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Russell Morland AKA LurkLovesYou
78 Plays5 years ago
This week, I welcome the whimsical Russell Morland to the podcast. He is a artist that has and continue to makes his name doing amazingly creative art. We chat about what is was like growing up in Europe and how skating lead to kicks and how art evolved his sneaker collection.
Tune-In and don't forget to leave a review & subscribe!
Follow Russ:
Socials: @LurkLovesYou
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Lurklovesyou
Follow the pod:
Got a my kicks story? email us at myfirstkickspod@gmail.com our IG is @myfirstkickspod
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/myfirstkicks
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Transcript
Welcome to My First Kicks
00:00:16
Speaker
What's up everyone, welcome back to My First Kicks, another week and another chance to undies your favorite pair and listen to another great episode.
Meet Russell Moreland aka Lurk Loves You
00:00:27
Speaker
This week we have the amazingly talented Russell Moreland, aka Lurk Loves You.
00:00:34
Speaker
Russ takes us on a ride as we jump around the timeline of his life. It was great to have him on this week and hope to have him on again down the road. I gotta say thank you to everyone that has been sticking around with your boy and checking out all the people I've interviewed so far.
A Connection through QDTR
00:00:52
Speaker
We touch on this a little, but Russ and I met through the QDTR community.
00:00:58
Speaker
Something that Friend of the Pod, Open Mike Eagle, put together to put smiles on people's ears during the quarantine. It created a community, and he even did an episode on Adult Swim, which was crazy. I was watching it. Were you watching it? So before we jump into the episode, I wanted to shout out everyone in the QDTR LAN from the court jester, Haas.
00:01:24
Speaker
but on to where you can find Russ.
Where to Find Russell Online
00:01:27
Speaker
Check him out everywhere as at lurklovesyou. He has some amazing work on there. And also just check out his link tree at linktr.e.e.lurklovesyou.
00:01:41
Speaker
And you know where to find your boy at who is Haas on all the socials. Follow the pod at My First Kicks. I started a TikTok. It's called My First Kicks. Yeah, no pod at the end. And make sure you hit us up on the email at myfirstkickspodatgmail.com, you know.
00:02:01
Speaker
You got some stories. If you got it, just say something. Say hello. Just hit me with a hello. I would greatly appreciate it. Let me know you guys are listening. You know, please try to leave a review. Share this episode with all your friends on all your socials and, you know, let's get the word out there. Let's get let's try to get more ears onto this so that, you know, we can get more people on
Main Interview: Overcoming Connectivity Issues
00:02:26
Speaker
as well. Be a lot easier to do as well. And for anything extra,
00:02:30
Speaker
hit up the link tree. I think I just created it. I don't know. I don't know. You're going to have to check the bio. You're going to have to check, uh, the, the story notes. So I don't know. It's a luck of the draw on that point. And now onto this week's episode with Russell.
00:03:07
Speaker
Hey Russ, welcome to the podcast. Hey man, how's it going? This is our second try to try to do this again and now we're going to have a more successful, more than first time. Yeah, I've got the best internet Canada off as a parent. You paid top dollar just to be on this podcast.
00:03:28
Speaker
No, thanks again for doing this. We met during within the crazy community, which I mentioned in the last podcast. I think I mentioned it. I may have or may have not.
Russell's Journey: England to Canada
00:03:39
Speaker
But yeah, we met through QDTR, which is something that Open Mic Eagle put together during the rough times of the quarantine.
00:03:46
Speaker
Yeah, man. It's, uh, that was great. I met so many people through that. Such a cool thing that he's doing with that, but yeah, that is definitely how we met. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I miss, I miss more of them now because of just like, I think it's Instagram doesn't want me to watch it anymore. It's my, is my, uh, is my conclusion because I never get any, um, notifications if he's live ever.
00:04:13
Speaker
Same. I never see it. Instagram's it's done, dude. It's, it's done. Don't tell me that man. I'm starting to put my podcast on there.
00:04:22
Speaker
Yeah, but you're just promoting it. Was the podcast going like YouTube and stuff like that? No, I don't put it on YouTube. Not yet. So I am. I am just like I'm slowly rolling it out, right? So my plan is and nobody know this besides you just got it out of me. So my plan is I'm going to release it audio wise. And then when I get enough listeners, I'm going to turn it into a video podcast and like
00:04:52
Speaker
Like right now, I'm still brand new with it. I've only have 13 episodes out at the time of this recording. Yeah, 13 episodes out. And then that, as I slowly grow and get bigger, I'm trying to implement some of my actual graphic design skills into trying to get this to expand.
00:05:11
Speaker
So as I'm like learning how to do more After Effects that I know and more Photoshop and more Premiere, then I can like spread myself as thin as possible and be stressed out through every day as I try to put out an episode a week. I've been there. I tried to do a podcast myself a couple of years back. We did like a comedy podcast and uh, it went pretty good, but yeah, it was, it was, it was stressful.
00:05:36
Speaker
Yeah, this is stressful. If anybody's listening that wants to help, I am taking all resumes, but just know you won't get any sneakers or nothing. You just have to do this for free. You've got to be upfront about that. Yeah. But let's jump into, um, let's let everybody know where about yourself and you know, where you're from and everything. Yeah. My name's Russ Moreland. Uh, I'm from England originally.
00:06:02
Speaker
I paint under the moniker of lurk or lurk loves you which is kind of changing to lurk loves you these days because I think there's a few like graph writers that do lurk and stuff like that and I don't want to step on any toes. I still sign my paintings lurk I guess but it's kind of more branded the word lurks loves you.
00:06:19
Speaker
Uh, yeah. So I grew up in England, moved to Canada when I was 24. And now I'm on the West coast. Wow, man. That's great. That's great. Yeah. I mean, your art is amazing. And yeah, no problem. Uh, and the thing, I think like the thing that always pulls me into is that you are super original and it's like, it's not, it's not even, um,
00:06:44
Speaker
like a question of originality. It's like how do you how you put yourself into each each piece that you do. And I could see like you you don't just stop and be like, OK, this is the basics and you're going to get this from it. You could look at it like every single time you take a look at something that you've done, you can find other little other nuances. And I love I love that about your art. Thanks, man. I mean, I've been at such a long time that it was one of my main things was always
00:07:10
Speaker
to be as original as possible with my art and create my own characters. I did my first art show in like 1994. So I've been creating art for a long time and it's just developed and developed and developed over time. I mean, that's amazing, man. But let's jump into the question. Let's jump into why you're here.
First Sneaker Love: Reebok Pumps
00:07:30
Speaker
What's your first kicks? What's that first pair you absolutely needed to have? Reebok pumps. Wow. Why the Reebok pumps?
00:07:39
Speaker
the first generation Reebok pumps, it would have been around about 19. I'm probably going to get this wrong and some sneaker heads going to laugh. Uh, I think, I think it was like mid to like almost late eighties. Um, I just remember like the gimmick more than anything got me up until that point. Like I mean, I was a kid from the seventies and early eighties, so I was really just wearing like,
00:08:04
Speaker
kind of like put rate chucks or something like that. You know what I mean? Um, did you grow up in, uh, like during this time, were you in England or Canada?
80s Sneaker Trends in England
00:08:15
Speaker
England. I only, I moved to Canada. I was 24. Oh, okay. So I went about like a little kid in the eighties, right? So yeah, I remember seeing them and like Reebok was like the biggest push in England, right? So yeah, I had to get those pumps. And from what I remember getting old, I did get them. I was pretty stoked on them.
