicks. yeah um Yo, man, you know, been following your journey for a super, super
Johnny's Kicks: From Concepts to Creative Director
00:01:41
Speaker
long time. But for people who are not familiar with you, how about you introduce yourself?
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, Johnny's Kicks, designer pretty much at this point. like Started off with ah just designing concept sneakers to turning them into reality with like the best shoemakers in the world and now being a creative director of like four different companies and yeah working on stores and toys and collectibles and hats and all kinds of stuff. So yeah, just kind of categorizing myself as designer of things at this point. Yeah. Look, that'd be the art director. The new thing is now like community art director. What is it?
00:02:14
Speaker
Community director or something like that? Yeah. Everybody's getting that that role now. Yeah, creative director. It's just like, yeah, I think a lot of brands are kind of stuck without having like that creative path yeah in a way. There's a lot of people that are trying to claim that they have it or whatever like that. But I think it's the people that are true and consistent with what they're doing. And yeah, just being, yeah, I think consistency is probably the biggest thing and then creating cool stuff. So. Yeah, i mean, look, you we've got a full suite of table here that we'll probably tap into towards the episode, but you know you've been creating for a really long time. I remember seeing your stuff on the forums like back in the day. like just like and then when i went in twenty twenty when i was like really, really you, I thought everything you were posting was just like, you were just like, like like ah I don't know, you know, no brainer.psd. He would just post like pictures of link stuff
Instagram and the Yellow Lobster Jordan 1 Highs
00:03:06
Speaker
that he created.
00:03:06
Speaker
I thought you were doing that with just like just like manipulating pictures. And then I was just like, yo, know you actually printed these? When I started seeing your your story, I was like, this is crazy. That's literally when the whole journey started, really. You know, I started doing concept designing from really and posting it on Instagram from like 2014 to 2020. Then the pandemic happened.
00:03:25
Speaker
And it's actually a pretty interesting story. um I posted a concept of the Yellow Lobster, Jordan 1 Highs. And Dionne Point saw it. Dionne Point, if anybody doesn't know, he's the creative director of concepts. He was the guy who designed and created with concepts the lobster series for SBs.
00:03:40
Speaker
And he ended up posting it on his story. And then I think within three hours, he ended up getting like 200 DMs asking if they were actually going to release. And then he just sent me a DM saying, I don't care what you need to do. You need to make that shoe a physical reality.
00:03:53
Speaker
And then the very next day during COVID, as you knew, like a lot of people were on Instagram lives. hmm. And I just happened to go on an Instagram live with a maker in New York called Seize MC.
00:04:03
Speaker
And he just said, it would be a dream for me to be able to make that shoe for you. So he was an actual physical maker. i was always just like a 3D designer and renderer. yeah And um yeah, and basically handed off to him. I was like, i didn't even think...
00:04:17
Speaker
to know how to do it. Right. I was always like the, the barrier to me was I didn't know how to make shoes. Yeah. Right. Um, and so I was like, Oh wait, he offered to make it.
00:04:29
Speaker
Maybe I'll hand it off to him. He makes it, he's one of the better shoemakers in the space right now. He made the sample and then we ended up doing, um, 11 pairs for the 11 year anniversary.
Johnny's Sneaker Passion and Military Background
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah. I remember that sold out literally within eight minutes and just kind of kicked off a wave of inspiration for me to just hand,
00:04:46
Speaker
50 concepts to like every single customizer in the entire space from painters to reconstruction artists to just go and go and go and Here I am five and a half years later. It's crazy But you're here to answer the question that I ask everybody each week and that question is What's that first pair? What's that? What's your first kicks? Was that first pair of sneakers you absolutely needed to have The Iverson 4s. Iverson 4s. Yeah. like that That's not the DMX one.
00:05:10
Speaker
It's the one with the zipper up the front. Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the DMX, yeah, with ah his head on the bottom it and everything like that. With his arm sleeve tattoo on the insole. I had every single colorway of that shoe.
00:05:22
Speaker
like That was the shoe that turned me on to sneakers. it was like I was ordering it from East Bay catalogs. I going to the commissary and BX with my mom. like I was in the military as a military kid. and When you go to the, um my mom wanted you know one of the kids to go to the commissary with her every single ah once a month. yeah And the BX was right there. And being military, you could get tax-free and discounts on sneakers. yeah And then that's when they had like the Jordan 17 with the briefcase and all this stuff. And like that I was also playing basketball as a child. And so it was like, for me, that was a shoe. it started really with the color blocking. It was the red, gray, and white pair. Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker
And that was the pair that I literally put in for a mail order, waited two weeks, couldn't sleep for almost almost two weeks, just was so excited to get the shoe in. And I just grounded it down. And actually, when Reebok retroed it yeah a couple of years ago, i definitely ended up getting a dead stock pair and it's sitting in my office oh i'm in a glass case just as like an ode to to what started it all for me.
00:06:21
Speaker
Yo, that shoe was so sick. I had to, I was like going back in the recesses of like, oh yeah, I remember it now. But like, yeah, it looks like um for people who are not familiar with it, but like, it looks like to me, it always looked like, like a leather jacket. Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:35
Speaker
So it's like the zipper in the front then you have the little thing on the top too, to close it. And I was just like, I was like, yeah, this shoe fire. Never got it. But like, yeah. Yeah. No, I definitely made sure to get like every pair of the one on white, white, black, white, Navy. Like it was, yeah, it was like my favorite shoe. Where where was your mom stationed at?
00:06:52
Speaker
Or like your parents at? God, we were stationed everywhere. Started in Colorado, then moved to England. Actually had a ah British accent until i was about 12 years old. What? Believe it or not. Yeah, i we moved to High Wycombe when I was one. And I lived there until I was six.
00:07:05
Speaker
They're like, daddy. And that yeah it's so funny, too, because we moved from there to mom Montgomery, Alabama, which was like the deep south, which is like you you take a British kid into, you know, Alabama. And that was a whole learning experience all in itself. Then back to Colorado, then Florida. Then we finally ended up in Virginia, northern Virginia. I've always wondered because, like, you are definitely the first military kid that I've had on. so like how do you So, like, how do you make friends when you're moving around so much? I was just really fortunate to be one of four children. Yeah. um I have two other brothers and a sister. so that was super helpful. It was really hard making friends. and Yeah.
00:07:45
Speaker
ah you're always the new kid. um And so you kind of have the stigma of like being the new kid and it's really hard to fit in, especially some of the places. We were only living there for like a year or two years at a time. So it was kind of one of those things that you kind of really like relied heavily on your siblings at the time. we were all two years apart, which really helped a lot. so um But then that and sports. I was always into sports. so it was like and soccer in particular. i think because I still i moved to England at a very early age, soccer was like the sport. And so I ended up playing soccer until I was about 18.
00:08:17
Speaker
And are you like a premier league person? actually was... going to be drafted by dc united when i was like 15 years old but then i ended up tearing my acl high school and yeah the whole thing uh sports kind of went by the wayside could have been the new freddy adieu man that's what that's that's like my one reference of like of ah mls when they were bringing up freddy adieu and he was like every every the new prodigy freddy adieu and he just fell off after like he actually made it to to like up um mean it was It was devastating. though I mean, i was I was on the number one ranked team in my age group every state I lived in.
00:08:52
Speaker
i go it was so funny. Coaches even went to court to fight over me for a roster, even though I wasn't in high school or college or anything. I thought this was just like – independent soccer leagues that's kind of like they just wanted me on their roster when they knew that i was moving into their state which was pretty insane but we were driving nine hours you know just to ah for a single game on the weekend when i was you know a young teenager and so it was super competitive and so for me to like tear my acl at the time that i did but then i think it's always just kind of a blessing in disguise in a way because i really took up art and you know design and look where i'm at yeah did you So like does that competitiveness goes into your current like because I feel like you're if you're playing at such a high level, like do you still feel competitive now?
