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Sneakerhead Sweet Valley High with Jixie
159 Plays12 days ago
This week Jixie is back! If you haven't heard the first episode we dropped check out Episode 18 of the podcast! This week, she's back and we are catching up 4 years later. We talk about how sneakers have effected her life. Working with Jordan brand, the reason she had to put sneaker down for a while. How she uses sneakers to connect to other women in all these spaces. Also what we think of sneaker culture now!
Follow Jixie:
IG: https://www.instagram.com/kixiejixie
X/Twitter: https://x.com/kixiejixie
Follow In Her Soles Collective: https://www.instagram.com/@inhersolescollective
Podcast Linktree: https://linktr.ee/myfirstkicks
Sign up for the Patreon: https://patreon.com/MyFirstKicks
Music by The DoppleGangaz: https://thedoppelgangaz.bandcamp.com/
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Transcript
Introduction & Sneaker Culture Welcoming Nature
00:00:00
Speaker
What we say about sneaker culture, right, is that number one, we're too welcoming. yeah So it's like, oh, you like kicks? Me too. Oh, yeah. Come sit with us. You know, so it's like and I call a sweet valley high. Yeah. So at the end of the day, we're still a bunch of big old kids. Right. And what happens is you have people and I posted this other day that buy into culture.
00:00:19
Speaker
Oh, for sure. Yeah. They buy into culture because they just want you could tell they want a friend. Yeah. You could tell they they never been cool. Now they got some bread and now they want to hang out with us at the table. Right.
00:00:30
Speaker
Those are the ones that do longevity. You see them bow out. So you see the ones that were once the it people on on the gram no longer there. Why? Because they bought in for a little while, made their friends, yeah found their passions. And you know what? Kudos to them because they came in and they found real people.
00:00:50
Speaker
What's good, everyone? Welcome back to My First Kicks. This is episode 230, and this week we got a returning guest, one of the OGs of the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast, Jixi.
00:01:01
Speaker
I was going to go Kixi Jixi. I know, everyone calls me by my social media name, Kixi Jixi. You want to do Jasmine? Yeah, jazz, yo. So it's crazy because I really, to people be like, yo, Kixie. And yo, nothing irks me more. I did that as a way for you to know that Jixie likes kicks, right? But people just picked up the name Kixie. And, you know, I'm a grown ass woman. And that really, really, really gets like, ah cringe it makes me cringe in 2025. I'm like, Kixie, ooh, okay. But, you know, it comes with a lot of love. So I get it
00:01:39
Speaker
So thank you for having me back. I can't believe we're running this back. I feel honored. Look, you're what you're on the list. i Look, I got a list of people I have to get back on the podcast. You were on that list.
00:01:50
Speaker
And then you pressed me a couple of times. And um I got admit... i Sometimes I get ADHD when it comes to guests because I'll be like, ooh, that person hit me up. I got to get them on right now. Like it's like yo whatever happens. When we did it before, it was just audio. Right. And then but I really like the audio. though Like I like the the actual graphic. I thought that the release of it was so dope.
00:02:12
Speaker
But I'm like, yo, I started seeing everybody come through and I'm like, yo, it's visual now. And I'm like, now people could really see the chemistry. yeah yeah yeah You know, we talk. offline when we're like, we see each other. yeah And there's so much that we talk about, like but kicks, releases, things like that. So it's just like, yo, just wanted everybody to see how we how we give it up.
00:02:31
Speaker
Nah, yeah, for sure. I mean, yo, when we met up at the ah No Ideas Original, shout out, oh, shout out everybody that pulls up. Yeah. you Yo, know everybody that pulls up to to the No Ideas ah Originals, like outside events. And the one that we met up at was the...
00:02:48
Speaker
Was it the, it wasn't Winter Wars. It was the other one. It was like the the spring one yeah that he does. It wasn't the polo one. It wasn't the North Face.
00:02:59
Speaker
and He does a lot. And you know why I'm blanking? Because I just went to the i just went to the last meetup, which was the fresh dust start of summer. Oh, yeah. It was the start of summer. It was the start of summer. But 2024, that's when it was.
00:03:12
Speaker
Yo, that's crazy. It's been a minute. Yeah. And then you... This
Jixi's Collaboration Experiences & Aspirations
00:03:16
Speaker
is... Because I really wanted to talk like catch up with you from your first appearance to now. And, you know, we were talking about... This is when you told me about the Jordan 1 that you were working on.
00:03:27
Speaker
And you were like... Yo, it's crazy. I still, you know what? I still, i still can't get over like that. I was, you know, given an opportunity to work on a team that pitched a sneaker, was part of the design process, was really part of challenging the brand.
00:03:43
Speaker
So it's really dope to have like a Jordan and when people be like, yo, what's your favorite sneaker? I always leave that one out yeah because it hasn't, it hasn't settled in yet. But it was a project of, you know, it was ah a love project because it means something is very meaningful. I'm very proud of of what it means.
00:03:59
Speaker
um So it's dope. And I definitely want to do another one. I want to do another sneaker so bad. Yeah. So it's like after the first. I do. I want to do a Reebok. Yeah. I know I want to do a Reebok. Reebok hit me up because I've had this idea for like 10 years. Yeah.
00:04:16
Speaker
And I know because I collect so much Reebok, I just know that it's a hitter. So I'm looking forward to so what the future brings. But now i got the design itch. Let's go. I got the itch for that.
00:04:27
Speaker
So before we go further, ah introduce yourself and let everybody know who you are.
Jixi's Role in Sneaker Industry & Inner Souls
00:04:32
Speaker
So I'm Jixi. My friends call me Jazz. um I'm a sneaker collector. I'm a sneaker historian, an archivist, producer, writer.
00:04:43
Speaker
Like I've done a lot in the space. um And I'm just your homegirl. You're just a homie. Yo, I didn't get to watch your you' on the Stoop. What was it called? On the Stoop? 2347? Oh, yeah. the Neighborhood. So 237 Neighborhood. And so it was a podcast on the stoop in Bed-Stuy. Yeah, yeah. um Shout out to the guys. They were amazing.
00:05:03
Speaker
So they invited me to just come and talk about like... sneakers old brooklyn um things we have in common so it was dope because the questions no one has ever asked me any of those questions and i've been you know on a few podcasts and stuff no one has ever asked about like you know coming up in the 90s and ah certain streets being on certain blocks right yeah but it's real it's real local yeah i mean i'm hoping to be on an episode one time talk about corona for a hot second you know i mean Now that's dope. And it's, it was a pleasure to, they recognize like you was at this, in this time period in that street. And that's where you was hanging out. Like you was about that. Like yeah you had to know, know to be in certain places and fresh.
00:05:49
Speaker
So it was a great conversation. So I enjoyed it a lot. that's That's dope. but the yeah I've been seeing what you're doing, you know, but I definitely want to talk about like, yo, out of the pandemic, what was, because this is this is where we met, and then like your transition into like doing more sneaker things, like out of the pandemic, like where did where did you see yourself going? Because You know, I felt like we were all boxed in. And then, you know, was doing, you know, my sneaker shit, whatever. But like you were also I kept seeing you pop up around. It's crazy because before the pandemic in 2018, I co-founded Inner Souls with my business partner, my sister, my friend. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out. Yeah. Yeah. So we started Inner Souls.
00:06:33
Speaker
Inner Souls took off so fast. right We were featured on Footwear News. We were all over. We started having meetups. We started bringing the girls out. We started creating these safe spaces for us to just like, you know, celebrate sneakers and educate.