00:08:34
Speaker
but also kind of like once you've pumped them up a couple of times, you're like, okay. So yeah, that was, that was my big thing back then, but I had my eye on a bunch of shoes back then. That's for sure. It's just what you could get. Like we would get shoes from like, um,
00:08:56
Speaker
Kind of what the equivalent here would be like the Sears catalog kind of thing. I mean, Sears didn't really sell a lot of shoes. So I think, I don't know if you ever heard of the East Bay.
00:09:07
Speaker
So East Bay was a specific, like a shoe, like you can buy shoes off of this little pamphlet that you get. Like it's like a little, like a little magazine and it's all just shoes. And like you can, back then or back in the day, I hate saying back then, cause that's all I hear nowadays, but back in the days, like you, you open up the East Bay magazine, you can buy any like Jordans and all that stuff. You just have to pay and then you just call a number or just send it right to you.
00:09:35
Speaker
Yeah. So this would be a little bit different. This was like more like a catalog. So it had like everything from like women's lingerie, where I first saw boobies do, uh, toys, shoes. There was just like a big catalog kind of thing, had a bit of everything in it. And it would come out like once a year kind of thing. And I remember seeing the shoes in there.
00:09:55
Speaker
And my mom, like bless her, man. Like she, we grew up pretty poor. She worked like three jobs, pretty much. My dad worked in a factory and just drank all day for the most part. So she hustled it, man. She had two boys and she still managed to hustle it, right? Shout out to mom, dude. Mom lurk. Yeah, man.
00:10:14
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I mean, that's crazy. Like, I think, well, I would like to definitely know how, how, like, what was the trends, I guess, in England. Cause I, I don't know many English people. I think I'm saying that right. And so like, I know what the trends are now and I know how much, how, like with the, with the accessibility of the internet, I know more about like what people wear in England, but like, what was it growing up? Um, I mean, like I stood out like a sore thumb. Um,
00:10:43
Speaker
To be honest, like, I'm probably not the best person to say like, I was always an outsider kid. I was super, like, I was like the, the, the typical eighties kid in a sense that like, I really loved like metal and I really loved hip hop because it was like kind of coming out. Right. I remember like one of the first like tracks I ever heard for like break into was white lines. Right.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't even know what it meant. You know what I mean? Just a kid, right? Yeah. But anyway, so like, I think like I was always into a little bit more of the outsider fashion and where I grew up, I grew up in a really like rough place, like really rough, man. Like most of the kids ended up in jail. Like one of the kids set the school on fire. Like my brother punched out teachers and stuff like that. It was pretty like, we grew up pretty like,
00:11:34
Speaker
rough Northern kids, like close to Scotland kind of thing. Um, no, that I'm saying like a tough guy or anything. That's not what I'm saying. No, that's your painting yourself as everybody who listens to this podcast knows now that you're a tough guy. No, but yeah. So I like those kids that were in that area, like they just followed whatever the pop trends were. So like at the time it would have been,
00:11:59
Speaker
Like, as weird as it sounds, like Rick Astley and Wham and stuff like that. That's who they wanted to dress like. And they were the tough kids.
00:12:08
Speaker
I was like, that was always so weird to me. I wanted to dress like fast times at Ridgemont High kind of thing. Yeah, a varsity jacket. Yeah. Oh, like a denim vest with patches on it. And like, I had like a big iron maiden patch and I was one of the only kids that skateboarded as well. Like I used to get like beaten for skateboarding and stuff like that and chased down and like bully. Dude, back then the teachers could beat us up. Like we went through corporal punishment through school. I was in a Christian school and the teachers could beat the shit out of you. It was so weird, man.
00:12:37
Speaker
Actually in the school system in England right now people my age and now an older is starting to soothe like the school system. Oh, whoa, really? Oh, yeah, cuz it's caused like so much problems. He's so violent and you shouldn't be beaten like kids need to be putting put in line man, but you shouldn't be beating the shit out of them Yeah, yeah, I thought you're gonna be like I thought you're gonna you're about to say kids need to be beaten but not like that. Yeah
00:13:01
Speaker
I'm a dad. I wouldn't lay a hand on my wife. But, uh, yeah. So, I mean, like I always grew up like as an outsider kid. So like, I mean, I think like back then the trends were like boat shoes. You know what I mean? Like classic, just what, like, I don't think it was really like where I grew up. It wasn't like Jordans and stuff like that. Like some of the kids, like there would be the odd kid that I kind of wanted the sneakers, but they would use them just mainly for sports. They weren't just like for the playground and stuff like that. Like, I mean, a little bit of came in later on, I guess.
00:13:31
Speaker
Skate shoes, absolutely not. I mean, like, if I got, say, like a pair of, like, vision high tops or something like that, I'd get left out of school, man. Oh, really? I'm going in with my hands up that day just in case, you know what I'm saying? Because, like, something's going to go down. Somebody's going to say something, right? I was very interested in, like, did skate shoes, because you were a skater, did skate shoes make it to England? So the 80s ones did. I mean, like, there was vision.
00:13:59
Speaker
would have been the original ones. Airwalk was kind of there in the 80s. Most people would just wear cons, right? A lot of people would wear the basketball shoes as well, which is probably what got me onto the pumps, right?
00:14:14
Speaker
But I mean, if anybody knows anything about skateboarding, those pumps are going to last like two days after you've ollied through them. Yeah, exactly. Or you could have gotten some crazy air. You never know. Let me keep pumping while I'm ollying right here.
00:14:38
Speaker
Oh, so I think like, I think like they did make it there. Also, I think it depends where you work. Cause like I said, I was in the North, right? So I was like right next to Scotland. I felt like the culture really shifted the further away from the South you get like from London. Obviously in London growing in the eighties sort of had everything like the kids would have had, like, I mean, there's obviously issues there as well, but like there'd have been more chance that the kids have had Jordans and stuff like that. The first Nike shoe that I ever saw was Terminator.
00:15:05
Speaker
I'd imagine that's like most people's first ever time they saw a Nike shoe. I was like, that's dope. And I actually have bought that shoe since, but it's not the exact colorway. It's here. It's the, uh, it's the Vandal Supreme. Uh-huh. Yeah. So it's the satin one, but in Terminator, it's a silver silver. Right. Yeah. I remember. That was the first time I saw a Nike and I was like,
00:15:34
Speaker
Whoa, I want that, but you couldn't get them. There was no way I would have been able to find them. Yeah. I mean, the difference and why I'm so intrigued with this, it's like, cause like everything here can compare to, to England is everything here was super accessible. Like everything you saw on TV, you were able to go to the mall. You're able to go somewhere and get them. But like, you didn't even have a mall growing up. There was a mall near me. I think I said like,
00:16:01
Speaker
maybe like as I got into my early teens, there was this mall that got built. It's actually still there now. I speak to my mom about it and she said it's still there. But that's when you started to see more like different fashions. I mean, like again, it was mainly that catalog, dude. Like that's where we see a lot of stuff. Like even the t-shirts, anything that you wanted, you had to like just take a chance. British Nights, that was the, that was a big new company back then, right? I'm not sure if that made it to,
00:16:27
Speaker
No it made it here it made it here british nights and ponies were around the same time they started yeah i started getting really big together only i would like to try something like that yeah i think so yeah i know it was a mid mid mid midwest midwest east
00:16:46
Speaker
Mideast, I think it's Mideast. Mideast shoot. I don't know. I shouldn't just start naming off places in the US because I'm not the greatest of them. But yeah, British Knights was really, really big. Yeah. I mean, and then Converse took that model and made their own. The weapon looked exactly like a British Knight. Oh, OK. And so which is what Larry Bird and Magic Johnson wore.