00:09:37
Speaker
It's really interesting. I feel like somewhat, but it's more about community to me and like actually togetherness. Cause like when I started my company, I think like most people forget, like when you start a company you or just anything, you feel like you need to do everything yourself. And the day that I learned I can rely on other people to do the things that I'm not great at.
00:09:57
Speaker
is when i actually succeeded yeah so it's like there is some like competitiveness but at the end of the day i also know like what i do in particular with design like no one can take it out of here and i'm kind of only competing with myself at that point yeah and then it's just like running yeah yeah i well the that's the running you catching up on that running um so like when did you because you're moving around a lot right so like where the sneaker culture actually like start to hit you God, I mean, it was early on. I mean, I remember even back in the day with soccer, right? it was like the Sambas and getting the Kappas. And then I was a skater when we moved to Florida. So again, the Etnies and the S's and the soaps, like yeah even with the grind plates on the shoes, I mean, crazy forward design thinking and everything like that. I saw somebody the other day, Matt Rand, I'm sorry. yeah yeah
00:10:46
Speaker
I saw somebody start running and i'm thinking like, oh, he's just gonna run to the corner. No, immediately no i that would be crazy if he'd had, immediately hit. hit the Heelys. And I was like, what? This is 2025. I've never seen that. He literally, and he was going, I was like, this is crazy. yeah, soaps were like, I remember, cause during when the soaps came out, um I had friends that were big into inline skating and they were like, yeah, you know, I'll, I wear soaps during the day so I can grind at school and then I'll take what I like. I learned like that balance I did.
00:11:16
Speaker
I'll take that to when I'm inline skating. yeah that's exactly what it was my brothers were skateboarders and i was more of a like a blader and like an inline blader and everything like that so doing like the half pipes and all that stuff and so the soaps honestly help you learn how to like grind yeah on like curbs and stuff like that and then when you're getting on the half pipes and stuff like that it was a lot easier so um yeah so that and then i started playing basketball and then that's when like the iversons again early days like jordan 17s were like big at the time i got huge into those and always an Air Max but I was always wearing like K-Swisses and Reebok Classics yeah and all this other stuff. And then, um
00:11:56
Speaker
Yeah, then as we progressed, the boost wave happened. And I probably had one of the largest boost collections in the world. had probably close to 200 pairs of boost. That's crazy. I had every Yeezy. I had every Pharrell. I had every NMD, every Ultra Boost that came out for the first, think, three and a half years. That's when every executive Adidas started following me, from John Wexler to Ben Harreth to Nick Bentley to every single person. You were posting just straight...
00:12:21
Speaker
Yeah, I was posting a lot of well, that's where the concept designing actually started. It was like I was doing concept Yeezys with like I was doing a lot of the ultra boost with 4D. It was funny because like they even released five of my designs from the 4D collection. Wow. Five years after I designed them.
00:12:35
Speaker
So Adidas was actually using my design concepts in board meetings for like their design processes to then release them later on at retail. So I heard about that. um I definitely felt some kind of way. Just because like every time I reached out to them for like a creative role or like an independent design role, it was always kind of like go silence. But then anytime I posted on my page, they were all liking it. They were all DMing me. They were all like showing a lot of love. And so it was definitely really interesting when you actually started seeing full colorways and full designs that you were designing. Again, it was their IP. So I can never be too too sour about it just because it's like I'm really using you as inspiration. I'm just taking parts of your stuff. And
00:13:15
Speaker
and kind of reinterpreting it in my own way. but um definitely an interesting feeling. Yeah, I bet. I bet. the how did you How did you start picking that up, though? Like, how did you start? When did you find out? Like, I mean, we know that, like, you know, you tore your ACL. No, MCL? ACL, you to ACL. the When did you feel like, all right, now I can actually pursue, like, like when did drawing come into your life?
00:13:39
Speaker
Yeah, so like day like like three years old, to be honest with you. yeah So it's like I was always really artistic, like super artistic. I was drawing like dinosaur skeletons i at full scale when I was like five years old. like i was drawing human anatomy at like seven years old. i was drawing landscapes and...
00:13:56
Speaker
uh i got huge just huge into like human anatomy and then actually my one of my drawing books is full dunks and nike air force ones and jordan ones back in like the late 90s like early 2000s and i look back on them now and it's just kind of blows my mind that i was even using sneakers as kind of like a reference for art um and then all through school that was the one subject that was very consistent i even took like senior art in school three times like my sophomore junior and senior year um art was just always that thing and then when i graduated i ended up taking going to school um for graphic design and so that's when the whole photoshop thing came into play and i started learning about photoshop and adobe uh suites and um and then instagram came along um
00:14:42
Speaker
did you ever Did you ever join like a graphic design ah forum back in the day? I didn't, no. was on them heavy, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would literally battle people in graphic design. Wow. Yeah. Instead of rap battling. I would literally graphic design battle people. That's amazing. And and like be put up and and and and then then you start the arguments after you'd be like, nah, man, I did way better than this guy. Or like the one that I remember ah specifically is like, and the this is the heyday of forums was I did a battle where it was like, yo, we're going to give you four pictures.
00:15:19
Speaker
Now you got to mush the four pictures into something and then everybody votes on like the theme and then you got to match the theme. And then they they give you a scale of like, OK, how close did you get to the theme or like how close did you get to the thing that there everybody voted on whatever or voted to to represent?
00:15:37
Speaker
Man, you know how many times I was like fighting for my life in that? In those comments. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Because then you got people that be like, nah, I like it. But then you're like, oh, yeah, you like all his stuff already. Like you're friends with him. like Yeah. That's the thing is with design. It's very individualized. Right. I think with a lot of things, it's just like it's just based off of personal opinion. Yeah. Right. That's why it's really hard. And people get down on themselves a lot. I think just as artists in general, it's like you put your heart and soul into something. And it's like unless you have either a specific backing or somebody promoting it or a lot of the time it's like. people it's hard for just normal everyday people to see like the beauty and like how much work goes into like your thought process yeah and and your particular art yeah um it's it's because it's interesting because like you know uh tyler you know recently he he's been saying this a lot recently but tyler crater would be like you know
00:16:23
Speaker
It'll take me a year to make ah make a song or and 10 minutes for you to take it apart. Like it'll take years for our artists to put something together and some somebody looks it be like, this is trash. I mean, look, I will shit on a lot of art. Like I'll go to the MoMA and I'll be like, why is there a couple of strings on this wall? Why is there a light bulb on I to Art Basel every year so you have to tell me twice. It's like, yeah, it's insane.
00:16:45
Speaker
I haven't seen, it wasn't there, no wait, no, that wasn't it. I went to, I know there was like, there's one thing I went to and I was so pissed. Like I turned to my girlfriend, I was just like, we need to leave. yeah So it was a table and and this was ah at the, I think it might've been the Guggenheim. it was It was a table and in the in the table, they they put like a video under and it was a plate and then the plate had ah a screen and it was, the video was like somebody's esophagus. And I'm like, this is fucking art?
00:17:15
Speaker
Yeah. No. it's crazy. All up into interpretation, right? Well, I thought the banana duct tape to the wall was, you know, I guess that's art. But look at how far it went through. I mean, now it's in commercials, man. It's nuts. It's crazy. yeah It's crazy. I mean, I do like, like you know, when like Banksy is doing something where like the self-destructing art piece. I love that. That was so fire. You got to do a self-destructing shoot. Yeah. You know?
00:17:40
Speaker
I might have to. As you wear it, you're like, why is the shoe just like slowly ripping apart? You're like, as long as somebody's commissioning and i'm cool. yeah Oh man.
00:17:51
Speaker
But yeah. So like, yeah, how to like, like pursuing art. Like when did you, you know, really thought like, okay, you know, I can really, really do this. Yeah. um Yeah, I was doing the concept going back. I was doing like the concepting for a really, really long time. And I was getting like hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of DMs, like if not thousands, like over the years, just asking like, where can I buy this? Where can I buy this? Where can I buy this?
