(5/8) 2023: SneakerCon day 1

As is with most things, I think I saw the ad on IG: 'Sneakercon headed to the Bay Area'...and this time, instead of ignoring it, I knew I had to figure out a way to make it happen. Why? I think I just wanted some validation. Or I was bored. Or...I dunno...tired of being left out. I figured...at worst...I'd lose a few bucks. At most...I'd learn more about my 'target demographic'. And maybe I'd be able to get a few eyes on my product that wouldn't have landed there anyway. Maybe a few new IG followers, etc. Lots of upside, with money being the only downside. Why not? So I booked a table.

Thing was, tho, I was afraid.

I was afraid of doing it alone. I was afraid of showing up...not knowing anyone in the convention world...and...ultimately...being judged. I was deathly afraid of ending up on someones shitty engagement farming tiktoks with something like 'check out this old guy selling sneaker cards at a sneaker convention lol wut'...so...I put my feelers out there to see if anyone was interested in splitting a table with me...

And another thing is, though, at this age, I just don't have many *actual* friends in the sneaker business...most of them have their own lives doing their own things and if they asked me to join them at their hobby-related conventions, I'd probably be like 'wut?' I asked a handful of people I thought might find some value in it, and no one was really able to do it. And then I remembered my friend from China was going to be in town (the first time in 4+ years)...my friend from China who sells and resells streetwear. So I asked him and he agreed to join me.

Fast forward a couple of weeks we're on our way. After a slow start to the morning, we make it to the events center a short time before the doors are set to open and I'm visibly shaken (this is what happens to me when I'm anxious and scared and unsure of what to expect). We pack the wagon and walk up to the vendors entrance and they usher us to a table close to where we just were...I immediately start setting up thinking 'WE ARE THE LAST PEOPLE HERE AND I AM NOT GOING TO HAVE ENOUGH TIME BEFORE THESE CREATURES START WALKING THROUGH HERE JUDGING AND FILMING ME I HAVE TO GET THIS DONE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO THAT I DON'T MAKE A FOOL OF MYSELF AND...' so I just focused on the task at hand. I just set it up as quick as possible. And I finished with several minutes to spare. And everything was fine. Because...I was just being totally irrational.

As we are sitting there waiting for the action to kick off, I notice a couple of other vendors coming by to check out the booth. A few guys come by and tell me that my booth is full of the most original stuff they've seen in years (the guys from @sole_loco tell me this), and a few others are walking around with cameras and guides...it's jarring. A couple of other guys that I recognize - Mike from RedwoodSF and the dude from KardsandKicks come by to say hello...and then this dude I went to college with swings by - him and his kid run the @letskickitsf booth and we start choppin it up heavy...these are all good signs, but I still feel super nervous. It's great that these guys that I know personally care, but what about the general public? Are they going to care?

I make note of the tables around us. To our left - a group of high school kids with their used (hype) shoes. To our right - a guy selling plushies. Behind us - a cute chick selling her kaws x supreme x nike art on canvases. My buddy from China recognizes the guy across from us as being a famous dancer - he's selling some hype shoes. But overall, the competition looks weak, IMO, compared to what I've managed to create...

Before the show starts, some dude keeps bringing the guy with the plushies random hype shoes. I gather that he is walking around the convention hand-picking steals and is gonna try to turn around and have Mr. Plushie flip them over the course of the day. He puts 3 pairs of AJ 4 x SB's and a pair of Orange Lobster Dunks on the edge of the table next to my side and keeps the prime real estate for his plushies.

And then the door opens. And folks start walking in and walking by. A few times, I get excited when I see someones eyes light up and make a beeline for my table...only to see their hand extend and grab Mr. Plushies SB4's or Lobsters near the edge of my table. The first hour or so is a bit disheartening.