00:17:16
Speaker
Right. So, yeah, I mean, you know, the models like British nice try to make a comeback, I think. Five, five, I know it's in high school, so it's got to be like 10 years ago, right? So they try to like come out and just do like a little small release and try to see if people could get in or like try to sell them out and stuff like that.
00:17:34
Speaker
They didn't work. Cause nobody knew like, even in my high school, nobody knew what they were until like, yeah, if you're really into basketball, you knew what they were. Cause a lot of basketball players were like, I think Dr. J wore them and stuff like that. Like, like elite basketball players were wearing them on the course because you know, they didn't have much to wear regardless on the courts, like in the sixties or seventies and not going to wear trucks every day. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I have a pair of, um, hombre gasson, uh, chucks that I love.
00:18:03
Speaker
but I don't wear them very often because I walk around them and my fucking feet hurt. Yeah. And I know Nike owns it now. So it's like, I think they like put a lot more like, yeah, they rework the soul on it. It's still not comfortable, man. That's not a, that's not good for you. I can't imagine playing basketball in though. Yeah. And they were playing with like cardboard. It was like a cardboard insole. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, basketball's Canadian. I suppose. I said instantly. I didn't mean that.
00:18:33
Speaker
Basketball's Canadian. That's so funny that we got that connection there. But yeah, I think going back to the shoes from England though, I think what happened is I was skateboarding right up to 1989, which again, back then, there was some skaters in our town now, it was getting better for it, but still so frowned upon.
Impact of Limited Sports Exposure on Sneaker Culture
00:18:58
Speaker
And, uh, and when I say frowned upon, I mean, like you, but you're going to get into some trouble with some kids, you know, it was all about soccer back then, you know, like we couldn't like, you know, the basketball shoes thing was a weird thing because like, if you imagine when I was growing up right until the age of like maybe 11, we only had three TV channels to choose from nothing else. So if you caught like what I would call American football or basketball, it was just like a highlight reel.
00:19:26
Speaker
but you would never see a full game or anything like that. So you're not really getting that influence of that part of the fashion, right? Like, and you are, it's coming over, but not the way it would have been for the States. Yeah, because that didn't translate with soccer coming over here.
00:19:44
Speaker
No. And what are you going to buy from soccer? You're not going to walk around in soccer shoes. No. Yeah. Yeah. That or like the kids, I think the kids started making more headway as like, like five years ago or something like that. Like people, people started getting really invested in the FIFA and then it started like getting bigger and people were in like the, cause I got two, I got two Brazil kids and I was just like, yeah, I got two. So.
00:20:12
Speaker
And that's crazy like growing up where I grew up because like I grew up through the era where the soccer of hooliganism was at such a high point that they were having to like whole task forces of the police were having to like take care of this. So I've been getting into fights where in like a Manchester United jersey, because I wasn't from Manchester. So I was from an area that like you could choose two teams, Newcastle or Sunderland.
00:20:37
Speaker
But even then you wouldn't want to like, I would literally not go to the city of Newcastle wearing a Sunderland jersey. You would get stabbed. That's crazy. I'm not joking. I'm not exaggerating. Like you were going to get crazy. Yeah.
00:20:52
Speaker
That whole like in the eighties and the early nineties, that whole soccer hooliganism thing is like, it's insane. It was like off the charts. Like I don't, it's still bad now. It was really off the charts and a lot of it was like ran by a lot of like fascist groups. Like there was a lot of like, um, white power people behind the whole thing that was like very racist and like, it was sad. It was just really sad to see such a cool sport go to the dogs like that and just be like, fuck, you know, like,
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's wild. I mean, just like, because I grew up, because I'm half Brazilian, so like I know a lot about football, you know, football. And so and so like my mom put me on and all that stuff. But like in Brazil, it's not like that. Like everybody is like.
00:21:38
Speaker
Uh, like there was no, like, Oh, you like both the Fogo, so you can't like, you know, this team or that team. But like, you know, my family is split down the middle between two teams. Like all the men love Vasco and all the women love, uh, Flamingo, which are two Brazilian teams that are like pretty prominent. And then like, but it was never to the point where we would be like, Oh, if I go outside in a Vasco Jersey, somebody's going to jump me. Like, it's body over it. Right.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, exactly and so like when I learned about the hooliganism and all that like craziness and how like even even recently with the arsenal TV and like how heavy those guys go on that just on a YouTube show like And I was just like, you know, this is like the craziest thing like there is nothing in like no like you can't even imagine like I
00:22:26
Speaker
uh, American equivalent to that because nobody goes that hard for any team. I mean, there's, I mean, maybe the bull, maybe the, the Buffalo bills, cause they throw the, they, I don't know if you ever seen those videos where they just throw each other on tables. Let me just tell you, dude, it's not the same. I'm going to fast forward in my life a little bit here. I moved to a city called York in England and I was working at a skate shop there. And this, this is right before I moved to Canada. So York had a pretty prominent, I think it was a third division team.
00:22:56
Speaker
if they were playing their rival team, like, cause everybody has that rival, right? If they're playing their rival team and that team, like they lost against that team and it was say like a Saturday, which most matches were on, the whole city would shut down. They'd have to pull shutters down over windows and the bars would not be open that night. Now I'm on about, this is probably the second or third largest tourist city in England.
00:23:25
Speaker
They'd be like, nope, no point. Cause we stay open or we don't put our shutters down. Everything's getting smashed. What? Oh, for a third level team. Yeah. Not even like on the main stage. That's so crazy. That's so crazy. Since you worked at a skate shop, what's the craziest thing you've seen at like, has anybody, did anybody try to like, during a game or something like that, try to like steal some shoes or something like that?
00:23:53
Speaker
We get people stealing stuff all the time. I think people have this real feeling that England's this point place where the queen lives, but when you're in it,
00:24:03
Speaker
It's really rough there, man. Like in certain areas. So yeah, we get people steal us all the time, but nothing to do with the games. Just like professional little kids that would try to steal stuff. Right. Uh-huh. Yeah. Just, just kid stuff. Right. Like, but yeah, I was going to say like one of the craziest things I ever like came across as far as skateboard and goes was I'm going to go back in time a little bit. Okay. Round about like 1990 91. So at that time, um, I think it was 89, sorry.
00:24:34
Speaker
This guy called Natas Kaupis, he had the first ever Etnies pro shoe. This is the Etnies start and Etnies used to be called something else. Um, but I kind of remember the first original sort of French name was for it, but yeah, it was, um, Etnies and it was started by a freestyle skateboard. It was on Brown and Yair or something. I kind of remember his name right now, but, uh,
00:24:57
Speaker
Anyway, I didn't know about that shoe. I'd never seen it and stuff like that. I kind of quit skateboarding at that point because I was just getting sick with the flack. I didn't have any other friends to skate with, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, 1993 comes along and I've been going to the ice rink, just learning how to ice skate because we do have hockey there, but it's not, it's nowhere near the same level. So we'd kind of skate around, hit the puck around, wasn't very good at it kind of thing. Anyway, in their pro shop,
00:25:24
Speaker
They have ice skates, but up on the shelf, they had in the boxes, these Nastacarpus shoes from Emmys. I was told to the lady, she and her husband used to have a skate shop down the country and they just happened to have some old stock left over and they had those shoes there.