00:18:14
Speaker
And just like you, you were right. Like everything was just a concept a digital art piece. And like, they were all just concepts that I couldn't sell. And then when Dion said like, you need to make this reality. And then C said that. And then I think once I started like commissioning makers from all over the world and they were the best make makers in the world, care if you were, i mean, name them, I worked with them yeah and um they were making me look really good because I didn't have to worry about shoemaking.
00:18:40
Speaker
When we sold out like the first 10 releases of my first 10 shoes I ever even attempted to sell. I knew i was onto something. i literally quit my full-time job. like was What was your full-time job at that time?
00:18:52
Speaker
so yeah it was really interesting i was working as a professional mover out in the dc area where i was basically working for like the number one like independent moving company in the world where i was moving like redskins houses and like moving commanders you know the commanders now or the capitals or uh nationals players and the military and you know i was moving 30 000 pounds of furniture a day and ease um then covet happened and i was wearing these masks and they were like you have to wear a mask while you're doing all of this now uh-huh um but then yeah our first release was may of 2020 and i did the ben and jerry sakai was actually the first shoe i ever dropped and it went crazy viral honestly if i had gotten to the price point where i wish i could have gotten it to i could have sold two million dollars for that shoe now again you know with nike and mass manufacturing and everything like that but it was like one of those shoes that it just was
00:19:42
Speaker
I still think it's one of the most iconic shoes that Nike's dropped in the last 10 years just because of what it did to like transcend outside the culture. yeah But what it did to like myself and then like my buddy Moondust Studios, and we all started at the same exact time and seeing where he's at now. but You know, jumping in to this week's episode with Johnny's kicks to remind you all to like, subscribe and leave a comment. And also, if you can hit that notification bell on this episode and the page, of course, you know, really appreciate you for capping in. Yes, I'm at work. But if you want to help the podcast even further and get a shout out on the end of this episode or next week's episode or every episode moving forward and hit a Patreon at Patreon dot com slash my first kicks.
00:20:25
Speaker
We know we got a $3 tier, $5 tier, $5 tier. I will be including a lot more stuff as we keep going. Right now, only have the first nine episodes that are not on anywhere on any DSP as only on the patreon so hit that up if you want to hear at the beginning of my first kicks um really appreciate you tapping in again and back to the episode i think that was really the light that sparked because i never thought in a million years anyone would actually buy like anything that i wanted to like release i never even attempted to yeah and then when i actually made a physical shoe and it sold out
00:21:04
Speaker
Three minutes, two minutes, four minutes, three minutes, five minutes. I mean, like so fast that was like, okay, I can't even make enough of these to even supply the demand for it. And because I'm the digital designer, I can design a new shoe every single day. Right. Yeah. Then I work with 20 makers from all over the world where I'm like, okay, I'll sell out this guy. work on those shoes for two to three months. Then I'll sell this shoe next week.
00:21:28
Speaker
And that guy will work on it for two to three months. And then it was cool because I was starting to give all of these shoemakers and customizers opportunities that they had never seen before. Like when you learn that customizers have a problem even selling one shoe yeah every month and they were making tens of thousands of dollars like on every drop. It was kind of one of those things that like, then every customizer started coming out of the woodwork, started DMing me, yo, are you doing this? Are you making this? Do you have somebody making this?
00:21:55
Speaker
And then, um yeah, like I said, I'm mom here five five years later. what like how do you How did you build that relationship? for like you know I think it was my following helped, but I was ever i was never like afraid to like DM people. like I was always a supporter. like My entire following, if you look at it, it's like people that are doing something within sneakers or within fashion, but I'm also not afraid to be the one reaching out saying, I'm just like a huge fan of your work. like Let's connect. Let's do something together.
00:22:22
Speaker
um If there's ever an opportunity to cross paths, let's do something. And um I think that really helped. do you Do you think like that's really hard nowadays? I think it's really hard because um unless you have like a larger following, because people are like, well, what's the benefit for me if I have a larger following and you have a smaller one?
00:22:40
Speaker
What's the benefit for me and how do we bring equal equity to the project? I think that's ah that's a huge thing, even for me, because I do get hit up by a lot of people that are like just starting out. They haven't really proven themselves.
00:22:52
Speaker
And I'll be honest, I've turned down probably 70% of the makers that wanted to work with me because they've sent me samples. and they're not nearly to the quality that I could ever put my name on. yeah Like I always said, I want to be the quality of Chanel, but the storytelling of Nike SB. And it's like, if your're if our ethos is aligned, but like your quality really is that good ah in any form, I don't care if it's toys or collectibles or podcasts or whatever it is, like we really need to have kind of like an equal equity. And so I think a lot of people, they don't want to put in the time or the work or the effort to get to that kind of quality or that effort. And they just want to be kind of put on and hope,
00:23:29
Speaker
It never hurts to like reach out, but it's also like, how do we work congruently together that it's equally beneficial for the both of us? Yeah. um I'm definitely curious of just like, how did you, where who instilled that to you? That like the idea of just like, yo, I just don't want to put like half ass stuff out and I don't want other, I don't, I don't want that also coming to me.
00:23:49
Speaker
It was interesting. So in 2016, I actually had the unique opportunity to be the executive assistant um to the shoe surgeon. And I worked with under him for a while. And so I got to see, I mean, I was working with him 16 hours a day. Yeah. um So seeing his whole operation, seeing...
00:24:08
Speaker
you know, the designers he hired for the photographers to the videographers, the shoemakers to, to even quality control. Like they literally had somebody just hired to do quality control on the shoes. And then I saw the um the clients that he was working with and I saw the brands that were reaching out and I saw like the first fully functional, like footwear operation, like in the United States where i was like, this is kind of what you want to aim for in a way where you're looking at if you really want to be one of the biggest people in your industry, there wasn't really anyone bigger at the time. And, you know, he kind of was like the godfather of like custom sneakers. And so sure being able to work with him 16, 17 hours a day, every single day, and just seeing like the ends and the operations. And it's like, it's crazy because the people that worked there with me at the time,
00:24:54
Speaker
every single one of them is splintered off and they're either creative directors head of collaboration ah huge customizers run footwear warehouses i mean there's so much talent that came out of that pool of people that i was working with and we all had that same mentality um i think yeah And me, I just love quality stuff. yeah right I'm always that guy that just buys quality pieces instead of like buying mass amount of stuff. So think it's personal taste. And then i think it's just your examples of who you've been around. Yeah. the one's really One thing really cool that I've been seeing on your page is like the hats you've been making. yeah And they all look extremely quality. I actually have one of the samples in my bag.
00:25:38
Speaker
But this recently went out. It was like, don't know. It was like all snakeskin or something. Yeah, I got a snakeskin build in there. That is sick. I'm like, that's crazy. Yeah, I'll show it to you for sure. For sure. Not right now. Yeah, yeah. Not right now, but I'll let you see it. But like, yeah, I think it's like...
