Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Kenneth Myers aka Mr Unloved1s
76 Plays4 years ago
This week we speak with the welcoming Kenneth Myers aka Mr Unloved1s. He tells us about the shoe that got him into becoming a Jordan 1 archivist. We also get the scoop on the upcoming Jordan 1 Chicago set to release this month. He also talks about how he got in the information game. Kenneth also gives us a deeper look as to what sneakers do to our mental health. We also get a look into his support system and what it was like getting sneakers in North Carolina. Great listen ahead so be sure to leave a review and share it with your people.
Got a my kicks story? email us at myfirstkickspod@gmail.com our IG is @myfirstkickspod
Where to find Kenneth:
Socials: @Mr_Unloved1s
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Unlvd1
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/myfirstkicks
Ify's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/ifynwadiwe
Music by Gordon Bombay: https://thegordonbombay.bandcamp.com/
(Cop something and tell him we sent ya!)
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Sneaker Love
00:00:10
Speaker
What's up, everyone? Welcome back to my first kicks. This is episode 68. And boy, do we have another banger for you this week as we welcome Kenneth Myers, aka Mr. Unloved Ones, to the podcast. We get into everything. And on this week's episode, we even get to talk about how he gets to see kicks early.
00:00:34
Speaker
And where his love for the Jordan 1 came from. It's a dope, dope convo. So I'm not going to jump into what I'm getting my hopes for this week. I mean, I'm definitely not going to talk about how bad I want the concept Air Max ones that are dropping this Friday, this Saturday, not Friday. But I will say, since this drops on the 25th, don't forget that Saturday is the 26th, which means Air Max day.
Air Max Day Reflections
00:01:04
Speaker
I don't have many Air Maxes, but I do love a good pair. I mean...
00:01:10
Speaker
I'm still on the search for a pair of Air Max 95 stashes in decent condition and not a bank breaker. So, I mean, if anybody sees a pair, let me know, put it in front of me. I might be buying them as also, as I try to buy an old pair this year, that might, that may be counting. That may be the one I'm looking for or to will be buying this year.
00:01:38
Speaker
And you know, I will be making an effort to wear a pair, or hopefully buy a pair of Air Maxes. And I hope you do too. I mean, I know it's a, you know, like a Hallmark holiday. I don't know, I guess.
00:01:54
Speaker
Hallmark holiday, but but for sneakers, but I think it's pretty cool And I think you know Nike does a good job of putting out these 326 air forces air forces air maxes out and I implore or push people to just buy a pair because they're just one of a kind We didn't get one last year So I really wanted I really want one of the three that are dropping on Saturday this year. So I hope to get them
00:02:24
Speaker
But on to where you can find Kenneth. You can find him on all socials at Mr. Underscore, Unloved Ones, that's U-N-L-O-V-E-D, the number one, and a S at the end. And of course, I'm gonna be leaving his link tree in the description of this podcast, so you can just hit that, hit that, find everything that he's pushing there.
00:02:48
Speaker
It's pretty cool. A lot of cool stuff he's got on there. And you know where to find me. I am at Who Is Haas on all social medias. Don't forget to follow Ify at Ify Nwadwe on all social medias as well.
Listener Engagement and Podcast Theme
00:03:03
Speaker
Due to scheduling conflicts, and it's mostly my fault because I'm going to see Glassjaw, who we talked about on Travis Riley's episode, Glassjaw. I saw them
00:03:16
Speaker
The time this recording I saw them Wednesday. I'm gonna see them tonight. So I'm I had to record this Without if he so my bad that's on me schedules But also don't forget to follow the podcast at my first kicks pod and send us a list of people you'd like to see on this podcast or if any main thing just hit them up and tell them you'd like to see them on a
00:03:39
Speaker
our podcast and we'll hopefully it will help us get them on. It would be very cool. Especially if you want to just hear their stories and want to hear this great conversation that we have about sneakers and other stuff as you know how this podcast does y'all listeners.
00:04:00
Speaker
And also, don't forget, you can also be a part of this podcast by sending us your stories to our email, which is myfirstkickspotatgmail.com. That's right, myfirstkickspotatgmail.com. Also, Spotify is now allowing ratings, ratings only. Last week I said ratings and reviews, but then I try to leave ourselves
00:04:22
Speaker
a review and I didn't see a box come up. So I think it's only ratings. So please drop a rating if you're listening on there or wherever you're listening and they allow for like a rating or a review, please leave it. It helps us move forward in people who are looking for sneaker podcasts or not even the sneaker podcast, just a general conversation podcast because even though it says my first kicks
00:04:49
Speaker
That's just the through line question. If people are asking you what podcasts you listen to, tell them my first kicks and tell them it starts off as a sneaker question, but it goes anywhere from there. All right, cool. But onto this week's episode with Kenneth Myers.
Kenneth Myers Introduction
00:05:19
Speaker
Hey Kenneth, welcome to the podcast. Hey, how's it going? Yo, it's a pleasure to have you on. You know, your page is definitely one of my go-tos for any info on ones. Like when I first saw about the rebellionnaires, it was through you. So I was just like, let me just try to like, you know, let me try to get you on here. Thank you, man. I appreciate it.
00:05:43
Speaker
Go by the name Kenneth Myers. Everybody knows me on social media by Mr. Lovebonds of all socials. I am a Jordan Warren archivist. Outside of that, I am a writer, husband, father, and army veteran, and then avid sneaker head of course.
00:06:07
Speaker
Yeah, yo, thank you for your service. You know, got to get that in there. But yeah, I mean, your page is so dope for once.
00:06:16
Speaker
Like, I can't stress it enough for everybody who is currently listening. Make sure you stop the, no, after that fact, don't stop the podcast. Just move over onto IG and then just follow Mr. Unloved Ones. It's Mr. Underscore. Unloved. Unloved, yeah. So make sure you give that a follow. I always got to contribute three people to my page, right?
Inspiration and Sneaker Insights
00:06:44
Speaker
Chop Man Bostic.
