Sneaker Freaker

It was at this point that we were associating different sections of pop-culture, joining the dots between Thrasher et al and the sleeve of LL Cool J’s classic first album ‘Radio’ eg. LL stands tall in the famous arms-folded B-Boy stance wearing a pair of the very same Jordans. In the UK we had no basketball on TV, we had no idea who Jordan was, we couldn’t tell how many points he’d scored. In contrast, American homes and these basketball games were as prevalent in their front rooms as the wallpaper, these shoes were being worn by all and sundry; Mums, Dads and Kids alike. ‘It was still a secretive thing, a shaving of a sub-culture even’ he describes, these were the divisions of what originally seemed distantly related, the correlation between Hip-Hop, Skateboarding and what evolved into the largest youth culture market in history.

MD describes how he watched TV shows like A-Team, Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, even family orientated shows like Hart to Hart. He explains how his observant ways led him to spot these bizarre looking shoes on the feet of the actors. ‘I had no idea why I thought what Mr. T was wearing was cool, I just did, he was cool! He had on some simple Hi-Top basketball shoes, that’s all I remembered’. This was well before the gaudy imagery we witness so much of today, these were simple designs with simple lines and colors that had us hooked as kids, mostly white leather with a discreet colored trim and matching swoosh. We needed to know how to look this cool ourselves.

‘During the Seventies, holidays abroad were unheard of, but as the Mid-Eighties crept up on us, like home coin-ops, and video players, affordable inexpensive foreign trips seemed to be on the radar a lot more’ he admits. Trainers were a lot more evident at this stage, even in sleepy Essex, on the outskirts of London. ‘I’d go on holiday and see more and more of these shoes on racks in local sports stores’, his Mum making the first purchase on arrival back on home turf. I was ten, I needed some new shoes for sports’ he recollects with a glint in his eye. Murder’s first pair were probably Nike Glory, he can’t remember exactly as so many were all so bloody similar according to him. ‘The toe box was mesh, they were canvas and they were White with a Burgandy tick and matching under-sole’.

Trainers were becoming a lot more evident at this stage, even in sleepy Essex, on the outskirts of London. ‘There certainly weren’t any stores stocking huge amounts of Nike Bruins or adidas Fleetwood, the tiny levels of stock had been so randomly low-key, but it was still thrilling to see’.