00:25:55
Speaker
And i'm ah I'm curious about what your it because you've worked with so many customizers. Just like in 2020, we did see a boom of just like customizers coming out of the woodwork. yeah Like people who just like I didn't even hear. but and then And they're just like making, you know, oh I'm going to make a 95, you know, ah but I'm a painted like, you know, i don't know, some Travis Scott or something like that. Or like and then TikTok, I think, also pushed that to where it was just like everybody was on there just like customizing stuff like that. You know, currently the right now, I think the a lot of the people that i'm looking at like uh bull um bull yeah he does great stuff yeah bull air uh j j sb who recently did something with lions gate that i just saw very dope i think they're really cool but
00:26:39
Speaker
You know, like, I don't, what are you, what are your thoughts of just like that rise of customizing? And like, do you think it's like, it's peaked and then that's it. We're not going to, we're not going to see any more creativity of that kind. Yeah. It's hard. Right. Cause COVID just inflated everything from sneaker reselling to consignment stores, to, um, ah customizers to, I mean, really the whole sneaker industry kind of blew up at that time. Like everything was reselling for a thousand dollars. Like,
00:27:06
Speaker
i you know I'm creative director of Yankee Kick, so seeing like it from the consignment side of it and seeing it from, i mean, shit, the amount of consignment stores have closed from 2020 that opened in 2020 to now is insane. Even big guys like you know Stadium Goods and stuff like that, it's like you're starting to see, like because of the ebb and flow, of the resale market has crashed. But then with COVID, it was the same thing where I think a lot of people saw the opportunity. where they saw people like me posting every single day. yeah a lot of people getting opportunities. And with that, I was working with a lot of customizers and a lot of them got birthed. And then there was also the shoe schools that were getting put out from painters to reconstruction artists that were selling schools like crazy. yeah And I, you know,
00:27:45
Speaker
They even have one in ah Las Vegas, right? Yeah. like ah not a – Not school. Major Waves has got – he's running a few different ones right now, cool. I know they have like a drink and paint Air Force One type of thing. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:56
Speaker
Yeah. No, it's – and a lot of the schools got cease and desist from from Nike and stuff like that. But I know Major Waves is running his. I know he does some kind of Nikes, but I know he's got kind of a deal with Puma, which is cool to see like a big brand kind of like – Yeah. harness it in a way. Yeah, we need more of that. Yeah, I'm definitely trying to do something with my own brand in that in that aspect to bring customizers and independent designers and stuff that into it. But yeah, I think and think when people see financial gain in any kind of field, they're gonna try to run after it for the financial gain and not the passion for it. And I think you saw that happen
00:28:26
Speaker
And I do know firsthand that probably half the customizers in the space did get cease and desist from the big brands because they weren't doing it properly or they were one way or another. They were they were getting in trouble from the brands. And so it's just trying to figure out a way to maneuver and.
00:28:41
Speaker
um Yeah, i mean, if you're not getting sales, you can't really last. No, yeah. It's definitely tough now, especially, you know, these these like lawsuits. I think everybody's feeling a little bit at like, oh, should I really? i mean, because some people are really like trying to do this mass scale, but then it's like,
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, if you're selling something that is, you know, not authentic and then it's like ah it's a different it's a different thing when you buy the sneaker and you tear it apart and you put it together yourself. But it's different when you're like, yo, I'm just going to, you know, get a factory to do it for me. Yeah. Try to mass scale that. And you're like, now you're a sneaker. You're a sneaker company, basically.
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah. Using somebody else's IP, which is insane to even think that you have the gall to even do it. But a lot of people weren't getting sued and now they are. And so now people are starting to wake up. yeah So um the the true ones will will pivot and maneuver, you know, the talented ones for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
How did how did you get involved with Yankee Cakes? He's just been a friend of mine for a really long time, a really long time. And um we've just been talking forever. And then he flew me down to Miami, back i think 2018. That store, I went there. in Manhattan or in Miami? Both, I've been to both. Okay, you've been above to both? I've been to both.
00:29:57
Speaker
the the store in Miami is fire. Right. And like i I'm not I don't buy resale. So like I just mainly I just go into the store to experience it. So like I went to the to the one Century 21 downstairs and I was like, OK, this is not the one in Miami. But the one in Miami, I was like, I walked in. I was like, yo, is this really a sneaker store? It feels like an Apple store. Yeah. Yeah. With full glass and everything like that. Did you go to the VIP room?
00:30:21
Speaker
Maybe I have. So we do in all the stores, it's kind of like set up like Louis Vuitton in a way where it's like you have like this VIP like closed off section for like private shoppers and everything like that. If you go to the one in Manhattan, just mention my name.
00:30:33
Speaker
It's like a 7000 square foot store. i don't know if you've been down there yet. It's on the corner of Broadway and Bond Street. Yeah, I went, but I didn't know that there was an extra room. Oh, a whole huge, huge extra room. That's where we keep like a lot of the Grails, like the the white parties and like all the OVOs, like all my customs are in there. So I think I got probably 15 pairs of my customs just sitting in there.
00:30:51
Speaker
have the pigeon Montclair's in there. Oh, that's sick. Yeah. um and So, yeah, no, it's a it's like where the the real Grails are in a way. I mean, the store is filled with with shoes, obviously, but...
00:31:03
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's, yeah, I've just known him for a really long time. And then he actually, he had this huge connection with sneakers. He's probably got a larger sneaker collection than anyone I've ever met in my entire life. I mean, he's really up there past DJ Khaled or Fat Joe or and Kenny Gonzalez or, you know, the perfect pair. I mean, when you see his collection, it is multiple, multiple millions of dollars. I mean, he's truly like ah sneaker collector and enthusiast and you know he just said screw it i'm just going to open a store and now he's really pushing the boundaries of doing like ai personal shopping kiosks and you know to be able to put it into every retail store regardless of sneakers which is cool to see him like integrating and and growing and we do have you know expansion plans uh not only within the stores but
00:31:47
Speaker
consignment we're yeah i'd love to tell you our our plans for it but it's gonna it's gonna pivot in some way shape or form but getting into independent brands footwear brands independent clothing brands yeah stuff like that so i mean speaking of independent brands i mean we talked about this before we got on air but i definitely wanted to hear like the origin story of What was the name of the name? Von Grock. Von Grock. I look it's tough name. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully it'll be more more prevalent in your in your viewpoints. But yeah. So this is ah one of the look see samples um that I brought. We have a couple hundred right now, um but this is just one of our lifestyle shoes that we have.
00:32:25
Speaker
um It's probably going to be like our one that I'm really pushing the materials and boundaries like chinese satins and crazy leathers and and and furs and everything like that on here but um yeah it was the brand started actually in the late 80s um by peter moore and uh peter moore if anyone doesn't know right he was the gentleman who designed the jordan one he created air jordan um and he was actually the the designer that was actually going to pull Michael Jordan away from right Nike and Jordan brand. And they were going to go sign him at Von Grock.
00:32:55
Speaker
ah It wasn't Adidas. It wasn't Converse. It was going to be Von Grock. And then obviously Tinker came with three and then game over for that. But, um, man, he almost had him. Yeah. Mutombo was actually the first, uh, signed athlete for Von Grock. Really? Yeah.
00:33:09
Speaker
So we're actually retroing his first basketball shoe. gotta see that. didn't even know. It's, it's sick. It's, it kind of reminds you of like the, the old Reeboks and stuff like that. But, um, very retro, we're actually working with his family to hopefully figure out a way to pay homage and- We got a no, no, no. Yeah, exactly. the tongue or something like that, know? Yeah, exactly, yeah, no, I mean, you gotta be true. mean, it really, they're really known for like their nylon tracksuits and like the 90s basketball vibes and it really was like a basketball lifestyle brand. But we have about 12 silhouettes and we're really hoping to launch it by next year. What inspired you to be like, you know what, I'm going just step on my own.
00:33:48
Speaker
Yeah, so it was actually, um Yankee was actually approached to buy it from Peter's estate. And him knowing me for as long as we have. And me doing all the custom work for for Yankee. I mean, we've dropped probably 30 different customs over the over the years. And, you know, i've designed all the bear statues. Like all the the the massive toy statues in his stores. And yeah I've helped designing the actual like layouts of the stores. and you know i've done a lot of the design work and he just really relies on me to do like footwear in particular like i'm really ah like a material design specialist yeah yeah um i mean look at these man come on monclair jackets yeah so yeah we did the collaboration with jeff staples for the actual opening of the manhattan store oh yeah so that was another story i know i know that that's when you hit me up because i was just like yeah yeah i was at the i was at the opening
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah. So yeah, for that, that one was actually really special for me. It was like, I, I met Jeff in New York and saw him actually had designed it a week earlier. This saw him at an artifact after party, after sneaker con LA. And I showed him the shoe on my phone. He said, we got to figure out a way to drop this. were opening the Yankee kicks Miami, New York store months later. huh.
