SOLD SCHOOL - HIP HOP SNEAKERS

One of my closest friends has a history in trainers, he loves them, he buys them every month, he pays fair prices for incomparably impressive shoes. He keeps tabs on new releases each month, he doesn’t waste time looking for things he doesn’t need or want and he isn’t registered on Niketalk. He most certainly doesn’t need to share his wish list with anybody other than his fiancée and closest mates, with whom he shoots the gift regularly, and with a certain verbosity.

He’s a self-confessed ‘media type’ in his early Thirties. Picture Bobby, son of Hank Hill from animation masterpiece King of the Hill, in modest sartorial attire and the freshest basketball plimsoles known to man, then you’ve got a ball-park mental picture. He’s got more than a handful of dope kicks. It’s not some ridiculously stocked quiver of doom that would shame the back room boys at Nike, nor is it some over-whelming collection that he needs to share with the world on-line.

Essentially it’s just an ensemble of some seriously sick trainers that you just don’t get to see everyday, not because they’re old and not because they’re limited or quick-strike - put simply, just some copacetic creps. This is a man that has an incontestable knowledge and relation with ‘Athletic shoes’ partly because of where he was born, partly because of his cultural upbringing, and partly because of his vivid cinematic and musical background.
Let’s call this pal of mine Murder Dog, or MD. Some of his closer cronies actually refer to him as ‘Murder’. His familiarity, understanding and irrefutable knowledge of the Hip-Hop sub-genre Thug/ Gangsta’ Rap is faultless - hence the title bestowed upon him.

I wanted to pick his brains on the sneaker industry and what it’s become over recent years. He isn’t a forum hogging teen, he’s a grown-ass man! He’s also worked in Hip Hop journalism for a number of years. MD recently commented on the retinue within the sneaker game. Not that he is some sneak-snob, fuggetaboutit, this man has nothing but love for the game. MD grew up listening to Rap music, his early teenage years were spent skateboarding, watching BMX videos and as with most in his demographic during the Eighties, he found himself deeply ensconced in pop culture and specifically American youth culture. His embryonic involvement with sportswear, and in particular, sneakers, was founded during these years. ‘You know what, I remember the first time I ever saw an Air Jordan, I remember the first pair of real trainers I ever had, remember why I wanted them’ he recalls.