00:06:45
Speaker
uh mjo dan 23 and then my wife um mj uh mjo he uh he gave me the idea to pretty much well he sparked the idea of me doing the whole archiving thing expecting the history and stuff he had made a diagram of jordan 1's back in like 2012 which was 13 and like was throwing all the hydrates all the bottles
00:07:12
Speaker
And I asked him, I was like, when did they start calling Jordan 1 Mids? He's like, I went, that's a good question. I don't know. And I started digging and digging and I found the answer. But like, I had to go back, I had to go all the way back and see when the first mid released and then, you know, when did they bring back the highs and all this good stuff. So old lineage that sparked where my page is now. So I thank him.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yo, shout out to Emjo. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out. Cause there's been a lot of, for the past, like, I think three or four years or something like that, people have just been like, yo, if you rocking mids, you whack. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
00:07:55
Speaker
So there's a ton of debate on that. And I mean, we've even talked about it on here on this podcast. And I have my reservations on mids. And it's literally one thing versus what everybody else is like, oh, the color waves and all that. All right, we get it. You don't gotta be all uptight about it like that. But for me, it's just I've never...
00:08:16
Speaker
When Avery Gentry was the main person for Jordans, and then they sliced off themselves into having their Jordan brand be its own thing, they started just taking out all the Nike airs from everything.
00:08:34
Speaker
And then the Jordan one ended up having this big tongue with the Jordan symbol on it, right? And then from then on, I was just like, I'm never copping a pair of those ever. And that's always been my, that's always been my resistance to buying a pair of mids. And Gentry, we trust, right?
00:08:59
Speaker
He went out on a good note. Last year was his last year with the brand as a whole. He retired. He gave you all of his classics in one year. From the Thunders to the Cool Gray 11s, Cool Gray 4s, all of that.
00:09:18
Speaker
He went out on a high note how he wanted to. But yeah, as far as like the bids and the branding, yeah, that was him. Whole lifestyle branding and how he wanted things to go. So when they brought back the ones in 2001, they didn't bring back Mikey Air for a reason. They did the jump, man. They wanted to keep the branding. And of course, they brought it back as O.D., the MJ, going back to the league. You know, he joined the Wizards the same
00:09:50
Speaker
colors for you know the wizardry anyway yeah uh gentry's whole marketing thing it's like yo we're gonna make them want this before we get back to his whole plan wasn't supposed to be until 2015 and they did it a year or two early which was like 2013 they turned around and did the soon as he left we got like a year back yeah like doing this he went to Nike they they slapped it right on everything
00:10:18
Speaker
Yeah,
Community and Sneaker Releases
00:10:19
Speaker
I think like it's it's so iconic on such that on that shoe itself, right? And I mean, we're gonna jump into the question also very soon But like it's iconic on on like the tongue of the one it's iconic on the back of the three, right? Like what you Yeah, and and I think like
00:10:39
Speaker
It kind of alienated me because like I really wanted the FireRed 3s for a while when I was when I was coming up and collecting kicks on my GameStop paycheck for like pennies on a dollar. Right. And so I was I saw those the FireRed 3s come out. I think it was it was a 2013 or something like that. 2013, 2015. The last time that they came out. Not the last time. Is it the last time they came out?
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, because they're coming back this year.
00:11:11
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And and I was like, oh, I need these. I need these. And then I always remember the Nike Air on the back. And then I went and I was like, oh, no, no, I saw somebody wearing them. I was like, yo, like, why is there why is the Jordan symbol taking up the back? Like, what happens to the Nike Air? And then I got that whole spiel about how the gentry Jordan. I was just like, oh, man. But I still got them. Yeah.
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of you ain't gonna knock it, you got it? They'll collect it. Yeah, that's a fact. So yeah, let's jump into the question. We ask everybody each week, and that is, what's your first kicks? What's that first pair of sneakers you absolutely needed to have? First pair I absolutely needed to have was the Jordan one, Chicago. Since dating back to 1995, yeah, they released in 1994. 1995 was, you know, my mother went out and got me those.
00:12:10
Speaker
And they were too big. They were too big. I didn't necessarily get to wear them for almost like a year or two. I had to really, really grow into them. They were that big on feet. At the time, my mother, she says her birthday with MJ, so she's been an MJ fan. And she probably just passed that down.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, as we turned back into the sport, that was that was that was like really big for her to have these days to have to be so. Yeah, that's dope. But let's get into like, you know, a visualization and a little bit of the history of the shoe. The 1994 edition of the Jordan Air Jordan One Retro High Chicago represents the very first time that this iconic colorway was resurrected from the archives.
00:13:02
Speaker
Like the 1985 original, this pair sports a white leather upper and contrasting overlays in a bold red finish. The signature swoosh is rendered in basic black, matching the sneakers, laces, padded collar, and the Jordan wings logo that embellishes the lateral ankle. A woven Nike tag is perched atop the white nylon tongue. The high top is mounted on a durable rubber cup sole with an air sole heel unit encapsulated in a lightweight polyurethane. And don't forget,
00:13:31
Speaker
that in the last dance, Jordan said these shoes killed his feet. So he said he took them off and was like, you know, it's covered in blood. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he wears two different sizes. And I think that both of the pairs, both of the sizes, he got too small and he had no choice because he wanted his last game in the garden to be what it was.
00:13:57
Speaker
Whereas a 13 and a 12 and a half, right? So I think both pairs were like 12 and a half. So one was like 12, one was a 12 and a half. Like it was just too small. Like he was done. He was done before he started. So. Yeah, I mean, this shoe, this shoe, I've never gotten a pair and hopefully whenever if these get re-released this year, which is the rumor. Right. And we can talk about that in a minute.
00:14:24
Speaker
But I really want a pair, I'm just not trying to fight anybody for a pair, so. I know, I get that a lot. The way releases have been going before we even jump into that, right? I just got into somebody over Twitter over this, right?