00:06:45
Speaker
Right. Because what what we did was like our first event was a freestyle Reebok event. We just invited everybody out. You're coming out in your Reeboks. You're coming out to drip. And then... I line the walls with all ah a lot of pairs of my freestyle highs. So i still actively collect freestyle highs. I have like 300 pairs. And what I do is i line the walls with like collabs and like really like important pieces. 1990s Reeboks. And...
00:07:13
Speaker
and They still hold together? Yeah. And there's a bunch of younger and older women who were grouped together and they were the younger women were learning. They had no idea. And then the older women were in nostalgia. So it was ah just a beautiful blend.
00:07:26
Speaker
So we started off, you know, with there and then we started progressing. Then COVID hit and it was like, ah, what do we do? So Clubhouse was amazing because I i don't think like I'm I don't consider myself a content creator. Me neither. so I got so much pushback when I said that shit. Yeah.
00:07:42
Speaker
I mean, I'm not a content creator. And I think, but I think for me, everybody knows it, right? Because I share pieces of my life. I just live in kicks. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So me, I'm not sitting there. i have, if you know me, you know, I have the hardest time staying still for a picture. Mm-hmm.
00:07:55
Speaker
So it's like certain of my friends who are content creators, yo, they they're the most amazing because what they do is they figured me out and they're just like bouncing with me. And they're like, nah, Jaz, you're just going to run past you hundred times and we're going to get it. And so after you know, during COVID, we met in Clubhouse and I think I met like the most amazing people because they were the storytellers. They were the people who really had something to say.
00:08:21
Speaker
and I think I found my my people. So I was really excited to meet the people that I met. But also Clubhouse, as you know, was also a place where I was bullied. Yeah, for sure. you know, I was bullied on Clubhouse. The guys wanted me off.
00:08:34
Speaker
I was accused of like opening rooms and doing all these things that at the time we were just chilling. And, you know, we were just like, kicking it and talking shit. That's what he was doing. That was what it was about. That was the name of the room. It was kicking it and talking shit. So, you know, uh, one thing is, is if you're going to come and challenge me and you're going to bully me, then, then, you know, I'm a show out. Right. Because one of the things is, is I know I'm, uh,
00:09:00
Speaker
deep prolific thinker in the sneaker space so that's when we started creating like actual rooms to to discuss like the rise of the female sneaker culture yeah i remember one of those rooms you pressed me in one of those rooms boom that whole clubhouse Shout out. Yeah, yeah. Like that's where we're we are a dynamic duo because, you know, between the programming and just being able to engage people, you know, you know how hard it was to get a thousand over a thousand people for two hours in a room. Yeah.
00:09:33
Speaker
Times six times. Yeah. You know, so it was like one thing. When we are intentional and and we do things, it resonates, right? Because I was really sick of in Clubhouse just hearing like pink it and shrink it complaints. yeah And until this day, I can't listen to too much complaints, right? Yo, I'm the same way with you.
00:09:54
Speaker
So I was like, oh, this is so much complaining. And I just wanted to change the space because there's a lot. We ain't where we want to be 100 percent, but there was a lot to celebrate. Yeah. So. But it's also just like and I've been telling people this, too. It's just like if you want to see change, it's got to start with you first. Yeah. If you want less people to stop, like i I'm big. I've always said this from the jump. And I think I said this in Clubhouse.
00:10:15
Speaker
You got to cater your timeline. Like if you just follow people that complain, you also are going to. Yeah, you're going to be also be a complainer as well. And you're going to fall into that. So it's like it's like how I feel about Twitter now. Twitter is like angry sneaker space. Big time. So.
00:10:30
Speaker
So in Clubhouse, you know, we changed that environment.
COVID Impact & Jordan Women's Collective
00:10:34
Speaker
We changed the narrative and there was so much to talk about and discuss. So after that, it was difficult to find my footing. You know, I suffered a loss. I lost my mom.
00:10:44
Speaker
And my mom was the reason that I love sneakers. You know, my mom was OG sneakerhead number one, you know, and then my pops. So the I didn't even want to see my sneaker room. So coming out of COVID and losing my mom,
00:10:58
Speaker
I was born again. Yeah. Brand new. And I had to find my footing all over again in the space. And it wasn't easy because for a long time, I'll be 100 percent honest.
00:11:08
Speaker
I didn't think I had a space, you know, coming out of COVID and seeing like just seeing like that was the boom of the creatives. Yeah. Right. So you had the boom of the creatives. You had the people creating the shows. You had the unboxing. The brands were changing.
00:11:22
Speaker
I just didn't think I had a space anymore. Yeah. And it took a lot of, you know, I didn't go in my sneaker room for two months because I was just like, remind me of my mom. So I was like, na i I don't even want to see a sneaker right now. So finally, when I went back in there and I was like, okay, I'm here.
00:11:40
Speaker
And then the Jordan Women's Collective happened. Right. Right. And um that was a blessing because it kind of took me out of that funk. um It was work because what the Jordan Women's Collective does is they invest in women um that are giving back to the community to continue to support our initiatives and what we're doing. yeah So that was a year of work. Yeah. Like heavy work. Like we're traveling, we're creating, we're producing ah sneakers, we're designing. So it's just like it was a lot.
00:12:10
Speaker
And I'm so grateful for that experience. how did How did that make you feel like being part of that? Being from the culture, yeah right? And being someone who started off as, you know, a kid who loved J's, you know, and then being recognized by the brand as just somebody who was pushing culture forward.
00:12:32
Speaker
um It was surreal. And, you know, Jordan Brand, shout out to them. They got super personal because it was like... I know i am a great female sneaker collector. yeah Yeah. But I'm so humble about it. Like I'm not outside like ah when I could be.
00:12:48
Speaker
And part of it is just I want to give other women space to grow and not be intimidated. So I always dimmed my light a little bit. yeah Yeah. And what the women's collective taught me was to bang on my chest. You should. Yeah.
00:13:03
Speaker
And i was super grateful for that experience. And I'll i'll give you one example. We go out one night, we schedule for dinner. So all the women are paired with a guest, and right? So we're all at this dinner. We're all paired with a guest.
00:13:18
Speaker
So I see the name tag on the on the table, but I didn't look at it yet. So was like, I wonder who it is. yeah So geeked out. I saw it with Cheryl Swoops. Wow. So I'm here. I'm like, what yeah. So I'm having dinner with Cheryl Swoops tonight. And...
00:13:35
Speaker
You know, that was crazy because from that moment on, you know, Cheryl was like, you're a goat. Yeah. You're a goat. I'm like, you're a goat. And she was like, you're a goat. and And it's because I got, still got has sneaker yeah right I still I still put, and was showing her the pictures. Look, I got this one, this one.
00:13:52
Speaker
She's like, that's insane. Yeah. So, you know, we got to talk about like, I always noticed I always loved basketball. um I grew up, you know, i got uncles, brothers. So we grew up in a basketball. My grandmother has basketball on TV. Like that's just how we grew up.
00:14:05
Speaker
So watching her, I always noticed her nails. Yeah. And I always noticed that she held the ball with the tip of nails. And so we started talking about her ball handle and her nails and how it affected her game and things like that.
00:14:19
Speaker
And her sneaker was actually designed the heel tab was so she could put the sneakers on with her nails. That's crazy. Yeah. So it was like we got to have the most amazing conversations. And, you know, that helped me to kind of just be OK with being great and accepting, you know, like, damn, you put in a lot of muscle into this, you know, own up to that.
00:14:41
Speaker
So it it really became about the work instead of the collection. So shout out to to those experiences, because that really that really helped shape me to what I am now. yeah and I hope you've been enjoying this episode with Jixi. I wanted to jump in just to remind y'all to like, subscribe, and leave a comment on this episode.
