TROOP & SPX FEATURE!

Were you a bit surprised to see the Street Slam again last year?
Yeah, somebody said to me, ‘Your shoes are in FHM.’ I couldn’t believe it but there they were: full page. And we were down in Covent Garden and I saw them in Size down there. They were a bit crisper than the Korean models, and much, much better than the Portuguese ones.

So you must have wondered how the brand was resurrected all of a sudden?
It did surprise me. I think people think they’re older than they are. People have the impression they’re a ‘70s thing when it was really a late ‘80s thing, which doesn’t seem that long ago to me. Hence the boombox packaging they put in the relaunch. You wouldn’t have done that in ‘89 because a boombox was already history then. So, yes, it did seem a little bit strange.

They were retailing for about 50 to 60 pounds near on 20 years ago. That’s quite a hefty price for that time.
I think you’re quoting trade prices. Some of those shoes were selling for over 100 pounds.

Jeepers creepers!
Yeah, easy. Which is one of the reasons why that sort of stuff stopped selling when the economy went a bit wonky: people just couldn’t afford them.

100 quid is a sky high price nowadays... did the hefty price also make people want them?
Well, obviously it made them desirable, but if no-one can afford to buy them the market tends to die a bit.