But then...I dunno what happens...maybe people have walked through and already got what they wanted so now is their time to see what else exists...and people start stopping by and asking for certain shoes on cards and before I know it, I'm starting to sell things. Not a lot...but enough. Every 4 seconds someones eyes light up for the SB4's, but no one is buying them. He was trying to charge $500 for the shoe when StockX was significantly lower, which makes me think it was ALL a marketing tactic: find the MOST POPULAR SHOE ON STOCKX and even if you don't intend on selling it it will still bring customers to your table. I watched him upsell a few plushies this way. Noted.

Throughout the day, I remember seeing some of my students (from East Oakland) and a couple of people I knew from online. I met a few more people, a few more startup folks and ended up making a few hundred dollars in sales, all off of cards. If I were to pinpoint the crowd - I would say it were more hypebeasts and high school kids than it was anything. Kind of disappointing. One of my top 10 dead or alive rappers - @e40 - was Saturdays special guest and...I dunno...I love e40 but really felt he had no reason being there. I don't know if I've ever seen him wear anything we'd consider 'sneakerheads sneakers' and when they interviewed him it was obvious that he had no clue as to what was going on...I didn't even bother trying to see him:

Interviewer: '40, what's your favorite shoe?'

40: 'um, I like the Air Maxes'

Interviewer: 'which ones?'

40: 'um, ALL OF UM'

Huh? I hope stacked some loot for his guest appearance, but I don't care about his opinion on shoes so didn't even bother looking for him.

At the end of the day, my buddy and I discussed whether or not it'd be worth it to come on Sunday, and, being that I already dropped ~$1k just to be there (fees, hotel, food, gas, etc.), I said I wanted to go for at least half the day on Sunday just for the hell of it. He agreed and I went back to the telly to get a good nights sleep.

(4/8) 2021-2022: SneakerCon & Geekout Elite

(NOTE: IN ALL THE EXCITEMENT OF ANOTHER 1TOSTOCK SNEAKER CARD RELEASE, I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO FINISH OUT THIS SERIES. SO…I GUESS…LET’S FINISH IT OUT!)

Along with the pandemic came a new set of challenges for just about everyone in the world in nearly every aspect of life, including myself. I could no longer go to work, so I decided I was going to focus more on The Sneaker Savant and pushing the message of Shoemetrics out to the masses…I found it to be a LOT easier to reach people via Instagram during this time than I did in person at any of these sneaker conventions. During the pandemic is when I started to see some modest growth with my IG account…I attribute that more to opening up a bit more and tamping down the brand messaging. I no longer found myself to be an arbiter of sneaker judgement, but more just a dude who likes sneakers and loves to talk about them.

Towards the end of 2022, I got a call from someone I had met on Instagram…a guy I’ve kept in contact with since around 2020…he told me he was working with a massive company and he kinda knew someone who could possibly (might partially maybe) have some interest in my sneaker grading algorithm, so he invited me on down to San Jose for Sneakercon in order to meet this big wig.

The hardest part, for me, in deciding whether or not I should be going to Sneakercon in 2022, was trying to decide whether or not I should wear a mask to the event…and…also…if there was anything I could bring to show the big wig (I settled on a graded pair of Jordan 1’s in his size that I had on hand).

So I got up super early, put on my custom AM1 Jewel/97 hybrids, some jeans and a hoodie and began the 2 hour drive…in hopes of getting in BEFORE the event was to start. I was semi-freaking out on the drive…thinking…’is this finally it?’ and kinda shit a brick when I saw the line to get in…it was *massive*. Luckily, my contact met me out front and we skipped the whole line. We made our way into the event an hour or two early, walked around, got introduced to some folks and checked out the scene. Honestly…I must’ve seen 10,000 pairs of shoes…it looked like StockX homepage IRL. I’m not really into the ‘latest and greatest’…I’m much more into digging for heat, so the sneaker representation was just of no interest to me whatsoever. And there were only 2 pairs that I had any interest in…these two (so you KNOW I had no business being there):

Really, the whole scene was very similar to how social media made it look. I saw a bunch of people walking around trying to collect content and I saw a bunch of people who I recognized from IG, but I was there for a reason and it wasn’t to collect content nor buy shoes I could buy at the click of a button. I met the big wig, had a brief conversation, stuck around a couple more hours and when they opened the doors to the public and it started getting a bit more packed, I bounced.