00:34:58
Speaker
We ended up doing the OG pigeons and a reverse panda pigeon and we dropped them. think I saw the panda pigeon. And then we auctioned them off at the opening of the store. And I think the reverse panda pigeon sold for $30,000. Jeez. And we gave all the proceeds to Sloan Kettering Children's Cancer Center. Shout out Sloan Kettering.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah. So we we definitely um wanted to create the the moment in the story and and do something amazing. But now I'm actually making Montclair shoes in damn near every silhouette from A6 to New Balances to Timberlands to a bunch of different samples in the work right now. So really, I'm actually working on a Montclair. want to see a Tim.
00:35:33
Speaker
Oh, I already designed a black and a white one. So I'm actually talking to the us creative director timberland next week to to to figure out a way to hopefully make it ah an actual release which would be cool that would be crazy yeah that would be crazy do you get to put your name on it or um i would i would hope in some some way shape or form um maybe just the the the patch yeah or something like that maybe not necessarily on the shoe i want to just kind of keep it clean and so maybe on the insoles very so subtle very subtle just a little jk on there very very subtle jk but um
00:36:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, so when he he he entrusted me to do the ah all the design work for these things. And so I really kind of took it by the bull by the horns. And we have around 12 original silhouettes and from basketball to pickleball to lifestyle to- Pickleball knees. shoes yeah so it's crazy actually uh two of the teams that we did pickleball shoes designed for was uh drake's team and daddy yankee's team okay we did those about two years ago that's crazy and so it's like it's one of those things yeah we did those a couple years ago at this point now but yeah pickleball has their own shoes almost like tennis shoes i didn't even know the pickleball you need i thought it was just like yeah just regulation i don't think anybody's like really going crazy on pickleball no i mean it's crazy it's gonna be a five billion dollar industry really yeah pickleball really is growing to be the number one sport in america which is
00:36:51
Speaker
I mean, me, i don't i don't I've never played it, but I have tons of friends that do. And so, you know, I'll gladly design them. They're very much like ASICs runner driven. They're very like multi-layered, very heavy meshes, synthetic leathers and stuff like that. So it's a fun silhouette to play around with.
00:37:08
Speaker
I mean, I think these look great. They remind me of ah the Louis Vuitton. I get that every single time. And it's so funny because this shoe was actually officially designed over 25 years ago. I know. yeah So like to see. Yeah. Which is great for me because that Louis trainer is honestly one of my favorite shoes. It's like in the market right now. And every time you go to a Louis store, you see the quality and like the materials in which they use. So.
00:37:29
Speaker
I definitely draw a lot of inspiration off of the fact that like they're a luxury store, but instead of charging $1,200, we'll be able to charge less than $200 for these. okay. Which we really want to offer the most premium, basically what I've done with my customs, but then offer it on our retail footwear and then being able to put them in like everyday stores like the Foot Lockers, the Finish Lines, the TTLRs, like shoe palaces and all that stuff. So,
00:37:52
Speaker
yeah I think that's been always my goal from no one being able to support my like my side of customs because let's be realistic, it's really for like a very specific demographic for people to justify paying what what I have to charge to just hand make these shoes to being able to actually offer shoes at retail. I don't care if it's like traditional manufacturing or the 3D printed Zellerfeld. Right, yeah. I mean, I wanted to know what really propelled you. into Because like I feel like you push yourself, you know, and you're pushing yourself. I mean, 100 look-see samples.
00:38:22
Speaker
Like, you're just like, I'm just going to crank out 100 designs. Nobody's like, yo, I'm going to crank out 100 different types. And that's all the factory would let us put them out, to be honest with you. Because I've done 800 colorways. 800? I've done 800 in the last three years. That's And that's like on top of everything else. like But with these, yeah, they've been able to create about 100 look-see samples for us. So like, I mean, you know, 3D printing, it's obviously like it was I feel like it was a big wave and now it's like it's kind of like he even keeled out a little bit more. But I do think like Zellerfeld, you know, really kind of ignited a lot of people. Now we're seeing a lot more again.
00:38:57
Speaker
You're going to be surprised to see what companies drop Zellerfelds here in the next high two years. Oh, yeah. I've seen some crazy. Are they? are they So I don't know a lot about Zellerfeld. Are they like the main sneaker? They are the number one 3D printed shoe company in the world. It's the only one that uses non-toxic materials.
00:39:14
Speaker
They're the only one that are fully recyclable. Yeah. um and they're trying to be like the YouTube of sneakers. So anyone can actually have a brand for free, which is amazing. So basically creating traditional footwear, you're talking $100,000 minimal investment just to create like a silhouette, design it, have the sole molds. If you have multiple parts of the soles, you have to get the outsole, the midsole, you have to use different densities of TPUs and rubbers.
00:39:38
Speaker
You to have to pattern the uppers. You have to create lasts for every single size. It is a huge undertaking just for one silhouette. um for Zellerfeld, um they do all the backend work for you, right? So they print it, they box it, and they ship it to your clients for free. Wow. Or or not for free. I mean, they they have some, you know, cost within it. Right, yeah. They're doing all of the backend work for you, and it's basically like when you order a pizza. So it's basically orders created, and It's printing, it's printed, it's shipped.
00:40:07
Speaker
And then you have a user dashboard. And so you know every single colorway of every shoe that you've ever put out, how many orders there are. And then you just get ah pretty much a wire transfer at the end of every quarter um for the sales you are. And all your job is, is to create a silhouette and then promote it.
00:40:24
Speaker
That's crazy. And then you their whole goal over the long term is for you to be able to have, you'd be able to just print out a new shoe every single day. But you can submit a design, potentially using AI, right? Be able to submit it, go through the the checkpoints.
00:40:39
Speaker
They print it out and they're expanding with the the partnerships that they have with like Nike. Yeah. They just signed a multi-year deal with Nike and they're actually moving their factory from Germany to Austin, Texas. Whoa. Okay. And they're expanding from 250 over 5,000 currently. And they're also moving from doing solid colors, which has always been like my Achilles heel with it in a way where it's like I know people want, especially me being a custom sneaker guy, I want multiple colors. Right. Yeah. And so um this with the Air Max 1000 was kind of like my first example of the first colored 3D printed shoe ever.
00:41:12
Speaker
Oh, okay. So I've, I've wanted to ask you this question because I've seen a bunch of these that you put on your story, but like, so you're not painting. Are you painting these? That one in particular is hand painting. Okay. Cause like that was actually painted by Chris Bennis, AKA Rupsey Banks. so okay So again, I have the concept.
00:41:28
Speaker
I sent it to one of the best painters in the entire world. And then he ended hand painting that for me. That is my personal shoe. Cause I wanted to, wear it and everything like that. But like Nike's whole plan is gonna be, they're gonna be the first company to ever have a full 3D printed colored shoe. um And so for me, i wanted to just get ahead of the curve.
00:41:48
Speaker
This is why I designed this JK03. So this was the first. This is my fourth silhouette under Zellerfeld, by the way. So why zero three? Yeah. um So the fourth one was or one of the ones that was supposed to actually be with J Tips. Yeah. And unfortunately, like with his contract, he wasn't able to at release it. And so was kind of scratched. um But yeah, yeah, this is the ah the three, the like third, I guess, official released shoe.
00:42:14
Speaker
But I wanted to design it just like an actual sneaker. So it's fully blocked. Almost like if you look at sneaker culture today, like the most popularized and so far, the most sold shoes in Yankee kicks right now are Asics, which is incredibly funny because it was before a couple of years ago, the Jordan ones and the Jordan threes and fours, pretty much always Jordans. Yeah. I mean, I do think the easy slides or like the foam runner, stuff like that. Like that was huge. I do think that, yeah, the runners, runners is back, you know, like they're coming back there. They have been back. So, yeah.