00:25:40
Speaker
I remember thinking to myself, oh, I've never heard of that, but I knew the pro skater's name. In hindsight, if I bought all three pairs of those shoes, those shoes would be worth so much money now. It's insane. Like, and just kept them in their boxes. If you can have time machines just to zip around the world, you'd be like, buy this, like Jordan 1's in the black, white, red.
00:26:02
Speaker
or the red and white, just keep them in the, you know? Yeah, I mean, I wish I had a time machine. I had so many chances to buy stuff that now has gone up, you know, five times in price. Insane. But that's a crazy find. Did you weren't able to buy any pairs?
00:26:20
Speaker
No, I mean, I wasn't a rich kid, right? I wouldn't have been able to. I should have ganked them though. Look at this. I mean, she probably was like, they probably sat on that stock. I had to throw them away because if they're just hiding
00:26:36
Speaker
You're absolutely right. She probably threw the ice rink closed about three years later. Every time I'd go by there, they were still there just gathering dust. Eventually, I think they were just part of the furniture, you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely right. They could have just got bulldozed over when they knocked that place down. They didn't even know the gold that they had there. They didn't have any of the skate stuff. It was just those shoes.
00:26:58
Speaker
So crazy, man. I mean, you should have probably went in there and been like, hey, I know those are saying, you know, I'm a broke little kid. I love skating. Like, you got to be like playing it, play it up so much. I'm a broke little kid. I don't have any money. And then the problem is by the time by the time I would have done that, those shoes were so over.
00:27:16
Speaker
because they had big rubber things on the side. If I've gone to the skate park wearing those, you think the jocks at school are bad. Other skaters are worse, man. You're not wearing the coolest shit. You know what I mean? Where do you think most of my love for fashion and clothing comes from? It's just skateboarding, man. It's crazy. I have all the coolest shit all the time. Who are mom?
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah. The interesting thing was like, so later on in life, like when I could finally start to fall into like, well, my mom would buy me a pair of shoes.
Sneakers and Art: Russell's Career
00:27:51
Speaker
I would try to skate in and try to make them last more than a few months. Uh, my first pair of shoes was a pair of Ednies, the pair of Ednies skulls.
00:27:59
Speaker
And, uh, and then much later on, fast forward to like 2014, I actually did a pair of shoes for Edney. Oh, whoa. So that's kind of interesting, right? How that kind of, that's amazing, man. Well, it's kind of interesting how they all came about. They were just based off of one of their runners.
00:28:21
Speaker
And it's got like lurk on the side. Oh, wow. That is sick. I'm going to have to show the everybody about, uh, show everybody on Instagram. These I'll put, definitely post up a picture. Those are amazing. Yeah. You can find them online. Just put like lurk at knees. I can't remember what the model's called. Scout. Scout. Yeah. I doubt you can find any new anymore. Uh-huh. I think maybe only 500 pairs or something.
00:28:47
Speaker
That's like the circle just came, came around. So like, what did you, yeah, exactly. What did you, I guess, how did you, how did you tell them about your, your love of at knees? Uh, well, so I was sponsored by at knees. So that's what, so that's another, like, that's another part of that puzzle before this even happened. So with the Canadian distributor, I was sponsored by, um, at knees ultimate.
00:29:13
Speaker
Nixon watches and electric sunglasses, both my artwork, not from my skateboard. And I wasn't a bad skateboarder, but I was going to say, did you go pro and didn't tell me? Definitely not that level. I mean, I was, I was pretty good at skateboarding, but not like the level that people are pro.
00:29:31
Speaker
But my artwork was always doing pretty good. So this Canadian sponsor, there's a couple of sponsors, but they hooked me up. So I was like getting any stuff for free anyway, which kind of worked out nice because I was still skating at the time and I was getting free shoes.
00:29:47
Speaker
I didn't pay for clothing for like 10 years. That's sick. It's insane. Yeah. Um, the weirdest thing is I actually quit everything because I got, if I try to explain this before and I hope it doesn't come across like feeling entitled or I didn't appreciate them, but like, I just got sick of being clothed and dressed by somebody else. You felt like, I get you, you felt like you were a charity case at that point.
00:30:12
Speaker
So more like I just felt like I wanted to dress myself because I was so loyal that I wouldn't buy any of the clothes from any of the companies or any of the shoes. If I'm in and you're hooking me up, I'm going to be super loyal to you.
00:30:30
Speaker
I just got sick of just like being like, oh, I'm just like wearing the same stuff. And then this, that interesting is where my love for sneakers started coming again, because once I quit those sponsors, well now I can just buy whatever I want. Exactly. Yeah. You're not strictly having to wear at knees because you sign a or sign the at knees deal.
00:30:47
Speaker
Exactly, right? So then I just, yeah, that's when I started looking at the buying like Nikes and stuff again, I got the Vandals. I started looking into like, I always really liked the Air Max 1. That's still my favorite shoe to this day, you know? Never could afford them when I was a kid or I couldn't find them. So I started just buying all the different colors in them and then it's kind of got like out of hand, you know what I mean? Like, you know how it goes, right? I know how it goes. I'll show you my closet later.
00:31:17
Speaker
I mean, and also which I find funny because I was recently talking to somebody from England and they were saying that now, is it now or more recently Air Max ones have been like the go to shoe over there. Yeah. I think if you look on end, like that's a, it's a pretty good app for out of England. I think that, um, yeah, you'd probably be right. I think the Air Max one in the 90s are pretty big there.
00:31:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean Air Max culture like after Air Max day when Nike started making Air Max day a thing like it's it's it was it's it's interesting because over here Air Maxes they just they just flooded the market with all different types of Air Maxes over here and so like for
00:32:01
Speaker
for it to like have a specific, oh, you have the Yeezy, you have the Yeezy colorway airvaxes on today. No big people know about that one. Those, I wanted those. I have a story actually. I got, so me and my friend moved to, one of my best friends moved to Portland out of the blue, right? So he moves out to Portland. And so he's easily around more Nike stores because Nike's out there. And so he tells me, hey,
00:32:29
Speaker
I'm going to try to get a pair of those Yeezy Air Maxes for me and you. And I was like, yeah, for sure. He goes, but I need the money because I don't have any money. And I was just like, all right. So I sent him the money. He gets two pairs and he got his pair and he's like, all right, I just got to save up some money to send you your pair. I was just like, I was like, dude, I will send you the money. Just send me my pair.
00:32:52
Speaker
So all of a sudden the girl that he was seeing, they like break up and he leaves my pair of shoes in her house. Oh, what? And then she sends me a message because we all were friends at one point. She sends me a message. She's just like, hey, just give me your address. I'll send you your shoes.
00:33:14
Speaker
till this day, never gotten these shoes. Oh, I don't talk to her anymore. So, and they definitely don't talk to each other. They're pretty rare. I mean, like I've actually screwed these ones up. I totally like hooked up the toe on them. I didn't, I was moving some weirdest things. I'm so Canadian, but I was chopping wood one day, moving a wood pile.
00:33:37
Speaker
Oh, man. And I looked down, the whole front of the toes are just stained up and done. And they're pretty rare, right? Like, not many people even know that there was that Yeezy thing happen, right? Yeah. I mean, that whole thing, I mean, I think that whole thing was definitely just like, that colorway just ended up taking off and skyrocketing. Everybody was just like, oh, once they saw the Yeezy twos come out in that colorway and that black glow in the dark, I call it glow in the dark.
