VINTAGE SNEAKER VAULT UNCOVERED!

As a collector and a fan, the enormity of this kind of unchartered territory is very difficult to stomach. In a passionate yet predatory fashion I found myself grabbing at boxes, grasping inside them to expose not only the kicks, but original monogrammed tissue paper lining, promotional product information inlay cards [Jordan Flight Club membership anyone?] and more color-ways of anatomical supports than you could shake a shoe-horn at.

After speaking with and inviting a carefully chosen number of other trainer nuts to the store, I firmly believe that there isn’t another cache of this size in the UK or maybe even Europe. Who knows, this could be a complete one-off world wide!

As I brush the dust off a box with ‘Clockwork Orange’ colored Air Trainer 3 SCs inside there’s a cry from across the ‘Bay of Broken Dreams’ [actually it’s the bay containing all the Air Max]. Behind the shelves I hear my mate Rixx yelping in elation, ‘Holy Fuck, look at these Jordans!!’, it seems he’s uncovered a box of original Air Jordan 10s with the MVP details on the sole, in Carolina Blue. Then he shows me a box of baby sizes and kid’s Jordan 1s but my immediate broodiness is overwhelming. Then another whoop and more expletives, “Jeeesus, there’s more Jordan’s here” as he discovers a box full of O.G. 3s in white and black.

As I return to where I’d been dusting off the top layer of a stack of Huarache Internationals, some Puma boxes catch my peripheral vision. I look with trepidation at the boxes but sadly I find few styles of note. Then it hits me, a box that says Basket Leather. As someone that has a penchant for and owns a number of Baskets, Super Baskets and Clydes in several colors, I virtually soil myself as I lift the lid. At first it’s the grid-pattern gum sole, then my eyes light up as I discover the all leather White on White Puma baskets with White laces and a perforated flash. Perfection.