00:14:58
Speaker
It will go a extremely long way. And if you've been listening to this on audio, please leave a review, whether it be Spotify or Apple Podcasts. That also goes a really long way and will help the podcast grow.
00:15:10
Speaker
And if you're interested in helping the podcast even more, you can sign up to my Patreon at my that Patreon dot com slash my first kicks. You know, got tears. And every week I'll be adding new names and new people that sign up each week to the end of the podcast for their Patreon shout outs.
00:15:30
Speaker
So you can be named at the end of this this next week's episode. Like I'm going to name some at the end of this week's episode just by signing up to Patreon.com slash my first kicks.
00:15:42
Speaker
But back to the episode. Yo, and pay the WNBA players with their O, please. I mean, look, we've come a long way. we are going to get there. yeah We're going to get there. It takes a lot. Like...
00:15:54
Speaker
You know, business wise. Yeah, for sure. Right. It's the sponsorships. It's really making sure that those games are full, that those tickets are sold. Right. They're getting more and more sponsorships.
00:16:05
Speaker
It's beautiful to see. Look at where we are with WNBA sneakers right now. Yeah. Like, look at where we are with WNBA sneakers, you know, between, you know. Asia. Asia. Puma. Stewie. Sabrina. It's like, All-Star Weekend, they went crazy. Yeah.
00:16:22
Speaker
And now Angel Reese with Reebok, right? So, the sneakers are looking good. Yeah. the They're finally putting performance. Mm-hmm. They're testing them, right? Yeah. Because back in the day, they didn't test women's kicks, right? Nah, they just put them out.
00:16:34
Speaker
and And let's keep it a buck, right? Let's keep it a buck. Let's keep it a buck. Back then. Mm-hmm. women's sneakers that was that was created, so the signature lines that were created, it was on repurposing men's molds, right?
00:16:48
Speaker
So it wasn't really made for the biomechanics of women. yeah So now we in a space where biomechanics for women for the game played by a woman, right? exactly So shout out to them because if they keep putting out the innovative product, we are gonna get somewhere.
Sneakers for WNBA & Historical Contributions of Women
00:17:05
Speaker
um My only critique is that those pairs stop at a certain size. Right, yeah. they're women 13 size 14 they need to be in that product and you know i'm a big advocate for that so you already know the big girls need their clothes and they need their sneakers then dang it it should be able to like you should be able to get a shoe to everybody like it shouldn't they're like cutting it off or whatever like yo make like three or four you know runs or whatever like it's fine What's crazy is, you know that Fila Disruptor that came out? ah was so over it. I hated it. never I couldn't even look at it.
00:17:40
Speaker
But that sneaker was sold out everywhere. Macy's, like all these department stores, because the size 13, 14 was always there. So, you know, women who...
00:17:51
Speaker
weren't able to participate in popular sneakers were able to participate in that one. yeah So that one was ah was a banger. But these sneakers right now, WNBA, makes sense, right? WNBA players, basketball players, young basketball women need sneakers. Yeah, exactly. Let's go with those sizings. Yeah, let's get it.
00:18:09
Speaker
ah So then you got to sit down with Cheryl Swoops. It's crazy. So then how do what do you take from that? And like where did you move forward after that? I'm sitting in in my creative and observing a lot more and getting to know a lot more of the younger culture, young sneaker culture.
00:18:26
Speaker
So I was able to take like a lot of my past experience. You know, I started collecting sneakers in the late 90s. Right. So as touched on in episode one. Yeah. Oh, well, I think that was technically that was episode 14. Something like that. It was a double-digit number.
00:18:49
Speaker
I started collecting in the 90s. And when I started collecting, I was traveling to buy kicks everywhere. So, you know, I would go... As I got older, now I would go to Netherlands. Mm-hmm.
00:19:02
Speaker
I spent time in the UK for school, you know, so I was around and I was buying sneakers and all those places and in the back I had cousins in the army. So I had a cousin in Japan. I had a cousin in Guam. yeah So it was like, yo, Philippines. Yeah, you was getting all those pieces. Philippines, shout out to Filipinos.
00:19:19
Speaker
Filipinos. They was the first like cultural, like they grouped up and literally was like, we love kicks. Yeah. Yeah. like they were the first to be like, yo, we love kicks. Yeah. When I was heavy in SBs, it was all, all the people that i was talking to were mostly Filipinos.
00:19:32
Speaker
So, yeah. So I used to get sneakers from there and notable stores. So, you know, all of that history and all of that experience, I've never really documented, you know, I've never really put it out there. Yeah.
00:19:45
Speaker
And now after, you know, all those experiences, I've created so much content and pieces, and um which is about to come out. Your big project, big project coming out.
00:19:56
Speaker
noon ah Exclusive, exclusive. So, um...
00:20:02
Speaker
I'm able to verbalize this. Yeah. Because for me, it was braggadocious. Right. So it was just like, ah yeah, I've been to the Netherlands, got my Air Max 90s there. You know, but now I'm able to put it it into perspective with like everything I've learned. And I went back and I did some some retro learning.
00:20:21
Speaker
Do some of my mentors that I wanted to to go over certain parts of like culture with. So like that predates us, right? So 1920s, 1930s. So I wanted to do some um research.
00:20:34
Speaker
So I'm a big nerd. So one thing is super nerd. i Always been just super nerdy and proud of it. So I wanted to do some more digging. So I i spent a lot of time researching, writing, documenting.
00:20:46
Speaker
I also went through my old diaries. So... I have a lot of my my old diaries and my journals. I've journaled my whole life. A lot of entries are sneakers. Yeah. And I talk about sneakers to myself. That's crazy. So I don't i don't know if that's special or not. definitely special. I don't think it is. But, you know, on the spectrum, I don't even know.
00:21:08
Speaker
We spectrum friendly here. No, but like I sit here and I'm like, why did that affect me so much? Like, you know, yeah why did I take that long to lace? Like, I mean, I have some notes of to myself about like lacing for like two hours.
00:21:21
Speaker
Two hours? Yeah, like I had like lacing. Like I was lacing and I was young. So I'm in my room, I'm lacing, I'm chilling listening to music. Like, it's just like, I don't know. That's like meditation. But I write reflect on it now because I'm like, yo, that's crazy because like this has just been things that I've done my whole life. Yeah.
00:21:40
Speaker
So it's super exciting now to put that all together and to see how deeply connected, you know, I know I'm deeply connected, but like to see it in a space where I'm able to like present it.
00:21:51
Speaker
And that's important for me because it stamps our women have always been here. Yeah, of course. right And it stamps that. But when you go online and you look for our history, there's a big gap between 2000 2018. Yeah.
00:22:05
Speaker
and twenty eighteen yeah Huge gap. Yeah. Even in product. Right. I got I own some sneakers that I can't find online. And I'm like, why don't you find these? Like they were women's only sneakers. Like when you talk about like women's air pillars. Yeah. Right. When you talk about like a woman's TL. Yeah. A woman's TN. Yeah. Like throughout history, we've had a lot of women's um exclusives. I also feel like the, mean, because we talked about this, like maybe like the first of two times, but like ah the Dunk Wedge, like that I feel like got erased from history.
00:22:38
Speaker
It did, but it is, it's still one of my, it goes on my top 10 list. It's still on my top 10 list. I love it. But it also it has a small part of of just what you see online is just like the specs for when they were releasing. You see it on nice kicks. You see it on like a few websites. But at the end of the day, before then, like, you know, the corn boris like Air Max 95, the packs for women. Yeah. was going to bring up the one, the boot, the Air Max 95 boot. Yeah. You don't see none of that. And those like boomed in the hoods, you know, they were like super popular. yeah So a lot of that, if if I don't present my collection and these stories, then they're not online. Yeah.