00:42:44
Speaker
but it's like yeah it's like the flexibility of them the comfortability of them i mean you can literally i mean just fold them up in your your bag and keep going on but no creases you're good no no creases whatsoever and then the full traction pattern so if you want to go hiking you know or you want to go on the trail run or whatever it is but i'm going literally take the same color blocking that i put on custom sneakers and going to be the first designer to have i think i've already designed 45 colorways do you sleep there honestly it's so funny because like once you've broken it down it really takes me like 15 minutes to create a new colorway okay um it's really just thank god photoshop and and all this other stuff so i'm able change pantone colors and change blocking but i just but like are you like are you using like a like a tablet like what are you not yeah so i have a pretty extensive rig at my uh at my place that was one of the first things i invested in when i actually like started this whole thing it's like i ended up
00:43:37
Speaker
customizing a bison with like three graphics cards and like having like two 45 inch monitors like so it's like i'm at it 10 12 hours a day though like i take saturdays and sundays to myself for the most part but um yeah i i'm pretty much an early riser i get up at 6 a.m and i'm designing until 6 7 o'clock at night like every night jeez So, but I mean, when you think about it, doing these, doing those, doing customs, and then I'm also now just newly signed to helping footwear design and development at Palm Angels.
00:44:13
Speaker
Wow. Okay. Which is my street footwear brand. no street street or band more More known for clothing, but um I'm really kind of being brought in to do their footwear. So then I guess my my question is like, what what is your goal?
00:44:29
Speaker
Honestly, expansion always and always. ways Yeah. um I want to like, I want to like run sneakers in every way, in shape and form. um Honestly, my goal, it's so funny because I was actually just on a phone call the other day with a,
00:44:45
Speaker
one of the most successful entrepreneurs in America. um Mark Cuban? ah You could say he's wealthier than Mark Cuban. um But this guy actually wants to bring footwear manufacturing and Mascale back to the United States. okay um and he wants me to kind of head up uh bringing it here ah from figuring out the machinery to the manufacturing to developing new silhouettes to doing pretty much everything so uh for like hiring a staff of like literally 100 americans yeah to like run the operations the machinery like reverse engineer using like american engineers like really bringing footwear for the very first time on mass scale to um to the united states
00:45:28
Speaker
And like, this is like a, ah like starting from a, starting a brand from scratch, literally completely from scratch. So like that is giving me anxiety. Yeah. I mean, it's the the thought process of it is like when I was approached for it, I understood how much of an overwhelming task it is. I've been to China, like,
00:45:44
Speaker
a couple times yeah to see like the operations the factories like when especially with the von grok stuff and we visited every single factory and seeing the machinery and the teams and the engineers you got any crazy china stories not really i mean it's i mean it's it's insane to like it's really cool to see that end of footwear like because again i want to know everything about footwear like if it's in my space i want to know everything about it and i think it does a lot for when you're actually at the source. yeah Like every footwork, like shoe that we've ever worn has come out of China, whether Guangzhou or Xinjiang or yeah Dongzhou. It's like, so it's, it's cool to like go there, see the Jordan factory, see the Nike factory, New Balance, K-Swiss, did you go to the, the fakes, the fake building?
00:46:28
Speaker
Well, it's so funny when I went. Yes, I definitely went to the malls. um It's funny because I've actually had 18 of my customs mass manufactured. Yeah. Mass manufactured. Like I know the Ben and Jerry's were mass manufactured over a million pairs.
00:46:40
Speaker
My what the dunks recently, they were mass manufactured over a quarter million units. When I went to the Dallas State Fair last year, i saw ah five different people wearing my what the shoes. Damn.
00:46:51
Speaker
My what this and like that, that shoe, I only made a couple of pairs and it literally costs like $10,000 to make because they're made with the orange and the yellow, grateful dead souls. Right. Yeah. And then 39 other shoes inspired to make that shoe. And so seeing like factories, I don't care if it was the Warhawk Sakai. mean, I did the list goes on and on and on, but I, when you go there and see them in hand, like I know my buddy, John Geiger was literally just over there and he saw his zero zero fours in the mall. Right. Yeah. And, and seeing those being mass manufactured. So yeah,
00:47:19
Speaker
It's pretty insane that like if they see something or a trend online, like they're going to mass manufacture it to their own benefit. We'll never know because we're not over there. Right. I mean, I watch Snyde SB. Shout out Snyde SB. Shout out to Snyde. Yeah. I've known him. It's so funny because he's actually a he's the guy that reaches out to me in particular. And um he always is willing to just send me ah my my my.
00:47:41
Speaker
my fake versions of my customs and just it's like do you want and and it's so funny what he was the one who taught me about like the tiers of fakes yeah where he's like so there's 10 different tiers of your fake which one do you want was like well if you're gonna send it to me might as well send me the triple a version of it because i want to see like the best quality of the version that they made a fake of yeah and it's just insane and they'll be like all right yeah that'll be 60 and i'm like this is insane like it's just it's it's incredible but like yes having a guy like him That's actually how we got connected. he he yeah He reached out to me about the Ben Jerry's because it's like your Ben and Jerry's are sold anywhere from like a 4C all the way up to a 15. They're everywhere in China right now. I remember he he made a video one time and I'm not going to hold you. I think they look amazing to be honest, but somebody made a Ben and Jerry's, ah but it was like brown cow.
00:48:30
Speaker
Yeah, that was me. Oh, and so then they- So I made a Neapolitan version where it was like a strawberry- they faked your Neapolitan version? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, this shit is fire. I was like, all right, this is fire. Yeah, so I did a cookies and cream version, which was like white, black, and gray, and the gray was actually black speckled, almost like the cements.
00:48:47
Speaker
And then I did a Neapolitan version where it was three swooshes instead of one um ice cream swoosh. But it had like vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. And then the cow was brown cow. yeah And then it was like an ah like a aged sole with a pink outsole.
00:49:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's the one that i saw. They faked it. They faked it. That was one of the 18 that they faked. Yeah. That's crazy. And it's funny because I thought, I was like, damn, they're really being really creative out there. No, they just took your shit. Yeah. No, they they they definitely watched me like an eagle, like for sure. Because I know they made over there, I know they, because we talked about no Brainer. And they did his like. The what the, the what the Halloweens. Yes. And they also did his initial D's that he made. yeah And I was like, damn.
00:49:29
Speaker
I bet like I'm like, damn, he should really release these because it's just it's like you're these are these are dope. But like, i mean, I'm not going to justify it like because he got upset because I remember he made a post about it, too, because he got upset because they stole his design.
00:49:44
Speaker
They made it in the factory. And now it's an actual shoe. Yeah. Right. And he didn't get a chance to do that. And I don't know. Like, I mean, how how does that feel? it it's well, because you get to make the shoe.
00:49:56
Speaker
Yeah, I know, but it also sucks though too, because knowing that like, again, it's not my IP. So I really, I wonder how Nike feels about it, to be honest with you. But it's also like, yeah, I mean, the fact that like I have to charge my clients X amount, we have to spend like 40, 50, 60, 80 hours making a single pair.
00:50:12
Speaker
and And then just seeing people walking around with a hundred dollar version of it and it's like a hundred thousand pairs and i don't see a single dime from it or again nike sure as hell isn't seeing a dime from it but then just and also people don't know that you made it too and well the thing is a lot of the times like they'll just have my logo on it yeah Which I think, God, I just got it IP and trademarked and went to the patent office. Shout out to Zach over at Sneeter Legal. Shout out Zach, man. know, my boy. But ah yeah, that finally went through. so now I'm trying to get it on a global scale. But even then, it's so hard to do anything about it.
00:50:45
Speaker
Right. And it's not even like my IP, which is insane to think. It's like this. The first time it happened, it it really blew my mind. But then now seeing it happen. 18 different times like i know the number it's like i've literally been tallying like every single shoe that they've done it to and so it's like i'm just wondering what's the next one yeah and so i try to use materials now that are a little because you there's no way they're repping those definitely there's just not there's just no way but definitely not and the 3d printed like they're not going to be able to replicate 3d printing shoes no um but i'm sure when these start coming out like that's going to be one of those things like
00:51:18
Speaker
if they're mass manufactured over there. But it's like, if I can bring manufacturing back to the US and keep the tooling in the United States, I think it would be a really interesting dynamic. Because I think things will actually be limited. right Because it's like, if I'm controlling the manufacturing and the tooling, yeah they would have to so they would have to deal with it straight off of pictures instead of actually having the tooling made from the shoes made overseas. Because like these these factories aren't...