00:34:06
Speaker
infrared and then they made the Roshis and the Roshis just started going like crazy. Um, people wanted like $500 for a pair of those Roshis. I was just like, this is ridiculous. That's an ugly shoe. I haven't seen them go for like too expensive. I think maybe like 300 tops if they're brand new. Yeah, exactly. But like, I paid 150 for these in LA and they were like secondhand, but like looked brand new.
00:34:28
Speaker
Yeah. And I think it was just like after he left that they just, everybody just ran with it. Like now that's the easy colorway. Everything that Nike puts out in that specific black glow in the dark and infrared is now easy colorway. It is a dope colorway. You gotta, you gotta make a, a piece in that colorway. Let's see that happen.
00:34:49
Speaker
Yeah. It's so funny because I think a lot of like, like I was going to say fans of my art, but that sounds so pretentious. I think a lot of the people that follow my art and like my art are just not really sneaker people because I didn't call up. I did a co-lab with freehand profit and did like a really cool piece together. Yeah.
00:35:09
Speaker
And it just didn't really get any traction at all. I think, I definitely think, I don't think people know about Freehand and like, I seen it. The only, the only reason, only wave I seen it is like through Instagram ads. Right. Well, it's, it's a shame. It's like, he's an amazing artist, like his mask study makes out of stuff. Like my friend got the, um, he sent him two pairs of calls.
00:35:34
Speaker
the Jordan fours. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, had to make a cause mask.
00:35:41
Speaker
It's amazing. I didn't know how much it cost. I mean, the shoes were $2,000 a pair. So yeah, he's already four grand in right before he even makes the mask. I'd imagine the mask was close to 10 grand. Did he make those mask where was he the one that made the mask that they turn into gas mask? Like he made the gas mask.
00:36:05
Speaker
He's got a 3D printer, so he'll make fake gas mask pieces. Actually, my print that I did with him is one of the gas masks that he made on one of my characters kind of thing. Oh, I'm going to have to look that up. Yeah, I've got some left if you're interested.
00:36:23
Speaker
he's wearing like, you know, he's wearing Air Force ones and stuff. It's kind of interesting. But yeah, it just, and he was surprised too. So I don't, I've had this with my art before, like where I just don't always exactly know what scene I actually fit in.
00:36:38
Speaker
You know, I've done hip hop videos with my art and stuff like that and t-shirts for hip hop artists. But I've also done just as much stuff for like metal people and punk people. You know what I mean? So it's like, I always feel so like in limbo with what scene my art fits into and maybe it just fits into everything. I don't know. But, uh, yeah, with the sneaker thing, I thought like, yeah, for sure. This, I thought freehand profit, like most of the people that follow me had no idea what he is or why it would be important that he made a mascot of night, you know what I mean? Like they didn't care.
00:37:08
Speaker
Well, I mean, he definitely made a run during like early 2000s or something like that. And he was always on hypebeast.com. So like he, everything he put out was always featured on hypebeast.com. And then eventually they just stopped posting his stuff.
00:37:24
Speaker
So like he fall, like he fell out of favor, I guess, or something like that. But yeah. So there's that. And then on top of that, there's just, I think a lot of like the people that follow me just don't, I just don't care about sneakers. You know what I mean? Yeah. But you know, you are who you are. I don't think you should dictate your
00:37:41
Speaker
your taste off of your fans necessarily. You know what I mean? So yeah, I think I would make another piece of art with art with him tomorrow. I mean, I just love what he does. So yeah, exactly. Collaborations is definitely really cool. Like, even if it's like two people in two different worlds just meeting together, I'll always find like, yeah, like if you just see it and it connects with you, you're going to want it immediately. And that's how I am with sneakers as well, too. So.
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah. I've got, I've got some grailed sneakers that like, I haven't managed to get yet.
Avant-Garde Sneaker Designs as Art
00:38:16
Speaker
And I have some weird ones where I'm like, it's stuff that I want just based on the art of them. Oh, tell me about those then. I really love, I think it's the triple S the Balenciagas, the weird like wedge back kind of weirdest, ugliest shoe you've ever seen. I would buy a pair tomorrow and never wear them.
00:38:38
Speaker
I mean those are crazy those are but I like they're like similar to the I mean not similar but the one that comes up to mind is the Damn it, then I'm freaking blanked right there. What is it? Is it a cold wall?
00:38:52
Speaker
They have that like Air Max that has a big like thing on the back end of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a cold wall. Cold wall. Yeah. No, I like those. I think those, like, I think those plants are like, I think they're amazing. I mean, maybe I'm just in denial. Maybe I would wear them, but I just like.
00:39:12
Speaker
I just think like from an artist and like a person that studied art and design, graphic design and fine art. When I look at those, I'm like, yeah, that's art. Like they are ugly. Like they're the worst looking shoe in the world in some ways. But in that ugliness, I just find this like this really cool art to them. Um, another one that I really want, which I actually like the look of is the fear of God's the high top. Yeah. I fucking love that shoe, man.
00:39:36
Speaker
Those, those, those piqued my interest and it's, it's definitely because of the shape. It's a brand new shape. Like nobody's, nobody's done something like that. Like I like the, wait, are we talking about the Nike ones or are we talking about the fear of God, like actual brand? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cause look like we're up to the back of the future too. Yeah, exactly. And then they look like, like, uh, socks, like running socks, basically. Yeah. Um, I thought, I thought they were very interesting. I didn't, I didn't get behind it because of the price. They all dropped it like,
00:40:05
Speaker
$250,500 around that range. Well, they're $1,200 on gold right now. Yeah, I mean, yeah, he left Nike and now he's a Adidas boy, so... Oh, really? Yeah, he recently left Nike because they weren't letting him do what he wanted to do, which sounds crazy, but, you know...
00:40:24
Speaker
They were just like, Adidas was just like, here's a lot of money and now he's on Adidas and he's probably going to make more crazy form shoes like Kanye because they gave Kanye free reign of a factory, basically. So he's going to get that chance. Oh, cool looking. Again, I would never like go out of my way to buy them something like the like the weird clogs and like the stuff like that. I'm just like the shoes made out of algae.
00:40:49
Speaker
Yeah, but like also like, how can we move into the future if we just keep buying the same? Yeah, exactly. Like, I mean, like, again, I don't think I'd ever wear a pair, but would I like a pair on the shelf just to like, look at them? Yeah, sure. Of course. You know what I mean? Cause there is still an art to it. There's even when they, you know, like when you go back to like 19 Adidas and stuff and like how they like design all those first shoes, there was an art to that. There's always an art to it. It's not just like they get thrown together. You know what I mean? Like, yeah.
00:41:17
Speaker
What's that? Tinker Hatfield, right? Like it's the Nike guy, right? The main Jordan designer. Yeah, exactly. Right. So like, yeah, I mean, I don't know, man, there's, there's so many shoes out there. I like a lot of the, I like the, like the classic Gucci, Paul, Paul Smith, Stan Smith, Stan Smith, Stan Smith, Stan Smith. I love that shoe.
