We are passionate about shoes.
The variety, design, functions, styles – everything. More than any other piece of clothing or wearable accessory, shoes are the perfect blend of form and function. They inspire and excite us. Moving beyond just design, we feel shoes are special in a cultural and societal context. They provide insight and context to society and life as we know it. Most importantly – they transcend boundaries and politics and bridge social divides and cultures. Shoes are fascinating, unique, and even enigmatic. Shoes have interesting stories to tell and we are here to tell them.
Meet Jared
One sunny day in 1991 in Southern California, 10-year old Jared was minding his own business on the school playground, when he experienced a life changing event. A kid walked past him, wearing the COOLEST sneakers he had ever seen! Compared to all the other shoes kids were wearing that day, these jet black shoes with infrared accents just SIZZLED. You couldn’t help but gawk at them. What WERE these high-top masterpieces? What sort of wizardry could concoct such perfect, flashy supercars for the feet? It was this exact point in time, the sneaker head beast was permanently awakened.
It started innocently enough. Jared’s waking thoughts were almost exclusively consumed with these Air Jordan black and red infrared 6’s (when not thinking about hopefully scoring one of those new Nintendo Entertainment Systems for his upcoming birthday or Christmas). When Reebok pumps started showing up at school, these competed for daydream space with the Air Jordans. Then came L.A. Gears, Nike Air Command Forces, Nike Air Raids, Reebok Blacktop Hexalites, and it just snowballed from there. High school came, with the shoe obsession turning to Vans Old Skools, Airwalk Random, Simple, Etnies, and DC Syntax’s, to name a few. As time progressed, the shoe passion became an obsession, which has inevitably turned into an addiction.
Decades later, Jared is an attorney by day and a shoe collector/podcaster by night. With an ever-growing collection of retro Air Jordans, he is always on the lookout for cool and interesting new shoes. He is excited to share his passion and excitement for shoes with you.
Meet Nick
Possibly one of the most enthusiastic sneakerheads out there without an actual shoe collection to speak of, Nick’s first shoe love was an old pair of hand-me-down cowboy boots he wore pretty much 24/7 from ages 2-5. At the same time, he was obsessed with watching “Michael Jordan: Come Fly With Me” as often as possible, and recreating those highlights in the driveway as best as a four year-old could.
As a huge MJ fan, that fandom quickly turned to the shoes, and all basketball shoes in general. The first pair of shoes he got to pick out was a set of white on black Reebok Swingman shoes in the fourth grade, the ones with the white embroidered “88” on the back which allowed you to color in your own number. In fifth grade, the moment he knew he had arrived, he saved up for a pair of 1997 Jordan Jumpman Pro breds (out of impatience to save up for the higher-priced Air Jordans).
To this day, Nick loves and studies history, sports, and is a firm believer that shoes make the outfit. If he could pick any two pair of Jordans, he would pick Air Jordan 6 “Maroons” to wear, and Air Jordan 11 “Columbias” to look at.