Sneaker Leak Culture
00:14:40
Speaker
So they're doing this new thing called neighborhood reasons, right? When they're giving full reigns to these stores to release how they want to. So a lot of these stores are taking the initiative to make them community-based, whether to do some type of charity,
00:14:54
Speaker
do some donations, whatever have you, you know, to get a raffle for a guaranteed pair or even a free pair. Like this is how these stores are doing it. And Jordan, Brandon, Nike are giving these stores new ways to do it. I think this is a dope ass way to at least do golf. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Because it doesn't matter if you're like a tier zero store like KIF or you just a small mom and pop shop like
00:15:21
Speaker
sneaker politics in New Orleans. Yeah, I was just about I was trying to come up with one. It doesn't matter if you like, you know, tears are all you a small mom and pops up. If you're in the neighborhood category, you're able to get right. And it doesn't even dictate how many pairs you're going to get what dictates how many pairs you're going to get is your community involved.
00:15:46
Speaker
So I think that is dope as hell. Now, the pushback is there's a lot of people saying, well, you know, there's not there's no stores in my city. There's no stores in my state. This is that third. And in the back of my head, I'm like, is there a market there for there to be a store? If there's no market, there's no store. Right, exactly. So why would you why would you put pairs are going to sit in a store or or even if you're trying to trying to help progress a community, why would you put
00:16:15
Speaker
sneakers in a place that doesn't help. There's like, there, even though you can't start as it, as it like, all right, we're going to start with sneakers as, as how is it going to progress the community? No, you already have to have that kind of established in order to help build it out. Right. The argument I was, I was, you know, that, that is pretty much the argument that I was presenting saying that if there is no traction there for footwear period, why would you put high heat?
00:16:45
Speaker
energy there to you know to start off something like it doesn't make sense at all and then uh the argument was you know they're putting this stuff in cities where all the resellers are like there's resellers everywhere everywhere every store back doors there's no getting around none of this so there's well just release it all online did you got bought so it's like there's no right answer any right
00:17:11
Speaker
Yeah, man, that was that was the argument that I was getting into before I so hopped on here because it was like, man, I was celebrating and saluting these stores for being able to do these activations the way they want to.
00:17:24
Speaker
and not be held to a brand standard on how they want to release stuff. And I think that's dope because in a few years or possibly even next year, Nike is opening up so many stores to do direct to consumer releases that you still want to need these neighborhood drops. Otherwise, none of us is going to have a shot unless those stores are where we're at because they're already pulling out of these main brands little by little, not fully because
00:17:52
Speaker
You know, that meme went around that they were getting rid of football. That's not the case. They are. They are pulling back, but they're not. They're not just supplying like, you know, you guys are just going to get the high heat and, you know, you know, be spirit. Not spares.
Price Changes and Sneaker Culture
00:18:08
Speaker
There's no spares.
00:18:10
Speaker
Well, sparse, sorry, sparse, but not be but being sparse about it with like the big box retailers would definitely help, you know, create people wanting to open up mom and pop shops again, because now we're just dwindling down, you know. Thank you. Thank you. That's where it's all going. Now, as far as these two cargos. Doubt abreast taxes. Let's hear it. Yeah. So what I can't say is it's not going to look like anything that people expect.
00:18:41
Speaker
So it's not going to be a typical Chicago or anything like that. It's a reimagining of the Chicago. Like last year, we got a reimagining of the breads. The patents this year, we're going to get something different.
00:18:55
Speaker
So, OK, we're going to get we're going to get it. I'm bringing my flight. That would be so bad. No, no, no. What they're doing is no, that's not going to. I would love like just different models.
00:19:12
Speaker
Um, what they're doing, I can give a couple of, uh, we're getting up, like, you know, what the Nigel's look like, right? Remember the Nigel's course. Yeah. I don't need a pair still. I've been trying to get a pair. Yeah. That's soul. Okay. That's that's soul. That that's the soul that these chocolates. Okay. Uh, it's going to have cracks upwards. So like the collars are going to have similar to like the crack leather that was on the eight miles. So pitch it out on the call.
00:19:43
Speaker
a crack swoosh. And that's all I'm saying right now. If I say it, it gives away the entire show. You say anymore, we're going to get NDA'd. I just don't want to get nobody in trouble.
00:20:00
Speaker
the whole shebang of what the shoe is really gonna look like. I really don't even want them to leak, honestly. No, yeah, I mean, I'm so like, like, I like teasers as if like, you know, oh, this shoe is coming out in a couple weeks, right? But when it's like a hype, like, not a hype, I mean, when it's a shoe,
00:20:19
Speaker
You can't get a rabbit. You can't get a rabbit. No matter what it is, I already know what you're about to say because I get this so much because I am involved with the leaker circle, right? The real leaker is not the ones that, you know, anyway. Not the ones that just take your pictures and be like, hey, these are coming out. What it is is like,
00:20:45
Speaker
When you're in that business of just providing news, you don't care if it's a replica, you don't care what it is, you want to be first. So with the circle that I'm in, we made, I don't want to say like any rules or provisions or anything, but we pretty much have an unspoken thing to where if we don't have the information for it and it's not concrete,
00:21:14
Speaker
I don't care what first look it is, we're not posting it. And because we have our Connex, where we have our Connex set, be it any of these brands, the stores, we are able to get everything down to the color placement, the materials, the date, style, quality. We're able to get everything that we need to make sure that this is a concrete release that's actually happening. So we're not posting anything that has to be redacted.
00:21:43
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Where you have to be like, wait, wait, wait, give me a second. That's not only supposed to be like, I had that, I had that, uh, I had that happen to me earlier this year where I went off with some information and I got somebody and I shouldn't have. Um, and I made the mistake of putting it out there. Now I said, this is just a rumor. I don't know for sure. Now I think everybody's just like bypass that any down way through the information, but
00:22:12
Speaker
It was, that was the main reason why we came up with this whole, it's not concrete without motion. So when we got the information about a Chicago like colorway, based on the Chicago colorway with similar shapes too. People are not getting the wording, all they're hearing is Chicago is coming, it's going to be 85.
00:22:36
Speaker
No, it's not. Chicago 85s will release in a later year to be announced. We're not getting Chicago 85. We're getting a Chicago show, which is going to be so. Oh, this is the best way to explain this. Remember the whole remastered initiative? Yeah. So this new version of the Chicago is going to mark a new version of the board. Mm hmm.
00:23:03
Speaker
I could say that completely new shape not 85 and the price is gone More we going up again. Yeah new Jordan one
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah, we went up, what was that? 2019 price went up to 170. We're about to go to 180. I was thinking 10 bucks up. It might be 170. I think it might even just be $5. It might be 175, but they're going up. Because the new...