00:41:41
Speaker
Bougie. Yeah. I was just going to say that's the, uh, well here, the, well, I call it the hipster, the hipster basics. Like you just gotta, if you're a basic hipster, that's the first shoe you buy to have. I mean, you can get a vegan, you can get the vegan version for like 50 bucks and they'll still look the same. And then you complete the look. You just gotta be vegan. You gotta be like, you know, wear a hemp sweater and like,
00:42:09
Speaker
some vegans dance moves. I do like the Gucci runner as well. Like I was at a wedding a couple of years ago and the guy that I know now, he's a good guy. He's just like buys a lot of Gucci stuff and he's not like a friend or anything. Like he's just like a really, he's actually a really interesting guy. He's like probably makes a lot less money than me, but he just got obsessed with fashion and he saves up all your
00:42:34
Speaker
walks everywhere or takes the bus, lives as simple as possible. Just so you can go to like Vancouver once a year. And he goes to the Gucci store and he buys himself, he treats himself to something. That's commitment right there, man. And like, honestly, dude, he's taken a few years to collect pieces, but he really looks after them. He really respects them. He's not like me, like I'm a bit of a chunky dude, but like, he's like a tall, skinny guy. So that clothing looks good on him. You know what I mean? It's kind of meant for a dude like that. He's got like long, he looks the part, right?
00:43:03
Speaker
Really cool guy. And he had a pair of them on camera. They called right now, but the ones that have like the big side prints and stuff like that. And they're like, they look like a dad shoe, basically like a running shoe. Yeah. They look like, uh, um, uh, monarchs. They look like chunky monarchs. Totally. Yeah. So you had a pair of those and I was like, well, they didn't look as bad in real life as I thought they would. You know what I mean? And then it's like, I wonder if that's what would happen if I got those Balenciaga's and I'm like, Oh, they're not that bad.
00:43:32
Speaker
I mean I find it interesting that you are you you like the shoes that are outside the box right and you look at them and you're like these this is art like this is art they're taking chances this is art what continues to make you cop sneakers that are still the same model that everybody else wears then
00:43:54
Speaker
Well, okay. So like, as I said, like mainly, like it's mainly Air Max ones. It's just colorways at this point. Materials and colorways. My daughter had a pair made for me for Christmas. Yeah. With her own money, dude. She works at a grocery store. Dude, I cried. I cry. I'm about to cry right now. She's 16 years old, man. She's making her own money and she bought them. And we both know like when you get Nike IDs, like they're not cheap, man. No, they're not. Yeah. Cool kid, dude. Like I think.
00:44:23
Speaker
Canadian, they work out like 300 bucks after ship. Yeah, the shipping's got to be crazy because customs is going through China. And I'm on an island. Oh, and you're on an island. Oh my goodness. I got extra shipping. Anyway, she had them made a really cool dope colorway. I'll send you a picture later. And on the back of the heels, she got Papa Road.
00:44:44
Speaker
Dude, like, waterfall. Yeah, I would have been crying, man. I've had some shoes made for her and stuff like that, so she wanted to return the favor, I think, and now that she's making her own money and stuff, I was just like, damn, that's so cool. That is so cool.
00:45:00
Speaker
So like, yeah, so for the MX1s, for me, it's just mainly materials and stuff like that. I like sort of like bougie stuff. I've got some other stuff here. I know people can't see it because we're just talking, but this company I'm all about is human recreation services, recreational services. So I like kind of like bougie stuff for dressing up as well. These are nice made in Italy. Wow. That crocodile. Yeah.
00:45:31
Speaker
My goodness. Those weren't, those weren't cheap, but they're, uh, I'm pretty stoked on them. Uh, I like stuff like that too, but like, I mean, mainly it's the Air Max ones that I collect. I got a pair of new balancers recently off of, and I won like an auction for them or whatever. Can't remember which model they are, but they were made in England. Really cool colorway, you know? That's dope. I think like.
00:45:59
Speaker
I mean, well, a runner is always, I feel like it's definitely you, for me, it's, you have to have a couple like Air Max's or Air Max 95, you know, like, because those are, those are shoes there are, I feel like they're very dependable. Um, cause like you can turn to them for comfort and then you can also just like kind of trash them and they still look good. Yeah, totally. Well, I think I'm going to.
00:46:25
Speaker
There's a few that are like kind of just gathering a little bit of dust. Yeah. I don't keep them in like nice boxes or anything like that. They just sit around. I'm not, I'm not like one of those guys. And I don't care if that's what people do either. So I think that's me. I keep them in boxes. Sorry. I'm going to give a bunch of pairs to homeless people. A lot of like homeless issue in our little town. So like,
00:46:47
Speaker
I figured like some of them, man, like I haven't like touched them in months and months and months, right? So it's, I think just pass them on, let somebody else get some use out of them. I feel like I'm going to actually downsize my collection, if anything, and just have like really specific pieces that are like, you know, nice and what I really, really, really want. You know what I mean? Um, because yeah, like I saw the other day, like,
00:47:10
Speaker
We've got the dry event that comes out of the house and I've also been doing some yard work and I've got a pair of Air Max 1 sitting below the dry event outside and they're just covered in lint. Oh my goodness.
00:47:20
Speaker
And I'm like, it's not because I'm like, Ooh, I'm loaded or anything. It's just like, I'll forget about it. Yeah. Forget about it. Yeah. Clean is all over the place sometimes. So I'm like, well, if they're sitting there just in the cold covered in lint, man, like some dude will fucking wear these, like, you know, keep his feet warm at least. You know what I mean? Yeah. I feel you. Um, I know you mentioned to me that you definitely customize shoes.
Challenges in Customizing Shoes
00:47:42
Speaker
So how about, let's, let's talk about like, what are, what are, what have you done to some, some pairs?
00:47:49
Speaker
Well, just paint it mainly. I just do the whole like Angelus paint on what they call Air Force Ones, white Air Force Ones. I tried it a couple of times, sold them, but it was hard to sell them. So I just kind of shied from it to be honest. I felt like everybody was kind of doing it.
00:48:13
Speaker
it was a saturated market in a sense. And the price that I've won for them, because like I have an hour, I just have an hourly rate. Right. You know how like people are like, Oh, how much is this going to cost? I'm just like, well, it's this minimum charge and then this much money in an hour past that kind of thing. Right. It's just how like this paint and I'm doing, I'm doing right now, like all that sort of stuff. It's just hourly rate. Right. So I'd start, I mean, like, man, I was like taping a pair of
00:48:39
Speaker
Air Force Ones, it took me half a day just to get the tape right. I wanted to airbrush them. And so I was just like, I got to charge at least like $500 a pair. And then it was, that was like pulling teeth a little bit. I had like actual solid gold lace locks made for them that said lurk.
00:48:58
Speaker
So those ones went up to 700. Yeah. I sold them, but it's, it's a lot, a lot harder than, it's a lot more work, a lot harder than just like doing a painting. You know what I mean? And it's also not a malleable, like.
00:49:15
Speaker
canvas as opposed to just like an actual just straight, you know, straight line canvas. You have to like go around the shoes or crevices. You gotta, you gotta pull, you know, yeah. The different, different textures too. So yeah, that's why I'm trying to stick with like the white leather air force ones kind of thing. I think it's like, it's kind of most people's go to shoe for painting. Yeah. Um, I did have something set up. There's a guy.
00:49:42
Speaker
out of Tasmania, who's become quite famous now. He did like shoes for Kevin Hart. He's a friend of mine. He makes shoes from like bespoke, right? So he just does it from the soul up in his name. Actually, he'd be a good person for you to talk to. I mean, I've loved to, I've talked to anybody. Yeah. He's, um, bring your daughter on here. Let's talk about how she, how his name's chase. I'll put you in contact with him.