00:23:25
Speaker
So it's like, there's a lot for me to do. So all of this has inspired, you know, what's my legacy going to look like? yeah Right. So what am I leaving behind and what's my legacy?
00:23:36
Speaker
And, you know, my family asked me to like, what do you want to do with your kicks? You know, in the future, like you passing them down to somebody, what are you doing? And I'm like, Maybe they'll go in a museum. Like, I don't know. Like, they're they're still very well maintained because, you know, temperature control.
00:23:50
Speaker
um I coconut oil my cakes a lot. That's crazy. I never knew that one. Yeah. You take leather, you coconut oil, you condition it like skin. Coconut oil is, you know, you take care leather like skin.
00:24:01
Speaker
Synthetics is a little different. Yeah, I'm not a big leather person. I'm a suede person. so Yeah. glue Glue is different. ah The glue is different, but it reacts to it reacts to temperature, you know? So keeping them cool, keeping that not moist, um how you store them is important. So, you know, being that I have, like, right now, i have my oldest sneakers, like...
00:24:22
Speaker
I have 79 in my collection. 79? 1979? 1979. Crazy. have a 85. Then when enter 90s, um i have original reebox from ah eighty five i don't have eighty two so i have free start high some eighty five then when we enter the ninety s uh original kamikazes so rayman's orlando's you know all my reebok shacks you know all of that yeah grant hills so you know i still have all of those yeah and then i have my 90s air max my first foams like you know tim duncan's they look trash though like some of them are are just super um trashed i have them in a way that i can restore them but
00:25:06
Speaker
um I have a lot of like just old sneakers. So that's that's the archives. Yeah. And then, you know, my current sneakers, which is they live with me and they're a hot mess. So now you got to show these off real quick. Oh, yeah. So then I have, you know, little little Swarovski.
00:25:24
Speaker
A little flex. So, you know, i i keep it current. You know, one thing about like being an OG. So I. So you consider yourself an OG or do you think do people call you an OG?
00:25:37
Speaker
I am 42 years old in the sneaker game. I am definitely a veteran and I'm so proud of it. like yeah I've been doing sneakers since the 90s, copping. I'm part of the sport of sneaker collecting. you know I don't play ball, right? I'm i don't play i'm not an athlete. yeah But what I will do is I will get that sneaker by any means necessary. Right. So I'm I'm like a sharpshooter. You ever see a sometimes I post a picture of a shark after my post because I consider myself sneaker jaws. I will take that sneaker and and I'm going to have it. Yeah. Like the Nike app. You look at my phone is not even updated. Yeah. Yeah. I don't a sneakers is not updated. That's not my method. Yeah. It's never going to be my method. I'm in these streets. So when it comes up to like what I do, the art of of getting that sneaker and it's not to be hype because a lot of my sneakers were not hype. And that's what makes my collection like special.
00:26:35
Speaker
But I for me personally, I'm trying to finish collections, right? Yeah. So I'm trying to finish certain um like pandas, right? I love pandas. So I have a lot of panda sneakers. Yeah. Right. Iridescent. I love iridescent. I'm a big iridescent person. I'm going to go across the the, across different brands yeah with iridescent. So there's just things in my collections that I, that I love, you know, bins, gammas, the element packs, fives. Yeah. So a big five, you know, a big five person. So I'm going to go across and I'm going to keep finding,
00:27:09
Speaker
the sneakers that I want and for me that's part of the sport you know freestyles right now freestyle still have Reebok freestyle still has certain collaborations so I'm still gonna go out and look for those specific collabs yeah so now in 2025 it's like As a person who's seasoned, experienced,
Connecting with Younger Generations & Sneaker Culture vs Marketing
00:27:31
Speaker
right?
00:27:31
Speaker
What I'm looking at is I'm looking at a lot of stuff that I have. Yeah. And they're in great condition. So it's like, eh, boring. Right. So I have a difference of opinion. But what I never wanted to be was someone who couldn't connect with the younger generation who likes sneakers. Because I feel like they did that to me.
00:27:47
Speaker
I feel like it was like, oh, you like those? I'm not into those no more. No, yeah. i don't mind those no more. They uncomfortable. That's probably was the biggest problem. And that's what I was like always been like. I'm never going to be that person when it came to that.
00:28:00
Speaker
um Like a big Joe button of sneakers. Yeah. now I don't want to be a sneaker button. But it's funny how I do this now. And I do get i receive pushback on it because I'm always like, yo, sneakers are for everybody. Like, I get it. I'm i'm the type of person that's just like, yes, I have my own set of rules or whatever that I follow. But I'm never going to go to somebody that, yo.
00:28:19
Speaker
My God, you're doing that wrong. Like, I'm never going to like give me an example of what. Like, I remember growing up and people were always like, yo, you don't you're not considered a sneakerhead unless you have a pair of ah black cement threes. oh yeah. ah ah Infrared ninety s ah And then what was the other one?
00:28:40
Speaker
Or like, I think it was maybe like Chicago ones or something like that. And then it was like, I kept being like, yo, I only collect SBs. Like, this this is during my time and when I was collecting SBs, 2006, 2007.
00:28:51
Speaker
And, like, and I was like, this is all I can, like, this is all I want right now. And were like, you ain't no fucking sneakerhead. Get out of here. And I'm like, I'm like, nah. Like, I love the culture, bro. Like, get the fuck out of here. Isn't that crazy how just, like, context changes throughout the years? Yeah. So when I was younger,
00:29:04
Speaker
um You know, I remember one day my aunt was like, ah, telling somebody in my family, don't talk to her. She's just a sneakerhead. Yeah, yeah. Don't talk to her. She's just a sneakerhead. Oh, we going to talk about this today, huh? And it's like, what's that supposed to mean? And it means that I didn't know nothing but sneakers.
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah. So it was derogatory. I had to learn as an old head. I had to learn how to embrace yeah that word. Yeah. And I had to learn how to how to let the new era redefine it for us. And it took everything. And I was in a campaign for for eBay. Yeah. And the campaign was female sneak ahead. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
Yo, it took twisting and turning for me to be a part of that and for me to embrace that. yeah But you know what? That was the time that I did that soul searching. And that was a time that I spoke to so many people yeah about the context of that word in this era and where it came from.
00:29:56
Speaker
After that, I could safely call myself a female sneakerhead. Now I could say it. But what I went through back then... Nah. I mean, this is what like- fought off the word. I was like, nah, don't call me that. I'm gonna fight you. You call me that. Don't talk to me like that. What the with you? You don't throw up your hands. You know, like it was crazy.
00:30:11
Speaker
I had this conversation with, and I was telling my boy this yesterday. I had this conversation um with ah somebody that is a content creator within the Magic gap the Gathering space. Okay. And he was just like, cause I'm telling him, I'm like, yo, you know, like, well, I'm telling him like, hey, I, you know, I mean, I do this thing is called I do a podcast about sneakers. Yeah, well when about sneakers. And then ah he was like, what do you feel like is your biggest hang up with your audience? And I was just like, I think.
00:30:42
Speaker
People in sneakers think they are too cool. Like when it comes to everything about it, it's always just like, it's like, you have to realize when you are a fan of something to the point where in your, I wake up thinking about, yo, oh shoot.
00:30:59
Speaker
I remember fucking Avengers, the Avengers SBs coming out. like i like Like that, like if you wake up thinking about something like that, bro, you're a fucking nerd. Like just accept it. You're a nerd. And and we didn't like nerds growing up.