00:51:42
Speaker
loyal in a way where it's like, if you go there, like I know Kai, he just went over there and he, you know, he's getting his new shoes dropped and everything like that. Like those are going to start getting mass manufactured because they're going to see how many units he's doing out of that factory.
00:51:54
Speaker
And then just going to make sense for them to make mass manufactured versions of it for like a a third of the price. That's that's insane. yeah that's That's insane just because like, well one, because you know i don't know if you've seen like ah like rep culture or whatever you to call it, like people that buy reps. That's huge thing. Yeah, and it's like their whole justification. It's the same.
00:52:12
Speaker
They're using the same factories, the same materials. They're just not official or whatever. I think the majority of people wearing fake shoes, to be honest with you. Yeah. And I don't even think they know it. um To be honest with you, it's like these factories are, they're making them in the same factory to the same factory owner. Right? So what I saw firsthand was, I think Ben Baller even mentioned this a few weeks ago, but it's like the factories are getting paid a dollar, two dollars a unit.
00:52:37
Speaker
All they know is cheap. That's the word that they use over and over and over again. Every company just wants cheap. That's why they go over there. Right? Well, the factory owners know all of the, resellers that are selling on all these Instagram pages.
00:52:50
Speaker
So what they're doing is they're saying, okay, we'll run it from nine to five for Nike. We'll give them their 30, 40, 50, 60, a hundred thousand units. Right. But then we're going to run the the machines from seven o'clock to 4am.
00:53:03
Speaker
We have the the same souls. We have the same molds. We have the same material roles. We have everything. We were just making a for Nike in their order yeah for us. Um, But instead of like the $2 that they're paying us, we'll ship tens of thousands of pairs to these resellers, or they'll just keep them in the warehouse and the resellers will sell them on pre like a pre-order through a client, through like WhatsApp or something like that. Once they get the order, they'll say, factory, I need this shoe with this size.
00:53:27
Speaker
They'll send it to them. But then theyre the fact, these fake sellers, they're selling them for almost retail. They're selling them for $100, $200 retail a instead of, you know, the resale.
00:53:38
Speaker
And that factory just made 180 bucks on that same shoe that they just got paid $2 from Nike to make. Right. So they're actually incentivized to make the fakes. And then with, um you know, I really don't want to, you know, throw a lot of these resale platforms under the bus, but even, you know, StockX and stuff like that. Right. They just had this massive lawsuit with with ah Nike. you Right. Right.
00:54:01
Speaker
i've I've never been to their facility. I don't know how their authentication thing works, but it's like now with them taking off the the legal disclaimer, and I think almost every single one of them did from that lawsuit, basically saying we can no longer guarantee authentication of any product. Oh, I didn't even realize that. Yeah, so they took it off they because they want to they want to secure themselves from getting sued again. Right. and so it's like they they go through these points of contact to be able to try to authenticate it the best they can. Mm-hmm.
00:54:25
Speaker
But no one can truly authenticate a shoe. And so when you're getting them made from the same factories, they're gonna go through and it's gonna look the same, the same box, the same everything, and then they're gonna push it through. yeah Well, if when you get that tag from any one of these places, you're just gonna assume it's authentic, but it might not be.
00:54:43
Speaker
It might be, but it might not be. right And the majority of them, 90% of shoes in the market are fake. yeah So it's like a bag. How do you tell a woman's bag from a non real bag? The difference is they're not reselling those bags, you know, but it's like when you go to sneaker con events,
00:54:58
Speaker
When you go to those tables and you have literally 10 people at the event, like authenticating shoes, more than half the time they're fake, right? Those shoes are being bought or trying to be sold to those clients from vendors at these events yeah and they're fake, but they don't know it. Yeah.
00:55:12
Speaker
Or the table doesn't know it or they do know it and they're trying to get one off on somebody. It's so prevalent that we don't even really think about it anymore. Yeah. it's it's really so ingrained that we really don't even pay attention. No, yeah. It makes it makes me scared.
00:55:26
Speaker
That's why I strictly only stick to retail, because it makes me scared of like, okay, now I'm stepping out into the 50-50 chance. And like I'm like, I don't want the fifty fifty chance. It needs to come straight from the retailer from this point. And um and and then that that causes, like you know, then we get the influx of like people that are not really, like, really know about this stuff. So then...
00:55:48
Speaker
later on in life they're feeling like okay i have all these these sneakers and now don't know really know what it's worth because when we keep moving this goal this goal post that we're we're creating with you know resell and and like fakes and stuff like that there there's a market for that and now we're like expanding like what is the possibilities am i getting am i selling a fake sneaker am i doing like it's like I don't know, I've never, i like back back when we were growing up, it was so easy to spot a fake, right? You're like, oh yeah, he's wearing fakes. His shit just says air on it. Like there's no Nike on it, like, you know?
00:56:24
Speaker
and And now we live in this world where it's just like, you know, I don't i don't necessarily, Because everybody's like, yo, the justification is like, okay, at one point when the presses turn off, they have to stop using the same material. And if they're going to use the same presses, they could change the material.
00:56:38
Speaker
Like they have to change the material. They're not incentivized to because then they would actually have to source the different material. yeah Like when they have spools and spools and spools of it, like they're incentivized knowing that it's like, okay, well Nike is paying us $2 these.
00:56:49
Speaker
when I can sell them to somebody else for $180 with the same stuff. But the thing is, it's so funny when you actually look at some of the fakes compared to the retail pairs, the fakes are actually made better quality. They're actually better they're made with like less stitched mess up, less glue stains, because they're actually competing with Nike at that point.
00:57:05
Speaker
but that's the the highest of tiers like that's not well a lot of the a lot of them are aiming to be the highest tier right it's like they they do have these tiers where they'll they'll send them to like the the markets but when they're targeting american audiences they're definitely trying to like make sure that they're selling it now again everyone's got a price target right there you'll see blatant fakes out here that's because the person wanted to buy it off of the factory for 50 bucks 60 bucks but it's like if somebody's paying 180 guarantee you if i know for a fact like the undefeated that's going to be mass manufactured probably three million units yeah again that's not from nike that's like they'll probably do 500 000 like maybe 300 000 but the factories are going to just run that until the resell is at like 200
00:57:45
Speaker
yeah Because I know the brick fours I seen I watched Snide's video on the brick fours and he had three pairs and I was like, all right, he's like, yo, this is the cheap one. This is yeah the medium one. yeah And this is the elite whatever $200 pair.
00:57:58
Speaker
And I was like, they just progressively get better. I'm like, that's scary. Yeah. And you've seen, have you seen the blue pair and the black pair that they've done? Yeah. So they've already, I don't know if that's- Was that you? Did you make those? No, no, no, I didn't make that. I was, no, I did a puffer jacket version of the undefeated force with- Oh yeah, I think I it. Military puffer jacket and everything like that. And I was thinking about doing like a black hat version, which I think would be kind of cool. I know Sneaker Den, shout out Sneaker Den. He posted his, like, when he thought the re, like, the pro-cho version of it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if it's because a lot of these guys, you know, they see the catalogs, like, way ahead of time. And so sometimes where it might seem like a fake leak, all of a sudden, like, you'll see it on Jordan's schedule, like, six months later. So it's like they might do a brick by brick all black.
00:58:46
Speaker
Or, you know, almost playing off the black hat, but it's like a brick by brick or something like that. Or they might do the blue version. God only knows they'll do like the M&M 4s based off of like the hype that just happened with like the, you know, the undefeated and Chris Union talking about it and everything like that. So, but no matter what, if the factory can make money from it, like they're they're going to make money from it for sure.