00:23:38
Speaker
I don't want to say next year, but it's going to be in the coming years where 85 high will get one release a year. And that's going to be alongside the fractional Jordan ones that we're getting now. So be prepared for pockets to be tapped.
00:23:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like recently with the end and my little circle, we were talking about the the big bangs when they released the big bangs. And I'm like, yo, I remember paying 170 for the or like wanting to pay 170 for these. And I'm like, where did they get the 70 dollar like increase from? Because why would I pay 240 for it for these?
00:24:22
Speaker
They had to recreate those, those modes and those last to do those models. That's one. And then, you know, they got to pay that contract down because, you know, he got a lifetime contract. So whenever they do stuff, they got to they got to sell out some money for him. But on top of that, did anybody notice like certain parents that are releasing or like parents that were never going to release, like not for the public? Like the price of Kings, like
00:24:52
Speaker
They were only made for Kanye, Jay, and LeBron. Nobody noticed that we actually got a release of those. That marked a change at the brand, a huge change, one that is still going unnoticed. You know, Joc Slade, right? Of course, yeah. He mentioned it, he talked about it, but it marked the change at the brand where they're allowed to do things that they were never allowed to do.
00:25:22
Speaker
Like because of who's in charge up there, like that embargo is gone. So I was telling people everybody think this year is something crazy. Wait till next year.
00:25:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, people are talking about, oh, yeah, we're going to get we're going to get Yeezy retro soon. No, no, no, no. That's really a possibility. That's not even a game anymore. Like that. No, you know what? It's not even because Jay is open to it right now. It's because the people in charge like the old guard is gone.
00:25:54
Speaker
the people who believe in prestige up there that, you know, wanted to keep things sacred and, all right, this is for this person. Let's not mess up our relationship. Those people are like moving on. And since those people are moving on, like, I don't even want to say the new people because it ain't even newer people there. It's people that have been there that just pigeonheads not being able to do certain things because the old guard was saying, no, now that they're leaving, it's like, oh, yeah, no, give them that.
00:26:23
Speaker
Fuck that band or excuse me, I'm sorry. No, you're a curse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck that celebrity or fuck that artist. Let's put this you out. I mean, now you're getting me hyped. We might be able to get a pair because I have one of my girls of all time girls as a pair of glass jaw Nike blazers. It's possible. No, no, it's possible. If those come back out, if the demand is there and the rumblings get loud enough, it can happen.
00:26:53
Speaker
Everybody who's listening, use hashtag bring back glass jar of lasers or something. I'm so serious. I'm so serious. The only thing, the only things that will not happen, of course, and that's out of respect and that's that, that won't happen. Like if they, they come to reach an agreement and you know, the coming years that might change, but right now, cause they had big plans on, on how
00:27:22
Speaker
came to a halt because they weren't listening to the man and like both sides just want to be your bet. But I understand like you're, you're, you're the marketers market. That's Nike. Nike is a market. It's not even a sports brand. Like they market, right? So if you know for a fact that you can do things without somebody and they don't necessarily need you, they're going to go that route every time.
00:27:52
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I mean, it saves money, basically, you know, like, and you don't have to worry about what somebody else thinks at that point. Right.
00:28:00
Speaker
the, I mean, but I'm definitely curious and like curious of how did, how'd you end up in these circles, right? Like what propelled you to be like, you know what? But no, what circles are you, are you direct because this is a few circles here? Well, no, it's more about the journey until like, how did you feel, find yourself in, in as, I don't know, I don't even, what is it? What would be like the sneaker sneak peek club? I don't know what it's called.
00:28:30
Speaker
Okay, I got you, I got you. With the whole information thing, right? That just sort of happened. I was following somebody called Balt Lake Sneaker Show. He was on Twitter heavy back in the day. He was on Instagram heavy back in the day too. I still talk to him from time to time, but he's not super active. And it was like Pinot 077. He was super active.
00:28:58
Speaker
Even though he was like keeping people out of distance or whatnot, he was super into the information. But ball, whenever he would get information or whatnot, he would talk to me first before he even posted like, yo, I know you went to Jordan once and you're going to go ahead and talk about this. This is coming. It's going to look like this. This is that third because he was going to a lot of these, how would I say it? So, you know, they have these things called cells and samples and promo samples.
00:29:28
Speaker
Well, yeah. Therefore, the Econ reps and everybody to go to these stores and show, hey, this is the fall collection that's coming out, Lazy Blue, so they can get the stores hyping, get them to buy a certain amount of stuff. He was going to these things for years, so he developed
00:29:54
Speaker
Fast forward, you know, your name goes in the nerve of these circles, those people start to follow you, start to talk to you too. Then you had this up and coming dude named Z sneaker, right?
Acquisitions and Sneaker Stories
00:30:07
Speaker
So like back in the day, he's a young dude, he was in high school when he started.
00:30:12
Speaker
Wow. He was getting information from a lot of people too. So eventually me and him started talking a lot more to like where me and him just got super tight now. I'm not posting anything. If he ain't get the information and vice versa. Yeah. So.
00:30:29
Speaker
Yeah, we get a lot of information. Anybody can get this information. Let me put it to you like this. Any store manager, district manager, regional manager, they get all this information first. They get a store buyers list of where they know what is coming later on this year, what not. They figure out how much inventory they're trying to get for whatever stores.
00:30:51
Speaker
they pretty much map out their allocations on how to, but they get the information about the shoe that's coming. And that information is typically where they, once it gets, you know, in that email uploaded to that store server, you got hackers and then you got people that was like, hey, man, yo, this is what's coming. Here's the email. And they give me that whole sheet of stuff.