00:50:11
Speaker
He's crazy. So him and one of my coworkers, my coworker used to live in New Zealand, they started just making shoes together. And then he had like a little bit of a storefront going on and Nike caught wind of it and sent him like a cease and desist. But they realized that he was getting so good at making the shoes that now they actually, he can just buy soles from them direct.
00:50:33
Speaker
Pretty dope, right? And I think that's super dope, like shoe surgeon and stuff like that. Right. So like it went from him, like almost getting sued by them to like, you know, he's night night night. Now he contacts me and he gets souls and stuff. But anyway, he wanted to make a pair of shoes with me and he sent me some, um, I don't have it here anymore, but it sent me some Python leather. Wow.
00:50:55
Speaker
Yeah, he got it like illegally. It came out of like Africa or something. Oh, no. Oh, no. It was like, allegedly, allegedly don't want to get, um, but like, yeah. So he said to me, and I guess it had been treated with something. And, um,
00:51:16
Speaker
I went to paint it and the paint just wouldn't stick to it. And these are long. I went about, these things were fucking nine feet long, dude. Like you couldn't hardly fit them in my studio when I unrolled them. They're only this wide, super long. So I was going to paint characters on it, send them the leather back, and then he was going to make shoes out. Oh man, that would have been sick. I know, dude. It just didn't, it just didn't happen. And in lots of ways, like I'm glad it didn't because like, to be honest, like when I put the first coat on, on the leather,
00:51:45
Speaker
I tell it wasn't sticking probably it wasn't curing. Right. But as soon as I did that, the scales started lifting as well. And I was like, this is going to be a pain in the ass. Yeah. You'd have to repaint pile like 600 times probably just to even get it to stick. You'll never get a good line and always look a bit off, right?
00:52:02
Speaker
So anyway, that didn't happen, but it would be nice to do a shoe with him one day. Like I said, he just did shoes with Kevin Hart. His shoes are fucking dope and he's super down to earth, super nice kid. And he's pretty young. He's not my age. He's probably maybe only 30, maybe. And he's killing it, dude.
00:52:22
Speaker
Like, so maybe I'll get you in contact with that guy. I would love to talk to him. That's like having that experience. Cause I remember when, uh, like they, they do that bespoke program at, uh, 21 Mercer here, which is like their, uh, the Nike extension that's here that they.
00:52:39
Speaker
They like, hey, there's a shop owned by somebody and then they like collabed with Nike to open it up. And then they had a bespoke program there and you can, you pay like a thousand dollars, I think it was a thousand dollars and you could build the shoe. They have the model and everything. You could build the shoe from the ground up in their, in their, like in their basement. And it was crazy. Like, but they just recently defunct it. So now there is no, like you can't even get bespoke shoes anymore. But I remember people telling me that
00:53:08
Speaker
I'm going to save up a couple thousand just to make sure I can, you know, get this and like, it's all high premium leather. And I'm just like, this is just crazy. I mean, it's, it's cool, but there's like a sad part of that as well. And the sad part of that is like, yeah, you just built that shoe and somebody else just gets paid like 10 cents to build. Yeah, it is. And I think I've been leaning a little bit more towards that way of thinking, like I'm starting like,
00:53:33
Speaker
get things that are like more made in Italy, Portugal, you know, stuff like that. Like where it's just made, they're made really well. You might pay a little bit more, but I'm starting to like, it's almost like the, at least things happening to me again, where I'm getting a little bit more conscious of where these shoes are coming from and what they're about.
00:53:50
Speaker
Whereas I know, like if you buy that, say, Gucci shoe, I've spoke to people that know people that work there, like, and they're like, no, they're, those people are tread very well. It's all like union and stuff like that. They're paid really well. There's nobody getting ripped off kind of thing. It's made insanely well. Like for instance, I have a Gucci hat that I got from, um, gray old.
00:54:13
Speaker
They told me it was a fucking large, wasn't a large, it was like a kid's large. It wouldn't even go in my dome, dude. And then when I tried to send it back, they just sent me a message back laughing at me. And I was like, fuck, 400 dollar hat, dude. So anyway, I don't want to do that because don't fuck with me. It doesn't fit my wife and it doesn't fit my kid either. It's for like a baby, basically. Anyway, so I was going to send it to a friend and she was going to make a mask for it. I was like, well, you know what? I can get a mask made for COVID kind of thing. That'd be cool. She's a seamstress.
00:54:43
Speaker
didn't want to touch it. Cause she said that thing was made so fucking well that she didn't even want to like break any part of it. Cause she was like, I'm like, no, don't worry about it. I'm not going to do anything. No, I just want to touch it. She was so scared to open it up and start looking at it. Cause she was like, she's like, you got to understand. Like she's like, I'm looking at this. She's like, I'm a seamstress. She was like, there is not one stitch out of place on this whole hat.
00:55:10
Speaker
I was like, damn. That's crazy. And that's what you're paying for because you can get that Jordan in the crazy colorway. Fucking things, a piece of shit is going to fall apart. You know what I mean? But like when you start getting into that other sort of level of things, I don't know, man, like from my experience so far, like I don't, I don't buy Gucci brand new. I buy secondhand Gucci stuff and I don't buy it very often, maybe once a year, but, uh, the quality is insane.
00:55:35
Speaker
You're selling me on Gucci's. Everybody that has come on here has been selling me on expensive stuff, man. That's what I'm saying. Save up for the one or two t-shirts instead of buying 20 shitty ones.
00:55:50
Speaker
You know what I mean? Where like the people that made those, maybe like, yeah, it does help out their economy in a sense, but like, they're not getting paid well. Like, you know what I mean? Even in the skateboard industry, man, like they're not paying people well, dude. Like, you know, I make that shoe for Etnies. I thought I was going to get a down payment on a house. Barely got a down payment on a meal. You know what I'm saying?
00:56:12
Speaker
I just think like there's better ways to do things. And like, I don't think it's for everybody. And I understand, you know, I mean, like I'm saying, like I'm not balling, dude. I don't make millions of dollars or anything. I just save up or buy stuff secondhand. You know what I mean? Just try to be more conscious of that stuff. Saying that when that new, you know, Air Max drops, probably going to buy it.
00:56:37
Speaker
You know what you should do is you should hit up your boy the one that you put me in contact with tell him to see if he can get Air Max bottom and then you just do a super high quality air max Yeah enough to figure out how to do all that shit though I mean you just tell him you'd be like hey, I want these to be super high quality They're like four grand though
00:57:05
Speaker
Hey, you said save up, be more conscious about it. I put my money where my mouth is now. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I want you to come back on here and you'd be like, you know what, that pair of Air Maxes, I got them. Full leather, a tent-a-toe, even the laces. I put some gloves on and he's like, just grab him one second. There's like a couple of security guards behind me, open the box.
00:57:28
Speaker
you got like a light come down as yo is it the unveiling unveiling of the lurk ones i mean that'll be crazy if you could do that that would be crazy because you know or you can pull i mean i i don't know i never really got into gucci and i also
00:57:49
Speaker
You're making a great point because you're saying that high fashion or, you know, high fashion takes more time to be put together. That's why it's all it's all well made. And like they actually instead of a factory in China doing it for Nike and then just these people are getting paid poorly. So the work is going to be done poorly. Yeah, or more. It's not even like poorly. I mean, like, I think that's unfair to the people that are making them wherever it's made.