00:59:05
Speaker
um Look, we're towards the end of the podcast, man. And, you know, we don't condone fakes real quick. Just gonna say that. No, absolutely not. Definitely want to just be more educational to let people know. Just definitely keep your eye out for it. This is going to get clipped to high hell, I feel. Yeah. Somebody's going to like, oh, yeah, this podcast promotes fakes. We should listen to them. Like, no, no, no, no. No, no definitely. I think it's some one of those unspoken things in sneakers that, like, I feel like most people just are never privy to. No, yeah. So.
00:59:30
Speaker
the real The reality of it, like the chances are now much higher than they were before. I think just being a sneaker is I'm privy to every aspect of it.
00:59:41
Speaker
But now we're towards the end of the podcast and it deals with a little visualization. I want you to think back to when you were younger, younger Johnny's kicks. ah And now he's about to open that box of the Iverson fours. And now you're you're you but behind your younger self. What would you tell your younger self as he opens that box?
01:00:00
Speaker
Oh man.
01:00:05
Speaker
Man, keep on the path. Keep on the path. yeah Keep on the path. Be true to yourself, man. Not stretch before the, uh, before you tear your MCL. Yeah, that wasn't my fault. I was tackled. Oh, damn. That was a cheap shot. Yeah. Step back. Step back on the don't though don't get tackled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously.
01:00:24
Speaker
Yeah. No. that Yeah. That sucked. No. Yeah. I'm pretty happy. with and that's what's the What's the path your're you're specifically saying?
01:00:35
Speaker
Because... i feel like you've had a lot of paths i can't i can't i think it's just being true to myself i think that's the biggest thing it's like i've never there's a lot of naysayers in life like every single person in my life probably has told me to like not do this in some capacity or the next like they don't understand it at all like sneakers is a niche on niche on niche on niche and i'm actually the first entrepreneur in my entire family uh on any side of my family um so I know, yeah, because I feel like, you know, grew up with parents, like parents in the military. Military, yeah. They were like, yo, when you going to jump in on this? Yeah, and I have a large family. You know, my dad's got, you know, eight siblings. My mom's got four siblings. How much of, how much of, is it like a pretty heavy military family?
01:01:16
Speaker
Not really. and Most of them are really just kind of small town um individuals. And most of them live up in New England or they're spread out in like smaller towns like Nebraska or Kansas or... carolinas or something like that. But yeah, it was like, my dad was like one of the more successful people in his entire family. But, you know, I think they were always playing the safe route or they never realized like a dream could come true in a way where it was kind of like, I think that's, I think that's just true in life. I feel like most people are surrounded by people that have never actually lived out a dream. and they don't know what's possible. And so they try to deter you and try to tell you to just stay a safe path, yeah I guess, in a way, and and try to try to create the safe route. And I was always the rebel in that way where I was just wanted to – was always creative. I was already always artistic, and I loved sneakers. And so for me, I was like the fact that I was able to meld like every one of my life passions plus like –
01:02:09
Speaker
yeah my work ethic in a way that I was instilled with having a military father and like and seeing how hard he worked and diligent and how much he worked to supply life for a good life for us and my family it was like think I just took everything and just been true to myself yeah like I haven't let anyone deter me from my path and I've surrounded myself with really really cool successful people that are just pushing themselves to do the same thing in every realm possible um And I met some really cool people along the way and been able to work on some amazing projects. And it's just growing like crazy, like year over year, over year, over year. like- You're about to have a factory in the United States. I mean, that that would be ideal. And if I can really-
01:02:52
Speaker
and supply jobs and support, keep supporting the people that have the same vision to me long into the future. um And it's still within art and sneakers and creating. Cause again, I think sneakers is one part, but I've really found joy in doing hats and clothing. I really want to have a full clothing line and,
01:03:10
Speaker
uh you know doing hats and toys and stores you know working with yankee and expanding globally and doing like retail stores and uh my my dreams are big and so it's like if i can just keep surrounding myself with amazing talented driven people uh yeah just stay true to myself and my vision no man that's beautiful that's beautiful uh let everybody know where to find you ah Pretty much Johnny's Kicks underscore on Instagram. That's pretty much where I stay.
01:03:38
Speaker
Website? website No website. No. just website what
Expanding Beyond Custom Shoes
01:03:44
Speaker
Website in the works. I mean, I have johnnieskicks.com, but it's offline right now. I think once I have the the shoes done, i'm working on clothing, i' working on a whole i slew other things. yeah ah you know I want to keep Nikes off my off my website everything like that. So as I work farther and farther down the independent route and expand farther off of just customs,
01:04:05
Speaker
Because i think that's going to be the huge transition point for me. Like I've been doing customs for, you know, five years, but you're going to see over the next five years how much like my independent brand takes off while, you know, approaching it the same way as I approach customs really, really high end with storytelling. And so if I can do that same thing, but on an independent level at retail, at retail is like the big thing, yeah you know, allowing people to actually support and, and, and where the stuff that I create, um,
01:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be youre probably relaunching here. I'm hoping by the end of the year, or early next year. hey No rushes. No rushes. Yeah, no rushes. ah And, you know, actually, i don't know why i said i was going actually do the the
Patreon Support and Exclusive Content
01:04:42
Speaker
outro. um Pass it over to me to do the Patreon shout out. Shout out to me and shout out to everybody who's been a Patreon subscriber.
01:04:48
Speaker
ah Peace. There you go. I appreciate you, dude. I appreciate you, man. jumping in at the end of this week's episode to say thank you for listening to this week's episode with Johnny's kicks.
01:05:00
Speaker
And of course, got do Patreon shout outs. So shout out to Adam Neustad, you know, the first person to subscribe. At the $5 tier.
01:05:11
Speaker
Ross Adams. Fresh Poetic. A.K.A. Derek. and MSR. Adam Butler. Check out MSR Radio. think coming back. I think they're starting to push some episodes out too.
01:05:24
Speaker
And then Jesse. Jesse G. you know Without you guys. and I wouldn't be able to do an episode. And you too can join and help me. and help me produce these episodes with subscribing to the Patreon at patreon.com slash myfirstkicks.
01:05:42
Speaker
It goes a long way. i am building it out a lot more. We got the first nine episodes of this podcast, which you cannot find on any DSPs, and it only lives on Patreon. In order to hear that, you have to sign up at the $5 tier because, boy, they're rough.
01:06:00
Speaker
And I'm also missing the second episode, which I'm still going to find. And i will be, as I mentioned before, i will be going on this trip to Portland next week. That's right.
01:06:11
Speaker
That's zoomed up. And i will be taking a lot of BTS, a lot of vlogs, a lot of just content that I will be splicing together that will only live on Patreon.
01:06:23
Speaker
So yeah and you have to have the $5 tier to see any of that stuff. lot of exclusive stuff. I promise you that. I promise you that. And of course, if you follow me on Twitter, you know, i mentioned that I have a ton of content from ComplexCon 2023. I'm going to start probably like slicing that into a video or something like that. And it will live only on Patreon.
01:06:48
Speaker
And I'll probably
Future Plans for Podcast and Brand
01:06:49
Speaker
like throw some trailers here and there onto YouTube or something like that just to to get some people on here too. You know, but every single in your dollars count because they go straight back into the podcast.
01:07:00
Speaker
It really helped the podcast. And I'm hoping to make sure that this podcast lives on forever um as I continue to build this out. And as i continue to work to get more guests, you know, add more to the infrastructure of this podcast.
01:07:17
Speaker
We've got merch coming, more merch coming. Please let me know if you haven't gotten your shirt and you ordered it. Please, I will help you out there. And i appreciate you if you stayed to the end of this episode and want to check out more. You can check out these two episodes here and hit the subscribe button. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button. If you're on YouTube or Apple Podcasts, we always say each week, wear your kicks.
01:07:45
Speaker
Peace.