00:31:14
Speaker
Wow, it's a little different. I don't I don't I'm that was years ago when I was happening like that. I was getting emails. That was just yo. Face on me. No, that's what it's not. That's I mean, that's crazy. But like and that that's the standoff of just being on the end and just being on Twitter and being on. Well, for me, Instagram, when I started like this post a lot of stuff as far as like
00:31:43
Speaker
uh i was reposting a lot of stuff wasn't even like i was posting stuff saying i was reposting other stuff and then uh when i started getting stuff early and not like super early like a few weeks early i was paying for it then you know this is like 2015 2016 i was paying for it
00:32:06
Speaker
and all that stuff. But I got reached out to by a couple of people at certain brands, and they were like, yo, I'm a fan of what you're doing, the whole archival stuff, and just mixing in with mental health, and just pretty much trying to tell everybody, yo, you're not loving shit the fuck you're doing. Exactly, right, yeah. You're hurting yourself. Don't go broke.
00:32:32
Speaker
I put myself in passenger seats. Never should do that. Don't let sneakers alter your mood. Don't get so bent out of shape because you can get the shoe or whatever happens. This thing is supposed to be fun at the end of the day. The people at the brands, they love that because it was so different from the norm of everybody just posting shoes and, hey, look at this.
00:33:00
Speaker
All right. Yeah. Me, it was like, yo, this is a dope shot. But I remember when I got this shoe, you know.
00:33:08
Speaker
The night before, I was at a nightclub and my homeboy got stabbed for some proud shit. Like, Jesus. What? I'm not saying that that's the actual caption novel. I'd love to feel like you need to stop this story and jump into this one right now. I do. I do have one of those stories that I could get into just this on some wild stuff. I wanted to pair the storm blues. Right. This is when they first dropped.
00:33:38
Speaker
2016. This is the last time I went to a store to buy a shoe. Okay. This is the absolute last time I said, I'm going to a store to buy a shoe. I hit the raffles and all that other stuff. I was hyped. Yeah. Storm blues. And then it was like, yo, um, we ain't getting them here. We ain't getting them here. It was just like, I started hearing about the places where I get them. Um, then I started hearing a bunch of people like, yo, these trash.
00:34:08
Speaker
Like, why is everybody hyping? I'm like, why is everybody talking so much shit about this shoe? Like, I am. Yeah, exactly. Like, I'm like, I get to rap. I'm like, I'm so at, so pumped. I get there, I get to the store and the ladies like, what you here for? You here for the EZs? I was like, no, I'm going to raffle for my Jordan Williams. Oh, you're the first person to come pick up a pair.
00:34:38
Speaker
What? Nobody, nobody picked up their pairs. I was like, wait, wait, are you kidding me? She's like, no, nobody came to pick up this shoe. I was so hurt, but a lot hurt because like I was happy I got the shoe, but I was hurt because it was like, I put so much emphasis on this shoe having to get this shoe. Like, yo, like,
00:35:03
Speaker
I was like, I got into it with my wife over this one. I was like, yo, I gotta have it. Like, yo, it's the OG colorway. This is the first time it's retro. I don't care. We gotta feed the kids, man. We do it. It was just one of those things. That was one of the eye-opening for me too. We put a lot of this shit on a pedestal when
00:35:28
Speaker
it's leather and rubber and air and some cotton. You don't want to go into it. We really put so much prestige on these shoes. Granted, I get it. That's what the sneaker culture is. We do place prestige on things because they do mean something. I'm not ever trying to downplay the fact that these should mean something.
00:35:55
Speaker
to say, you know, you go out of your way for something like that, like, that really changed my outlook on everything, right? Oh, yeah. And it made me think like, I'm gonna change everybody else's outlook. And on my one, that's that's been my mission to what I've been doing.
00:36:13
Speaker
Little known fact at that time, me and that store lady got into it right there too. She was a smarty-ass attitude and shit. She's high up now, manager-wise. I still don't like her.
00:36:28
Speaker
They'd be like, yo, you remember those storm blues? You remember what you told me? No, because you know what it is? Like, since then, sometimes I would do raffles for other people and go pick up pairs. And I'd always show up with the pair that I hit on a raffle early. So it's like, yo, how'd you get those early? I'd tell them, yo, the brand said that. And they'd be like, what do you mean, the brand? I was like, they sent them to me.
00:36:55
Speaker
I'm trying to get like you. I don't know how else to explain they. Mr. Jordan. I wish it was him though. I wish it was him though. I got a lot of conversations with a lot of people promising me things. I never really take them up on a lot of things until they show faith. When it comes to a lot of people at these brands, when they say certain things,
00:37:27
Speaker
75% of the time April. And one of those things that was said to me a few years ago, if I come up there at the right time, I can be, but I think that's for anybody. I think if anybody goes up there at the right time, they gonna meet him. Because they said his favorite time to go up there is like between April and April and May or something like that. Like he likes to go out there like the
00:37:56
Speaker
He'll be there for a few days, go through everything, and then that's it. They probably won't see his ass again until like a little event or something.
00:38:03
Speaker
That's crazy. I mean, just even to have the opportunity, but I mean, it could be hearsay or. Yeah, exactly. But he could easily be like, you know, like just show me what you want to show me. Just send it to me or send it to my assistant. No, they said he is the worst with emails. I mean, yeah, I mean, that's what I was like thinking, like send it to my assistant or, you know, mail it to me, mail me a catalog.
00:38:35
Speaker
I think it was like PJ Tucker or something like that. They say he ran up on MJ and MJ said, when the hell did those come out? I never seen them before.
00:38:43
Speaker
I mean, that's the goal of mine is to get PJ on here because like, I just want to know like just how he got into it and then how does he keep finding like, because obviously his passion is very similar to ours, right? Where we have a shoe that we cherish a lot, right? But then when you see something that's previously come out, when you were coming up, you're like, oh, I need to have those. Oh, come on, don't be,
00:39:11
Speaker
gloat into me over here. He, nobody can see that. Just, just me. So you just, you just, that's been my response to a lot of people now, like froze. And I never apologize for that. Now I don't mean to say good, but that's been my favorite response to people on the internet. Like, uh, people were like, yo, I don't like the way you do this. Good.
00:39:36
Speaker
What do you want me to tell you like so what you ain't gotta like yeah, I do stuff like you ain't paid for it I'm not coming to your pace and y'all don't like the way you eat And I can't stand that it's funny because like
00:39:56
Speaker
It's funny because, like, you know, doing this podcast, I hear a lot of people just being like, oh, yeah, you know, I don't like I don't like whatever. And it's like, but you can you have the option to not say that and you have the option to not look at your page or also to not listen to this podcast. So it's very interesting. Yeah, you know, like it's there's an option. Everybody has an option.