Again, I left thinking…’yeah, these things are absolutely not for me.’

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A few weeks later, I brought my kids to Denio’s Flea Market in Roseville, California, which I like to do around once a month…they look for Star Wars and cool toys and Pokemon cards and I look for sneakers. Sometimes it’s cold and sometimes it’s hot, but it’s always fun.

Well, on this particular flea market day, it was cold as shit and my mind wasn’t working right. We saw a new table full of Pokemon stuff and the kids went bananas…grabbing everything they could just flipping through shit. Normally, these types of guys are kind of uptight, so I have to make it clear to my kids that we aren’t to just start grabbing everything with our grubby hands, but the dude behind the table was pretty cool. So…we started talking. Within a couple of minutes, another guy behind the table started talking to me and telling me all about their business…’Geek Out Elite’ and how they were set to throw this massive Sneaker and Anime convention a few miles away…apparently ‘sponsored’ by Nike (LOL). I gave the dude a follow on the ‘gram and kept an eye on it. Sneakers and Anime? Could there be a better opportunity for me to show off these Sneaker Cards I’ve been working on?

For a few weeks I debated…”should I buy a table? It’ll be my first time ever, but opportunities for stuff like ‘sneakers and cards’ don’t come around all that often…I should do it…I’ve gotta do it…right? I mean, there was no other option, right?”

After checking out the details, I purchased a table. And then I started the long, arduous process of trying to figure out what I was going to put on it…I set up a table in my living room and worked on it for weeks. Literally, weeks. I hit up basketballcardguy on Instagram and asked for tips and he gave me some great ones. I hit up my buddy who does vintage conventions and asked him for tips. I bought signs and banners and supplies and blah blah blah. And this is (mostly) what I ended up with:

Personally, I thought it came out well… it made perfect sense to me, but looking at it now I can see where I’d do things a bit differently. Problem is, we’ve created roughly 600-700 different cards by now, so fitting that many (or even just the highlights) became kinda difficult to do.

Anyway…so I got all this shit ready…over the course of 2-3 weeks. I was amped. My kids were amped to come with me. FINALLY…I was going to be able to show my creations to an audience that I thought would be receptive to it. The night before, I went to bed early and woke up super early…ready to rock. 6am my alarm went off. I got up, checked my email and got this:

Literally, nearly midnight the night before, this dickhead CANCELS the event. The nerve of this dude!!! I was livid (and secretly-relieved that I didn’t have to face the judgement of other convention-goers). But. My god. Talk about unprofessional (this asshole is nowhere to be found - there was never another date set and dude never sent a refund). I’m STILL livid. But that morning…I was all dressed up with nowhere to go.

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As I’m sitting there stewing, I make some breakfast and decide to text my Vintage Market buddy - ‘this dickhead cancelled the event’. Dude responds, ‘well, if you want to come and set up your cards at the back of my booth at Worlds Worst, you’re more than welcome.’

I look at my watch. It’s already 11am. But. Why not? New plan.

Instead of going with my beautiful table setup, I knew I wouldn’t have time. I brought a couple of frames with me and a handful of cards and that was that. I rushed on down to the Worlds worst, found parking, set up my table, posted up and just observed the scene.

The vintage market definitely seemed like a younger crowd than Sneakercon, and folks were much more interested in the obscure items (random T-shirts) and bulk deals (buy 1 get 2 free!) than they were anything else. There were a couple of dudes with sneaker booths, but for the most part none of them seemed to have even half the traffic my buddy did…

That being said, only a handful of people made it towards the back of the booth where I was posted and only one person actually asked about the cards and bought one…for…$1. I made $1. I was there for about 2 hours or so…which was ample time for me to actually think through my thoughts and think about how I wanted it to go…I appreciate my buddy for inviting me down and letting me at least sit down and pick his brain

thesneakersavant

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They say ‘experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted’ and I love that saying. Not for anything other than it lets me know that failure is important to success.