00:58:19
Speaker
I think just like you can only make it to the level that that company wants you to. Right. And in the terms of speed, cause like I've always said, and you know, you know, you've heard this and while you've studied graphic design, you can only you out of three things, right? I think it's three things, quality time, quality time. And what's the third one? Oh my God. Uh,
00:58:44
Speaker
Polytime and money, you can only use two out of the three in anything that you do. One is gonna suffer out of the three, so you can only use two out of the three. So if you're gonna spend more money, you're gonna get better quality, but it's gonna take more time. If you want it done fast, if you want it done fast, it's gonna be less in quality.
00:59:09
Speaker
Uh, and then you save money. So like, you know, the, the, in an event diagram, that's the only way you can try to get it to work. Um, and so, yeah. And the thing is like, I mean, I'm talking about Gucci and again, I've got to like stress that like, I'm not coming on here trying to be like, I'm like a baller. Like I'm buying this stuff mainly second. Right. Uh, my wife got me a Gucci wallet for Christmas. Again, I cried, but she doesn't make great money, but she, again, she saved up and like Gucci wallet isn't
00:59:38
Speaker
I'm not going to say the price, but you can go online and you can see how much the wallet is. Right. I was amazed that you did that. You know what I mean? And I'm going to cherish that wallet. Even if that wallet wasn't a designer, like, which I do love it, I would still just cherish it. Right. And I'll keep it for us until that fucking wallet, like, wears the fuck out. And I think that's kind of what I'm trying to do a little bit more. And what I was going to say, it doesn't have to be Gucci level. There's, there's mid levels in there. Like, you know what I mean? There's other companies in Italy that are making stuff that are making the same sort of factories.
01:00:06
Speaker
that aren't costing like $600, maybe it's $200. But like stuff like what I'm wearing right now, the Comme de Gassant Play made in Japan. I mean, it's still not cheap, but I think in US, you can probably get it for like $100 a t-shirt. Right. Yeah. And the quality of these, I've got like four or five of these t-shirts. They're amazing. I know I've always wanted one, but they don't come in my size. So.
01:00:28
Speaker
Oh, they really, like what size in the US do you wear? Uh, they're around XL, XL, uh, yeah. XL. So Japanese XL is not, uh, American XL. Yeah. Yeah. You're the same as me, dude. Yeah. Double XL. Yeah. But so that's what I'm saying. Like every time I try to go buy one of these, they're never, there's never, I've never been able to get a pair and get a double XL and double XL in them. You definitely can. Yeah. That's what all of mine are.
01:00:58
Speaker
I'm trying to get, I'm trying to get a one. I need one. And so keep an eye on these as well, because they have done runs where they will be made somewhere else. So you can get the Japanese ones, which the quality again is like super high. Um, but yeah, that you, you've got to check the label before you buy it kind of thing. Cause sometimes you'll get one a bit cheaper and you'd be why. And it's because it's been made somewhere else. It's probably production issues due to COVID.
01:01:28
Speaker
But yeah, so this is an interesting talk about Conga's song. Down from my, because I have a tattoo studio as well as doing all the painting and stuff like that, I own a tattoo studio. So down from my business, the other business that I own.
01:01:43
Speaker
there's a little Japanese restaurant there. So I go in there wearing this and obviously it's a Japanese brand, right? So they're all pretty stoked on it. They're pretty young people that work there and they're like, Oh, that's so cool. And then they're broken English. They're explaining to me that in Japan, people will come along on the street sometimes with like almost like a hot dog cart and it'll be full of Comme de Gasson play t-shirts in different colors. And people will just run up to it, buy a bunch and then leave. And it's just like empty kind of thing. What?
01:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, I thought it was the coolest. That sounds so cool. Yeah. We need more of those over here. I know that's getting a little bit off sneakers.
01:02:19
Speaker
This is an everything podcast. I like to talk about sneakers to start off and then, you know, it's just about you and like, you know, sneakers in your life. And obviously sneakers played a part in your life. And I always thought that it's a good through line. But as we end to the towards the end of the podcast, I would like to know what does the thrill of the hunt mean for you?
The Thrill of the Sneaker Hunt
01:02:44
Speaker
Hmm.
01:02:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I've definitely discovered that it's definitely more about the buy than the receive so many times I'll get like that new balance pair that I was talking about. I've never, I haven't actually, I've had them three or four weeks. I didn't even put them on my feet yet.
01:03:04
Speaker
I just, I don't know what it is. I do like the collect part. I do like the, like, I don't know whether it's a little bit of an online shopping section, but it's like, I do like the, like, Oh, there's that color. I found it. I hunted it down. This is the one. And then sometimes when I get it, it's a little bit like anticlimactic, to be honest. I don't know what that's all about. And you might find that happens with a lot of people. I don't know. Um, so yeah, I think the thrill of the hunt for me is just the, the searching out on the internet is the biggest thrill.
01:03:35
Speaker
like finding that one that I couldn't quite get this one place up, but I found it here. Maybe it's even a bit cheaper. That's my thing. And I get it. I'm like, I'm stoked on it. I'm going to wear them, but like it's not the biggest part of it.
01:03:46
Speaker
No, yeah, I totally get that. I've always, I mean, impulse buys are part of life at this point. So, but I mean, I totally relate to that. And I mean, recently I bought a pair of Uptowns or Air Force Ones off of McCarrie. And the soonest I hit checkout, I was just like, no, I didn't want these. So.
01:04:11
Speaker
And I got them today. But you know, the upside, I have to look at the upside of it, is that it came with three pairs of socks in it because the guy forgot to took out his socks inside there. So I just got to wash them and I got three pairs of socks. So Russ, tell everybody where they can find you, man.
Follow Russell on Social Media
01:04:32
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, if you guys are using Instagram, like I think most people are in the world, it's lurk loves you. I'm also on the new app choice, uh, which is going to be the next biggest thing in my opinion. And don't worry, I'm not sponsored by them or anything. They just seem like nice people as lurk loves you as well. So that's choice app as lurk loves you or Instagram as lurk loves you. What's a choice about?
01:04:54
Speaker
Choices more like an online magazine, to be honest. It's like, so they're going to like invite say like artists like myself who can submit work to it, but then say like you join, they might not, you might not get those privileges, but you'll be able to look at the magazine.
01:05:09
Speaker
That's free, no advertising, and I like it. It's got like a swipe left, swipe right for your choices of things that you like. So it's got a little bit of a dating app feel in a sense. But a picture will come up if you don't really want to see pictures like that and you swipe left. If you want to see more of that, you swipe right and they'll have a little bios on the people and stuff like that. I've been talking to the guys that developed the app. Like one guy, he's an app developer, seems like a super nice guy. The other guy's a good dude like me. He does the same sort of painting. He used to go to art shows all the time in SF and he just really wanted to have that art show feel in an app.
01:05:39
Speaker
Uh, that's called choice. So like I'm on there as lurk loves you. It's going to be launching fully in the next couple of weeks. You can kind of get on there right now and yeah, Instagram. And then that's about it. I don't really like to get con like I have Facebook member fuck uses that anymore. Yeah. Give your number out though.
01:05:58
Speaker
You know, it was a pleasure having you on and great conversation. Hopefully you'll get that pair of custom bespoke Air Maxes and then you come back on. I'll send you this guy's profile and you're going to be pushing me even harder when you see how good he is. Yeah, for real. But you know what I say at the end of every episode for everybody out there? Wear your kicks. Peace. Okay. Peace.