00:40:19
Speaker
You know, we're not forcing the stuff down your throat. Let me say this. If you want PJ on your show, you got to get in touch with the assistant. All right. I will. I don't think he's going to say no. I mean, if you're given the premise of the show, say, hey, you ought to be like 10, 15 minutes of your time, you only got to be on camera. I'm pretty sure he's not going to say no.
00:40:41
Speaker
Mean that's a gold guess cuz I mean I want at least 30 minutes cuz I want to know like, you know, I Want to get him talking and they realize oh snap. I got to go to practice like that's how that's how I want this conversation But yeah, so it's just interesting like, you know, cuz you're saw the which are being re-retroed again this year, right? Are they being re-retro this year the the storm blues? They're coming out this year. No, no, no
00:41:10
Speaker
I don't know why I got a I got a I got a Nike page for because they're doing the heritage thing and there is a link for the storm blues and it's an active link. Unless it's like an old pair. The KOs came out last year. Storm. Right. Yeah.
00:41:31
Speaker
Now this is, oh, maybe they're just putting up just like information about colorways on the site. I will look that up. I'm pretty sure that was talked about after this year.
00:41:45
Speaker
Like we've already, between me and a couple of other blogs, we've seen 90% of George. So then I guess they're just putting up just like information about previous colorways about the one, because it's all under this heritage moniker, I guess, I want to say. Check that out.
Archiving and Storytelling
00:42:07
Speaker
Thank you. You gave me some research when I get out.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I'm in the process of creating this archive now for a blog that I just started. So, yeah, that is. Yeah. I'm almost done. I'm on 2019 now. I got 20, 20, 20, 21, and I am officially done and this shit is going to take me forever. 85 to like
00:42:34
Speaker
2004 easiest it was like 2005 between 2005 2018 that this took me forever to talk about like hundreds of pairs right yeah so i i've mentioned this before on the podcast but like previously back in
00:42:53
Speaker
Our day, I don't know if I want to say that, we're both super old. But yeah, we weren't getting ones in any colorway every other month. We would get one one a year, or maybe two, if we're lucky, when they started re-retroing them. Yeah, up until 2008. Then when 2008 hit, we got one to two a month. After that, it was on.
00:43:21
Speaker
It's crazy. It hasn't changed at all. It went up because they split and we got the retro high and the OG high. But once they combined that number, we got an average of 20 to 28 a year.
00:43:39
Speaker
That's crazy, because the rarity, and I was talking to Russ Bennington on Twitter about this too, because like Jordans weren't releasing. That's my dream interview, by the way. I told him to be like. Hey, we'll. That's my all also my dream interview as well. And I have him up to jump on. Well, we do have banter sometimes on Twitter and he's great. But.
00:44:05
Speaker
That's the dude, that's the dude, like he had, I don't know if, did you ever watch Quick Strike back in the day, Quick Strike? That was one of my favorite shows, right? And it's definitely part of why I wanted to get into, you know, being in front of a camera and talking because like,
00:44:21
Speaker
talking about sneakers is one of my passions. And you know, you're saying like, you know, we also got to worry about mental health. I come at it with like, you know, every shoe has a story and it's more of the stories that you make the shoe have when you live in it, right? You walking through, you walking through with your, with your fear. Don't pull out the Chicago's again. So real quick, cause I'm gonna get back to where I stand and I'm gonna get back to the initial part of that conversation.
00:44:49
Speaker
I had a real short story with these. These were gifted by a good friend. Oh, okay. Because around this time I had a circle of people that I was just helping get pairs for retail. Like, you know, you're trying to get those. No matter what they were trying to get. I would say that again, no matter what they were trying to get.
00:45:13
Speaker
That's crazy. They were getting it for retail. So fast forward, you know, he was like, yo, man, you do all these, you've done enough. I don't know how else to pay you, but besides you wear it, I got these, but they're, you know, half a size smaller than what you wear. It's like, that's my true size. I just go up a half a size because it's comfy. So in case in case your salt, you get a lot of salt that day, you can still be comfortable.
00:45:43
Speaker
So he shows up, you know, and I'm giving him the pair that he had bought at the time. He was like, yo, I got these, I don't wear them. I wore them enough and they still look like pristine, you know, clean as all hell. Like, yo, I didn't know what to say, but you know, like thank you or whatnot. I kid you not, I wore this shoe every day for like six months.
00:46:08
Speaker
Wow. I got new pairs in at the time. I wore those. Haha. Yeah. I got these. These came right back. Oh yeah. Yeah. Toss them in the back note. These are being worn. Like I was like a kid in the cash. So I took so many pictures and all that good stuff. But, um, but to Russ, like he has, uh, he has a way of piercing through the noise to not complain or give you a complaint, but to
00:46:39
Speaker
give you an understanding of what yesteryear was and why today is so fucked up. Right. And, you know, I respect people like him, sneaker fetish, job slay and a few others for being able to articulate a feeling and being able to resonate that feeling because that's storytelling. Yeah. Right. If you're not able to
00:47:04
Speaker
You get a grasp of what this person is talking about or the product, whatever the product is trying to convey to you, then there's no sense in buying or picking up or listening or hitting the plate. That is the basis of marketing. To invoke feeling, to provide a service, but that emotion.
00:47:27
Speaker
Nobody's buying just to buy. It has to be a true necessity to buy something like this. Out of pure, I'm just getting this. Outside of that, I'm getting that because I'm emotionally tied to like the comfort food, favorite brand. Hell, some people got favorite gas stations. They're not going past the gas stations.