00:31:13
Speaker
Or we we were taught that it bad thing. Exactly. And the thing is, it's like, yo, now we live in this world that nerds are cool. Like people is running through the hallways with Naruto hands and being like, yo, yo, he's fire. you're always awesome. Like, yeah, it's crazy. What i always say about sneaker culture, right, is that number one, we're too welcoming. Yeah.
00:31:31
Speaker
So it's like, oh, you like kicks? Me too. Oh, yeah, come sit with us. You know, so it's like, and I call it Sweet Valley High. Yeah, yeah. So at the end of the day, we're still a bunch of big old kids, right? And what happens is you have people, and I posted this other of the other day, that buy into culture.
00:31:47
Speaker
Oh, for sure. Yeah. They buy into culture because they just want, you could tell they want a friend. Yeah. You could tell they they never been cool. Now they got some bread and now they want to hang out with us at the table, right? Yeah.
00:31:57
Speaker
Those are the ones that do longevity. You see them bow out. So you see the ones that were once the it people on on the gram no longer there. Why? Because they bought in for a little while, made their friends, yeah found their passions. And you know what? Kudos to them because they came in and they found real people. Because you know what?
00:32:15
Speaker
The authentics and the genuines in the in the in the space, real people. yeah you know So I have friends, many friends who don't do sneakers and don't collect sneakers and ah love them and they've been great people to to get to know. But we're so welcoming and it's just like...
00:32:31
Speaker
There's no I don't think we could define ourselves in one way. So I think we can't we don't have a set of rules that says this is what makes you a sneaker, you know, head, you know, now I don't think so. anymore Right. And what I do is, ah you know, people always ask me how many sneakers you have.
00:32:46
Speaker
And i I don't like answering that question because what happens is I don't want to make people feel less than or more than. Right. So. You know, I had to struggle with that question for a long time. And I'm like, oh, that's like asking a lady her age. Like, what are you saying? yeah Like, you know, that's a personal question for a girl. But, you know, I always now I'm comfortable with it. You know, I'm four digits. I've been in four digits for 15 years already. So it's just like and I downsize all the time. Yeah. And I make a mess again. And it's not glamorous. Right.
00:33:20
Speaker
And I admire these walls. These women, they they have these these content set up. Yeah. white shelves, beautiful, ah nice closets. Light little LEDs in there. Yeah. And I'm like, I got four walls of container store drop fronts yeah with no drop, with no doors on them. Right. Cause they need air. Yeah. I feel like they suffocate. So they need air. Yeah.
00:33:43
Speaker
Then I build four walls of boxes in front of them. ahha Right. I'm up to the third one right now. So now, unless I really remember and I got to look at the back wall to remember what section we in. ah So I'm like, all right, that's Diodora.
00:33:58
Speaker
All right. So they're in there, but they're newer, but not that new. So they're in the second. Yeah. So here I am playing Tetris. You know, moving my sneakers around. And, you know,
00:34:10
Speaker
Every space I've moved, you know, multiple times and I make bigger space for myself. All it does is just make room for me to do this. Yeah. Right. And mind you, I give away sneakers. i you know, my best friends come over and I'm like, here, I got two pairs for you, two pairs for you. Yeah.
00:34:27
Speaker
And then, I last year I gave to the women's shelter about 200 pairs of sneakers. And I'm just like, take that. And they were like, we wish it was multiple sizes. It's just like one size range. yeah um But I still gave those away. And, you know, my my mom, I used to give her bunch of sneakers, my cousins. Like, so I'm always just getting rid of stuff. But I accumulate again. And I just wish that I wish that I can make my space more glamorous. But I'm OK now with a little bit of imperfection.
00:34:56
Speaker
because of me Because what I see in in the space now, ah especially TikTok, what TikTok introduced was just like. Cookie cutter. Yeah. Being real and authentic, but not not where we were on Instagram, which was like production. Yeah. Full production. Yeah.
00:35:12
Speaker
So grateful for that. No, yeah. I forgot the initial question. No, you were saying about... ah We always i do. I do, because I want to i want to expand more on, like I want you to expand more, a little bit more on um the acceptance of everybody, ah especially within the space. You'll be wanting to get into culture, and it's crazy. Yeah, this this is what, this year, I've said this several times, like this year, this is all about, like I want people to explain to ah to the listeners what culture is, because I do feel like
00:35:43
Speaker
And this this has been my journey this year because I do feel like we we're in this world of 2025. Nobody really understands what culture is. Everybody thinks everything's culture now. And so... It's so true. yeah and Yeah. I think there's a big difference, number one, within real life culture, right? And what does that include?
00:36:02
Speaker
And then what we see online every day, yeah right? People think because they participate online, they're part of culture. And... I think, number one, you have to be part of a real life movement, right? We're part of a movement, right? And we have the opportunity to, I don't know, redefine the world through this movement. There's so many of us. yeah And where people forget is there's a big difference between sneaker culture and sneaker marketing. Yes.
00:36:32
Speaker
Right. Because i personally, and ah I've been called an elitist, a snob about this. i don't necessarily think that some actions and some content that we do online is ah for the better and betterment of the culture. Right. So I think that certain actions online is just for sneaker promotion and sneaker marketing.
00:36:55
Speaker
And I think that a lot of content creators In order to pump out content on that algorithm, right? In order to post every day, you have to accept the free sneaker.
00:37:06
Speaker
You have to accept free things, right? In order to get more work. yeah And that has taken people that really love sneakers and turned them into ah maybe a watered-down version of of what they would be in the culture if they weren't trying to pump out content every five minutes. yeah And for me, I think that there's a lot of people who are good at it, right? So I have some french friends that are amazing at...
00:37:33
Speaker
being able to take this content and take these pieces and take these sneakers, make it authentic to themselves and actually put out something that makes people happy, right? Because when we go online, we we we go on our phones, we want to be happy. We don't want to be sad.
00:37:47
Speaker
So i think they do a great job with that. But I think that now there's a fine line between that marketing line and then Culture and who's driving culture, right? yeah I think the brands are driving a lot of culture right now, right? yeah Because the only time you really group up is at a release. The only time you group up is at an event.
00:38:06
Speaker
And it's like that in itself is bad because that we're allowing the brands to really dictate what we're celebrating, right? So we're celebrating a certain sneaker. We're celebrating a moment.
00:38:24
Speaker
They capture the content. And now that's what the image of sneaker culture looks like. Right. Yeah. So if we define culture. Right. ah What defines a culture is your own holidays, your own foods, your own language. Right.
00:38:36
Speaker
Folklore. How you pass that down. Right. Yeah. We have that. Yeah. So, you know, if I'm like, yo, that's dope. Is that, you know, OG or v yeah VS or VVDS? Like, you know, what is that, right? So VNDS. So, yeah you know, if I'm talking, another sneaker is going to know what I'm saying, right? Exactly.
00:38:55
Speaker
So we have our own language. And then Air Max Day, it's our holiday, right? Qualifies us. And there's other holidays. people They're just not as big, yeah right? You got Reeboks Day, you know, 5411, 54.
00:39:08
Speaker
So there's a bunch of holidays that we have. And then there's folklore, right? There's legacy, there's stories. So that we pass down qualifies us as a culture. I told this to Clark Kemp because he never liked calling us a culture. He was a community. yeah And he was like, hu give you a little, I'll give you a little, a little, little kind of point for that. It was like little, but it it ain't. It's a culture. I hated that he said that it wasn't a culture because he. R.I.P. to Clark. Yo, R.I.P. to Clark. But um I always thought, you know, sneaker culture is a thing mainly because of like in order to have culture, you do have to have community. But community comes first. yeah And then the community builds the culture. i mean, we sliced off a hip hop.