00:47:49
Speaker
That gas station down the street, always three cents cheaper than like, come on, like everybody, everybody has that. So like, uh, back to Russ, you know, being able to, you know, talk, how he talks and like this trans in like, don't even look at Russ like he's a white guy. Like, you know, Russ is Russ and Russ has been some of the most beautiful articles and slam in early days to where people like,
00:48:18
Speaker
like he's been immersed in the culture years years so like it's different completely different shout out to like uh Brandon Dunn and uh damn the owner of night the old owner of nice cakes like just this people that you know were here before the hype and not the hype of
00:48:40
Speaker
are type of hype where everybody's like hyper shoes. I mean like the hype of media, like before the craze of everybody has to see what's on court. Like they were here on court. Like they, they, they, they are the originators of these, being at these events only for media. It's different for them. So, uh,
00:49:05
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to say that, like, yeah. No, yeah. This is always. Oh, yeah. Russ is definitely a big dream. I mean, I hit up because I had pre I don't know if you listen to sneaker history, but I've had Nick and let him go. Yep. And over there. So love them, dude. Yeah. That's a Nick Nick Nick is out of the name. Give so many tips and just offline conversations with him just to know that.
00:49:31
Speaker
You know, being a journalist is a completely different ballgame. If you want to run off integrity, you want to make sure that everything is on the up and up. And a lot of people don't give a fuck about none of that. Let me put this meme out. Let me get these clicks. Let me start this discord so I can get these dollars. Like, I get it. It's a game. It's about money. But you have skin in the game and your name means something. And you go to these places like, yo, you know, something's upsetting.
00:50:01
Speaker
or how you do it. It's a different. Yeah, exactly. Right. You know, so that's what that's what for real salute to salute to everybody we have mentioned, you know, because like I think it's what what I've and I've said this several times on here is that, you know, we're trying to build a community,
Community and Modern Society Reflections
00:50:19
Speaker
right? I feel like over the past five to 10 years ago,
00:50:24
Speaker
maybe five, 10, maybe five years, maybe eight years. Like we lost that with the creation of the internet. Like when they moved all sneaker buying onto the internet and like, you know, the eight o'clock on Nike.com with the auto refresh going, like, you know, add to carts. Like, I feel like we lost that communication where people were like, yo, would you cop this week? Or like, you know, like that was lost on this transition. And now everybody's just trying to buy the cell.
00:50:53
Speaker
Yeah. And everybody's just trying to sell now. So it's just tough. So the way my father put it to me, it's like crazy. Like I don't have very many times where I can't go to him on things like this, but it's different. Right. So not to like be a deputy down racism, beatdowns, all the all the crazy shit that was happening.
00:51:22
Speaker
been happening, right? Like we just have a magnifying glass and the world has been on fast forward. So everything is hyper focused, super fast. It's not like that was like back in the day, like back in the day, you know, do ride past the wrong town, something happened. We won't hear about it for maybe a year or two.
00:51:49
Speaker
Yeah. Or if we're lucky on the newspapers, if we're lucky, if we're lucky, if they don't want to bury it and then we don't hear about it for 20 years, like. So let's take that into accord with like just our every day on the happy side. Right. Everything is so hyper focused, magnifying glass and like super fast, where these kids don't give two fucks about what happened yesterday. Right. Or yes, the year. Who did what? Vince Carter put his arm in it.
00:52:19
Speaker
Damn 360 from the free throw line. Mm hmm. MJ did what he did. Well, Zach did a between the legs dunk from the free throw. Yeah. But it's also just like nobody like it. And like, even when it's just comes to like even music wise, right? Like a lot of a lot of.
00:52:41
Speaker
in the sneaker game or anything that we like we grew up on. Nobody wants to look at how it started. Like if when I first started listening to music, I was like, oh, let me find let me see how far back it goes. And then you want to get into that. When I started collecting dunks, I was like, let me see like the beginning. Like what were what are probies? Like, you know, and we have the Internet just for that. But a lot of these kids now don't they feel like, you know, or I mean, or people, even just regular people who jump into it. It's over.
00:53:11
Speaker
Common consumer, great, great word. They just jump in, they just spend the money and they don't care about the history. And then when people look at us who actually care about the history, we're as being told before, we're boomers.
00:53:32
Speaker
You know, I get people that get salty at me, right? Whenever I say things like, yo, you're not on our side. Like, you know, I am on your side. I'm just trying to get you to look at things. Salute to my wife. That's my favorite thing to say to me. Like you have to look at things from a bigger perspective than you're looking at it. Otherwise you're going to be stuck.
00:53:55
Speaker
And that mindset, you've got to be stuck in that mode. And in order to break that mode, to break that mindset, to break that perception, you've got to look at things in totality. Like we were talking about earlier, a lot of this shit wasn't meant to be this way. Sneakers were never meant to get this big. It's a nice market. This isn't where the bulk of these companies are making their money. This is just a face for them.
00:54:24
Speaker
this is this is like uh how would i say this is sneakers are like the kernel is to kfc like he's the face of a prank but they sell chicken yeah right so it's like nike yeah we sell sneakers but we made more money off of equipment and personalized stuff than we do sneakers and you know people don't recognize that because
Sneaker Culture Critique and Solutions
00:54:51
Speaker
Well, marketing is fucking genius on that side. But like Under Armour, like Under Armour did have sneakers. Right. Like they never not had sneakers. Like I know that was like a triple headed. But like they always had sneakers, but they sold clothing that was like like the perfect workout gear. And on top of that, they sold, you know, workout equipment and stuff like that and all that other shit. So it's like.
00:55:18
Speaker
The bulk of that money was always from this. And that's how a lot of brands should be perceived. But people like us, like we said earlier, for so much prestige on these things. Let's get back to the kids, right? The kids over the past couple of years picked up on a little thing that we were doing early 2000s where we buy two or three pairs to pay for the one pair. We good. Oh, yeah, I'm going to buy three pair. I'm going to sell these two that's going to pay for this one pair. And I might I might have some gas money or a little little dinner date money. Take somebody out.
00:55:50
Speaker
That boomed. Right. Then you got to think, uh, um, I can't remember the dude's name that started like, I was taking these trips back, taking these back and forth to Japan and buying all these stocks and he built his own store.
00:56:09
Speaker
Chris something, but Dave from Dave's Quality Meet also did that as well. Right, right, right. So that's how he started Dave's Quality Meet. Right. That's how the car can't build this collection too. Yeah, exactly. Ray, and Fat Joe, Ray, and these mom and pop stores. Let me check the basement for the shit that Nike said y'all can't sell me.