00:39:51
Speaker
yeah Right? So we sliced... Subgenre. Subgenre. We were a subgenre of hip-hop. And then we grew. Yeah. i i Actually, to be honest, I think i think sneakers are more a subculture of black culture than it is of hip-hop. Because like I do understand that, like, yo, pull up with the Adidas, with the fat the fat... Like, I get that. But it was also kind of just...
00:40:11
Speaker
You want to go there? You want to go there? Why you be wanting to go there? ivi I say but it's more black culture because hip hop, hip hop, right? Yes. Five elements, all of that. Right. True. But none of the five elements is staying fresh.
00:40:29
Speaker
So staying fresh is black culture. Right. Urban culture is is what. birth sneakers, right? yeah The urban culture. Yeah. Right. Let's let's pinpoint that. Let's bring that back to New York. Right.
00:40:42
Speaker
So we get we have hip hop. We have the emergence of hip hop. Yeah. Hip hop has its elements. DJing, b-boying. So now you have certain players in that in that paradigm. You have sneakers that are needed. Right. The b-boys need sneakers. Yeah.
00:40:56
Speaker
The b-boys knew which sneakers were good for spinning, freezing, which ones need attraction, which ones you couldn't move with. Yeah. Yeah. So if we go back to like Run DMC, right?
00:41:09
Speaker
They wore the Adidas with the no laces and the tongue straight up. yeah That's part of prison culture, right? That comes from prison culture. That's straight from the streets, right? yeah Sneaker culture comes straight from them streets.
00:41:22
Speaker
So they warm up. But now at the same time, you have the Puerto Ricans and sneakers right in New York. Yeah. They wore fat laces. Right. yeah Right. They took them off the Pumas, starched them, ironed them yeah and threw them on crispy. Right.
00:41:37
Speaker
Now the Puerto Ricans will go and they would change the colors up to match their fits. Right. Right. yeah They will go and draw on them. They will put the Puerto Rican flags on them. That was the very early start of customization. Yeah. Right.
00:41:49
Speaker
So there's so much. Then you have the, of my bad, but you have the Clydes coming in. Right. Even before that. right Yeah. The idea of wearing clean white sneakers, that's an OCD obsession that Puerto Ricans had with like crispy white. So back then it was like you had to clean your sneakers every single time you walked out the house with them. Right. That was a very it's documented. It's very early culture.
00:42:14
Speaker
Then you also had um with with that culture, you also had just the difference of. two communities that were really at the same time pioneering cleanliness of sneakers pioneering customization pioneering all these different things at the same time it gave sneaker culture its vibrancy yeah right so now you have the b-boys uh historically you know uh the puerto ricans right they were the crazy legs and the rock steady crew yeah right they were out there just doing their thing with um testing out different sneakers
00:42:54
Speaker
And as we move forward now, we have more people participating. Right. Right. So now we have more options. Right. Pro kids. Pro kids lasted way longer than they should because of of Rickens. Right. That was a ah sneaker of choice.
00:43:11
Speaker
So we had this culture that was already starting to to flow and we had this movement. Yeah. In New York. The plugs, the drug plugs yeah were the Spanish dudes. Right. Right.
00:43:22
Speaker
So those were the first dudes that was really outside looking fresh because at the time, and when I mean fresh, I mean what we know now as sportswear. Right. Right. So back in the day before in the 60s and 70s, you had the players, you know, the suits, you know, the Frank White. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you had them outside. Big gold dookie chain. Yeah. so you had them like that.
00:43:43
Speaker
Uh huh. But when it came up to sportswear, you had the OGs in the paper suits with the fanny packs, you know, with the big with the big knots of money inside. So it was very early culture that we saw, like, the plugs were were the Spanish as they were bringing the shit in from the from the islands. Yeah.
00:44:00
Speaker
And they were starting to ah birth this look of being ah Tony Montana, right? yeah So you Tony now, you got the Rolex, you got the the the jewels, and now the aesthetic that we know today that's been embraced by rap, right? So this is all New York history, right?
00:44:21
Speaker
And this is where a sneaker culture is embedded in. right And it's super layered and it's a super careful conversation.
00:44:31
Speaker
It's a super cat it's a careful conversation and it's so layered because we don't want to take the culture and fully embed it in street and drug and and the truths of where this culture stem from. right So we just call it black culture.
00:44:46
Speaker
And to me, it's 100%...
00:44:50
Speaker
to layer all those things and just put it to blacks. It's like, no, let other people take the fall with that too. Right. So it's like, let, let the Ricans take the fall for their hot mess in this. Right.
00:45:00
Speaker
Because it's so layered with even how sneakers traveled. Right. You know, you have foams in New York. Call them foams. You got foams in DMV, right? Dopes.
00:45:11
Speaker
They were called dopes because it was the dope boys that was wearing them. And if you ever had a cousin or somebody that was older than you and you hear them, I'm going OT, you know where they were part of that life, right? Yeah.
00:45:22
Speaker
So that's how sneakers were traveling up the I-95 and fashion in general. The Nike boots, you know, I'm going to give DMV theirs with the Nike boots because I was there in the 90s and I seen it.
00:45:33
Speaker
yeah And I was like, ew.
00:45:36
Speaker
Ew. And then I came out here and and then I was ah your Harlem. I saw Harlem in them. Why Harlem was in them? Because Harlem had them boys. Right. right So Harlem had those boys. So it was traveling. Yeah.
00:45:47
Speaker
So the very early parts of sneaker culture, there's so much that ah modern America, um our current brands will not glorify, don't understand, don't know.
00:46:01
Speaker
And especially the young people that's being hired in these brands definitely don't don't know anything about like the origins. So when you know people are online and like, who started this trend? Who started this trend?
00:46:13
Speaker
Drug trade. Yeah. From the jump. From the jump. So it's big conversations in there. And you know each of these topics we could spend an hour on. For sure. Because there's so many details in it that it's crazy. But I used to like to pop out when I was um younger. i used to like to pop out.
00:46:30
Speaker
If somebody was going out of town, I'm like, where y'all going? oh we're going to VA. a I'm going where y'all. No, you're not. And I'm like, yeah, I want to go because I want to go and shop and I want to go cop some kicks. And back then it wasn't like now, like regional sneakers, regional slang. Yes. Right. Regional names for sneakers. Yeah.
00:46:47
Speaker
Like in London, I was, ah what was it? The 90s. They call them 110s. And I'm like, they're like, oh, ohlthough you you bought, you did you find those 110s? And I'm like,
00:46:59
Speaker
What's a 110? I'm a sneaker head. I know every sneaker. What's a 110? I don't know what a 110 is. It's an Air Max 90. Really? Because it costs 110. Oh. ah So it's like our 5411. Yeah. So it's like you go everywhere, you got regional slang. Yeah. And you have you have different um sneakers that were popping in those places. So it's like...
00:47:19
Speaker
Now it's not everything. I've been saying it sneakers or sneaker culture is homogenized because there's no specific. You know, you can't go to a specific area and be like, oh, yeah, rockin these anymore. It's it's more just like everybody's just like, oh, what's the hottest trend? I'm on the cheapest place where I used to find foam sitting was in Miami.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's probably too hot. It's probably way too hot to rock that shit down there. miss foams in Miami. I used to cop them easy. But it was just like, you know, is certain regions, you know, Chicago, mics.
00:47:51
Speaker
I never called them mics. You called them mics? Hell no. Nah, we didn't call them mics. So it's like Chicago, they call them mics. yeah um Uptowns, we know them as uptowns. And then you got G-Fazos. el In Chicago, they used to like mids.