00:56:33
Speaker
Oh, yeah, the dead stock. Yeah, the dead stock. That's the that's the term. Oh, you know, I don't want to sound like that guy, so I'm not going that far now. But that's what you know, that's that's that's that's the thing about today that, you know, is different and why I don't get perceived like the average person talk about the ship. Like I love it. I love it to death.
00:56:59
Speaker
that we take time to complain about shit that we can't change or we have a solution we ain't trying to implement it. All you got to do is make this bot protection and everything will be great. Do you really think that's all that Nike has to do?
00:57:19
Speaker
But that's it. Just implement that one little bop. Just just for you to get your pair. Like, yeah, that's all you got to do to change anything. I got to change nothing. Yeah. All right. Here's here's here's like the the trim to lick from I got you. They make one point one million pairs of breads, right? Everybody thinks that's men sizes. When it's a full size, full size run.
00:57:48
Speaker
That's what I hit the kids. And that's, that's one kids preschool, women's sizes. And then that's five different sizes right there, right? Okay. That's, that's point one worldwide. Got to hit all the countries. So then that means like the U S is only get a select them out and nobody's thinking about it like that. Euro Asia. Mm-hmm.
00:58:16
Speaker
do we know how big euro releases are like oh no that's just europe yeah yeah europe is england germany france like these a whole
00:58:31
Speaker
Well, people don't even think that, like, sneakers don't release anywhere but the U.S., England and China, like, that's all. And then that's also Africa, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, like, everywhere get sneakers.
00:58:49
Speaker
and it's always just like a misconception of just being like oh yeah they just sit there and then you just what you scrolling through you scrolling through instagram and they're just like yeah these ones are just sitting here from last year now and japan is a little bit different uh because there's multiple stores and they sit right now and they
00:59:09
Speaker
because they have their thing with me right now. Oh. Yeah, but I'm just saying it's just a misconception because they're just like, they're just like, oh, this is happening. Why is it not happening here? You know what I mean? Oh no, yeah, that part. No, no, I agree. Yeah, I got you. Like, yeah, no, the reason why it's not happening here because we're greedy. We want every dollar we can get out of everything. And the other thing, you know, I can speak on this, you know, there'll be like,
00:59:38
Speaker
Oh, all these pairs went to the outlet. Yeah. Do you understand why it's late? Like that store is it's past season for those to release the store denied when you see a whole ship of the sun show to a store, show to the outlets. There's two things that happen. One, there'd be grades to the store, denied the ship. So they have to go somewhere. And the only reason the store would deny a shipment is if they don't believe they could sell.
01:00:09
Speaker
Right. Yo, it's Mr. Mark. I don't think anybody local here really wants those. So now they'll forego that. They'll get, you know, whatever, you know, dollar amount that he agrees to give them back on that stock. And they go into that nearest outlet. And people like, oh, no, it's not what you think. And they say they sit in every way, man, the whole outlets, outlets everywhere. Go to Marshalls. You're going to pair of breads.
01:00:38
Speaker
Like I missed the days of self-sitting, but we're getting close to that because the brotherhoods are not selling out everywhere and neither did the Dale Souls that released yesterday. They didn't sell out everywhere neither. Now online stock is always lesser than the total cumulative stock across the US. So I always look at that like,
01:01:04
Speaker
I don't care if they sell out on sneakers. Like that doesn't show me anything. Show me your store, Lo. Yeah, that's true. Like a lot of stuff. I mean, I walked in because like I was recently saw I wanted the Nike Air Trainers. It was like maroon color or something. It's the orange looking one with the silver on it. And I went
01:01:28
Speaker
to my local store, which is all the right, shout out to all the right. And they had a pair there, but they only had a size 12 and a size 13. I was like, damn, right there, man. I almost had them. But they sold out on sneakers, right? And they sold out on the Nike site and they're nowhere in all the big boxes. So it's like that, and then we miss, I miss that, I miss that. Just walking into just like your local store and being like, oh snap, like I can get these.
01:01:56
Speaker
And then being able to do that soon. I haven't been inside the stores. I just want to go see what's sitting. Just cause I just want to snap a few pictures. I think I'm going to do that. That is the biggest misconception in the world that
01:02:17
Speaker
if they fix everything that you still don't have 25 million people that are going to be gunning for the same shoe issue now that 25 million you probably got a million in the same size so it's like people don't people don't think outside of the scope of them
The Thrill of the Hunt
01:02:36
Speaker
That's a fact. Uh, you know, we were actually at the, towards the end of the podcast and, and each week we ask another question at the end of the podcast. And that question is what does the thrill of the hunt mean to you? Being able to like.
01:02:59
Speaker
You know what, it's not even finding the actual shoe. It's finding a place that has both compared to other things that you do. So like, throw it on. I mean, it's really just that feeling of like, oh, shit, I might under something else. Like, first time I found Flight Club. Like, that feeling was different. Like, oh, my God.
01:03:27
Speaker
I bought Sea Green Jordan ones, which were like to do the right things at the time. Yeah. They had released a year prior or was it the year prior? I think it was like I got it in 2010. They had released like 2000. And I was I was just so hyped to find these websites that had all of these pairs that were like desktop. Like, oh, my God, do you do this? I live in South Carolina.
01:03:55
Speaker
Like there is no, I'm going to the store and I'm going to get this. Like we are oppressive. We got certain, like we got the newest Jordan, but we didn't get everything else around. So like when, when, uh, the USC twelves, uh, black and black, black and USC twelves released back at the day, we didn't get everything else that released that you got. Oh, when, when, when the concourse came back, everything else that like, so, but yeah, no, the thrill of the hunt is, is that exhilarating feeling that something else might.
01:04:26
Speaker
So that's what that is. Yo, perfectly said. Let everybody know where they can find you. You can find me on all socials at Mr. underscore unloved ones. And that's Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. I'm going to have a new website coming soon.
01:04:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everything's going to be in the description as usual. Y'all know where to find him. Make sure you give him that follow, you know, comment on one of his pictures and be like, yo, I was listening to the episode. It was fire. You know what I mean? But as you know, we say everywhere, shout out to Russ. We say this every week. Wear your kicks. Peace.