00:48:05
Speaker
Mids. I love mids. I'm a mids guy. they It wasn't an Air Force One. They didn't even acknowledge that part. It was just mids. It was just mids. It was just like mids. Oh, those mids. And I'm like, no, I'm not wearing those. you're, heard you. So it's like, it was so regional, you know, from the product to to the slang. And that's what defined us as a culture. Yeah. So that's why everybody argues L.A., you know, down south, New York, Chicago. They're like, no, we had it first. No, we had it first.
00:48:32
Speaker
No, we all had our own regional slang, regional kicks. yeah And we had ah a culture that came from the hood. Right, exactly. And, you know, we ain't have shit. Yeah.
00:48:43
Speaker
Well, we have a sneakers and how we look. Yeah. So this was this was currency. It was a statement. Yeah, social currency for sure. Absolutely. So this is what told the world, yo, We part of ah of being ah fresh, fly, dope, whatever you want to call it. We're part of this world. Right.
00:49:00
Speaker
And we are also getting out of here. Right. We're also working towards something. We got goals. Right. yeah So we making a statement that we we are about something. We got some bread.
00:49:10
Speaker
And that's what it all was about. So everywhere you go regionally, they had their own names. They had their own stuff. When certain sneakers died here. Early 2000s. Air Max was, it was quiet for Air Max. Yeah, for sure.
00:49:24
Speaker
97s, it was quiet for Air Max. Quiet, super quiet. But not in Europe. Not in Europe. the ah The girls in the Netherlands, Amsterdam, over there, they were in the Dutch Wovens. Yeah.
00:49:35
Speaker
And they were in every 90, 95 you could find. Right? ah Same thing like Japan. 97s have always been alive. Oh, for sure. In Japan. Big time. So now when we was here, but we...
00:49:49
Speaker
American women are known for basketball sneakers. Right. So when we look at the whole map, the global map of like women and sneakers and what's lit where basketball sneakers is it.
00:50:02
Speaker
But, you know, I always say American black culture is the most glorified, the most wanted, the most we've influenced the most and in the whole world. Oh, for sure. You know, present so shout out to America. let's yeah Shout out to America.
00:50:20
Speaker
Because we we definitely really talked about culture. Do you feel like I'm going to ask you this. Do you feel like and people now understand or like do you feel like the people that are in sneakers now really want to understand what sneaker culture is or do you think they're just part of it
00:50:42
Speaker
I think it's a personal experience for everybody. yeah And everybody ingest it and digest it a certain way. So I think that for people who want education, right, and they want to learn more, they are.
00:50:55
Speaker
Not everybody does, and that's okay. I think this idea that everybody has to define themselves in one way, just it got to go. It's definitely yeah it. It got to go. Because at this point, it's like... One of my favorite collections is all-Converse collection. yeah Somebody who has like every freaking Converse ever.
00:51:11
Speaker
It's beautiful. It looks amazing. The passion the person has for that sneaker is amazing. But it's like, does is that person not a sneakerhead because you're not diverse? Is that person not a respected sneakerhead because you don't know anything about any other sneaker?
00:51:26
Speaker
You don't have a Michael Jordan. like It's just like gatekeeping. It goes back to gatekeeping. which Which I always say that this is what it's based out of. Like... In Sweet Valley High, back to Sweet Valley High, yeah right? The seniors, the super seniors and the seniors, they got to give some grace. And if we now really if we're not leading, right? If yeah the leaders, and I'm going to use that word you know strongly, not loosely, like the internet likes to use it. Ugh.
00:51:53
Speaker
If the leaders are not leading through mentoring, right? um And I mentor a lot of younger sneaker heads. I got have a sneaker office. The girls come through. ah We work on projects. We do all kinds of things. We talk.
00:52:09
Speaker
And if people are not mentoring, you know, and giving game to this generation, how do they know? How do they know what sneakers they supposed to start off with? How do they know how to feel their comfort and find their comfort? Right. yeah So I always say, like, you know, you have brand loyalists.
00:52:26
Speaker
I think I'm the most versatile female sneakerhead. For sure. Like in terms of like exploring every single brand. Right. So I have 50% of my collection lives with Nike and Jordan, but 50% is evenly Deodora, Reebok, Adidas, Saucony, Alisi, just every other freaking brand, Psy Collective, just like all the things. Right.
00:52:49
Speaker
So when I sit there and I talk to, you know, younger people about sneakers, it's like, yo, you know what? Explore different brand. yeah That don't feel good to you. Explore this one. Know your sizing, right? Know how to move in these in these different sneakers.
00:53:02
Speaker
Be open. yeah Once you try it and you don't like it, then you can firmly say, it i don't like it. Yeah. But if you already just like going over hype, right? If you're looking at hype or you're looking at these sneakers and like, oh, I can't hit on the app.
00:53:15
Speaker
If that's your only method, then you already lost. Yeah. So it's just like, I think there's game we can give. And I think that gatekeeping is a big problem because some people think that there needs to be rules to this. And there really is no rules, but do you love this?
00:53:31
Speaker
Right? Do you fucks with it? That's literally, that's the only rule there should be. Do you love this? you love this? Right. Are you for real, for real about this? Exactly. Or is you out here just trying to make friends or are you out here trying to do business? Yeah. And if you're trying to do business, there's nobody knocking you. i There's so many people that crossed from other, um,
00:53:50
Speaker
from other industries, yeah right? As influencers, put themselves in sneaker culture and been super successful because brands want to use that engagement, right? right And they want to open up their audience.
00:54:03
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with that. I'm a businesswoman. um That's what I do. And I think that it's important that we as a community separate community from business. yeah and And that's a real strong point.
00:54:18
Speaker
But I don't think there's not many people I've been posting. Oh, oh my God. I've been posting on my on my socials like the
Monetizing Hobbies vs Personal Satisfaction
00:54:25
Speaker
whole. i don't know if you've seen a lot of these people, a lot of these like bigger content creators or whatever. Like there's this guy that keeps posting about ah do not monetize your hobby.
00:54:35
Speaker
You don't have to monetize your hobby. And so you can just make your hobby your hobby. And I feel like we've 100% believe what he's saying of just like, I feel like we've come into this digital age where if you're into something, you got to make a video about it. you got to show everybody that you love it. And then if you show everybody you love it, then you can make money off of it. And then you like, it's just like,
00:54:55
Speaker
You can just love it. If you feel pressured. I mean, if people feel pressured to do that because people feel pressure feel pressured to make money. Yeah. Right. It's like my niece. My niece has a doll collection. She collects the Monster High dolls. Shout out Sophie.
00:55:08
Speaker
So she has fan. Big fan. She has an incredible collection of like dolls. Monster High dolls. for Years from a little girl. Uh huh. So she doesn't have that posted.
00:55:20
Speaker
She doesn't have it online because it's personal to and that's how she interprets it, right? yeah She hasn't made the videos for them. She dresses them. She plays with them. That's just something that's personal to her.
00:55:31
Speaker
So it's all about how you connect, yeah right? Not everybody's going to connect. Putting that into context with sneakers, not everyone's going to connect with sneakers in a way they want to present out. I definitely don't.
00:55:42
Speaker
I'm one of these people, like as many sneakers as I cop per week, Some of them make it to the gram. Yeah, some of them I'm still geeking and i'm I'm I'm doing weird things with them in the house like lacing them I have one in the kitchen one in the room and I'm still like showing people on the phone as I call them I'm making them talk i'm doing dumb things.
00:56:01
Speaker
So it's like it's personal So some people you know what they love to speak and they love content and they love creation and for them. That's it I have a problem with if you're using that as a motive for something. Right. So if you're using sneakers as a way to say, hey, like resellers, love resellers, got no issue or resellers. Resellers, half of my collection, if it wasn't for them, if it wasn't for how they hold me down on lines and, you know, through the years, I wouldn't have it But there are some resellers that know nothing.
00:56:32
Speaker
They're not for the people, not for the culture, not for nothing. They come in. I want to buy a sneaker. I want to go. That's it. yeah With the intention. And it's just like there's people in sneaker, you know, ah that come into the community. You enter the community.
00:56:43
Speaker
You just want to do something and go. Yeah. You have no. You're not trying to add to this space. You're not trying to do anything. Right. So and we've had that, you know. I feel like that's more, I would say 60% of people that come into this are like that too. There was an incident that I think it was like ah around the holidays that I felt really strongly about.
00:57:04
Speaker
It was a a woman who who was critiquing and criticizing women in our community. Yes. Right? And it fucked me up, to be quite honest.
00:57:16
Speaker
And, you know, I had to have people tell me to simmer down because... One of the things is we work so hard, all the women, to to be cool with each other. For sure. That's not easy. People forget at our core, all these unboxing and fit check girls, we all from the hood. Yeah, yeah. Right? We all from the hood. we all Our parents came from the hood.
00:57:37
Speaker
We are all aggressive women. Mm-hmm. Right. Sneaker women are are are not the softest. Right. and And that's because, you know, this is a male dominated space. It always has been. We understand that. Right.
00:57:52
Speaker
It's a psychology for us. So we worked really hard to be cool with each other, to get over some of the cattiness. hmm. To work on accepting each other's differences. Yeah. Right.
00:58:04
Speaker
For the sake of the fact that we're sisters and and that we've experienced the same things. Right. yeah We experienced being called tomboys. We experienced being looked down at. We experienced not feeling sexy. We experienced just all kinds of different things.
00:58:19
Speaker
And to have somebody from all the way outside the culture. outside of the in community, not understand this about us and try to disrupt our peace, yeah as you see, all of us is going to show out. For sure.
00:58:34
Speaker
You know, because we're going to protect our own. And one of the things that made me, you know, just upset about that is that the brands and the agencies that want to fill a room up with women to take pictures,
00:58:47
Speaker
Have no idea if that room even gets along. So and we in the community, when I see certain pictures and I'm like, they put who and who and what. And I'm like, oh, hell no.
00:58:58
Speaker
The authenticity just went out the window. Right. Yeah. Because one of the things and and it's a hard space to navigate because as a brand. you know, you think your ears are to the street, but you know, none of the girls and even men, you don't want to turn off brands with some of our catty shit, right? that means sure You know, on this side of town is loving the hip hop.
00:59:18
Speaker
We're going to call it sneakers, loving sneakers, right? And on that side of the world, you know, when you're brand facing, you're prompt, you are professional. Yeah. So, you know, we don't we don't cross those lines. So I think it's it's been wild that, you know, to see certain things that don't kind of like, ah they don't correlate from from what we do in real life to to what's being done with the brands. And I think the brands give voices to influencers. For sure.
00:59:47
Speaker
So it's name. That are not authentic to to the culture. But in in return... the brands are not getting a return on their investment. They're not getting the return on investment because can that person sell a sneaker? Is their audience even looking at them for a sneaker? right Does their audience even care? And when we think there's a lot of us, right? It's like super sneaker heads, you know people that love sneakers, but we really sit on on top of you know on the algorithm. We really sit on top and and the visibility that that we have.
01:00:19
Speaker
And is more than what what a lot of other industries have with their top influencers. Yeah, for sure. you know yeah And i think if we use them responsibly, you know, in a way to not only push sneaker culture, but if we moved it, like we can move the needle in politics. We can move the needle with certain things.
01:00:39
Speaker
I think there's a lot that we can do besides just like sneakers. But in that example with, with you know, Homegirl and trying to disturb our peace, i was so proud of the women oh 100 i'm proud of just how everybody just everybody that stood up for everybody else i'm proud of the how the women stood up for everybody else but i felt the guilt yeah and the guilt that i felt is like there was a comment about women there's no women who can speak sneakers oh my god that pissed me off so bad and the first thing i thought was like
01:01:14
Speaker
Huh? Yeah. Fucking do donuts. Yeah. Donuts around dudes. Like, you want to talk tech? Yeah. Like, let's get into tech. Like, what you want to... You want to talk about a full Nike Zoom unit, partial unit on which sneaker, right? Which ankle break... Yeah.
01:01:30
Speaker
on what sneaker on a lebron 9 or we want to talk about the 15 and which feature had more stability what sneaker has the most lateral movement right so you want to go into that like between tech culture like i felt guilty because i'm like yo do donuts around around shorty but i'll do donuts around a lot of dudes too for sure yeah and that i felt a certain guilt in that because it's like You do have to be more front facing. I'm not outside on the front lines.
01:01:59
Speaker
So I was like, you know what? Lesson to me, right? and And big takeaway for that because I felt so strongly about that. People had to talk me off of like different ledges with that because I was blaming brands.
01:02:14
Speaker
Yeah. I was blaming brands and I was blaming media for highlighting this. Yeah. And I was blaming them because at the end of the day, I think there's a lot of sensationalism.
01:02:24
Speaker
and
Sneaker Culture in Media & Conclusion
01:02:25
Speaker
Yeah. That is highlighted. And but that's that's where every big, you know, hip hop, this sensationalism TV. So I think just like everything else, there's a lot of entertainment and sneaker culture.
01:02:36
Speaker
And I think we're in the early stages of of that. yeah And we're going to see a lot more of that in like media. Yeah. So. Well, perfectly said. I don't know. There's nothing else I can follow over with that. Let everybody know where to find you.
01:02:48
Speaker
You know, Kixi Jixi on Instagram, Kixi Jixi on TikTok. I'm starting to talk my crap on TikTok too. You got to do that. Thank you for having me today. I mean, you asked.
01:03:00
Speaker
i was not even ready for any of these questions. But I'm so glad that we got to talk so candidly about all these things. For sure. And yo, this show is popping. Let's talk about it. I'm trying. You fancy now. I'm one of the fancy people. Oh God, not fancy.
01:03:16
Speaker
And you know where to find me. I am who is awesome. Also all social medias follow the podcast and my first kicks pod. Please join the Patreon. It will help me out. ah You know, you know, trying to grow this. And speaking of which, I'm going to toss it to myself as I do the Patreon shout out. So peace.
01:03:32
Speaker
Thank you again for tuning into this week's episode with Jixi. We really talked a lot about culture and sneakers and how she is making an impact. And you can make an impact on this podcast by becoming a Patreon subscriber by signing up to patreon.com slash myfirstkicks.
01:03:49
Speaker
It will go a long way, and you will get a shout-out at the end of every upcoming episode. Much like these fine folks. So, shout-out to Adam Neustadar, Ross Adams, Derek Fresh Poetic, Adam Butler, and new Patreon subscriber, JustCG.
01:04:06
Speaker
I also just want to appreciate a lot of y'all that just tune in each week and tap in with me across the socials. It really means a lot to me. as I try to add more to the culture that I hold near and dear to my heart.
01:04:22
Speaker
So I always make sure you will not be empty handed, especially on Patreon. I got some behind the scenes coming and we are just five patrons away from the first ever Patreon exclusive episode.
01:04:37
Speaker
Also, If you have any suggestions of what more you'd like to see, or even just like what more you'd only like to see on Patreon exclusively, like someone asked for more out of the box episodes, you can just directly ask there because I'm always looking for suggestions of how to build the Patreon out more and how to build the podcast out more.
01:05:04
Speaker
So if you stuck around even after this ending, which is, I appreciate you. You can see more episodes with these two videos here or subscribe to the YouTube.
01:05:16
Speaker
And as always, wear your kicks. Peace.