Was $1 a failure?

I mean, sure. But I didn’t stick around to see if I could turn that $1 into $2. I just figured that was good enough for me to get started with…

Next week…my first Sneakercon as a VENDOR.

Is sneakers ded?

Sneakers is not ded!

Seems to be a lot of talk about lately about sneakers and sneaker culture being ‘dead’ over the past couple of months…years?…whatever. Just a bunch of old heads like me complaining from our golden parachutes that things have changed and we don’t really like it. Surprise. It really reminds me of Nas saying ‘hip hop is dead’ in the most hip-hop way possible (by dropping a dope undeniable bop)…in which…anyone with half a brain knew that he didn’t ACTUALLY mean that hip hop was dead. It was merely his way of saying that something fundamental had changed for him…in which…anyone with half a brain knew that hip hop, had, in fact, changed. 

As many (with half a brain) have argued: sneakers are not dead. As far back as I can remember - I have *never* been presented with as many options, nor at such great prices. It’s literally ABSURD how many dope shoes are sitting on sales racks right now just waiting to be picked up and turned into your next great story. The thing is, though, it’s gotta be YOUR story. As much as we’d like to make the brand story *our* story, it’s mostly not. 

I’ve got nothing negative to say about anyone in particular. I almost always have something negative to say about the corporations, though, which is ultimately what changed IMO. Most of us who are truly into sneakers aren’t suddenly *not* into sneakers. Far from it. We’re *not* into the circus that it has become. Almost everything we bitch about on social media is pretty much directly related to some beancounter at a massive corporation that decides to release things based on financial statements - they’ve *never* been interested in sneaker culture beyond what they can squeeze out of it. And that’s largely a byproduct of opportunism. It has *nothing* to do with shoes. For my economics majors - these sneakers could just as easily be ‘widgets.’ 

I’ve always vowed to never be that guy that would hold age and experience against people younger than me…I’ll just choose to play by my own rules. I don’t have to get worked up about anything except my own perception. And that, if anything, is the lesson that us old heads should take from the ‘death’ of sneakers. 

Reach back…tho…take an honest look at the landscape. Sure, you might not be able to get the most hyped stuff, but can you really hate on the plethora of dope sneakers that are available at attainable prices right now? 

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In the southwest corner of Union Square Park in New York City, there is a semi-hidden bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi. I know this statue is here because this is where the girlfriend (now wife) and I used to agree to meet before we had cellphones. Yes, we’ve been together THAT long. But so, this statue is incredibly lifelike. I used to sit there observing it…just looking at it…marveling at it. And I used to always notice…Gandhi is wearing sandals. Super obvious if you know anything about history, sure, but…I dunno…I couldn’t walk by that statue without looking at his feet and those sandals…not all that strange for a sneakerhead…right? 

That Michael Jordan Statue in Chicago in that patented pose has him rockin’ a pair of 9’s. 9’s! In a hundred years when we’re all dead and gone and assuming the world is still functional and basketball and sneakers is still a thing, are sneakerheads of the future going to look at that statue and think the Jordan 9 was the most important shoe of the Jordan line? I mean, why else would they put 9’s on MJ if they weren’t the most important J’s?

I suppose…as the most salient example, by way of tragedy, would be the Kobe Bryant statue they just unveiled. Besides it instantly becoming the meeting place for plenty of people who will eventually get married (s/o to my wife), Kobe is wearing a pair of Nike Kobe 1’s. This is historically accurate as being the pair he was wearing in the photo the statue was based off of, but in a hundred years……does that automatically make the Nike Kobe 1 THE shoe that Kobe is known for? IMO…this is kind of a disservice to the impact of the 5 or 6 - which are much more obviously the shoes that the vast majority of sneakerheads care about when they think of Kobe’s shoes.

So…I guess…if they were to make a bronze statue of you - what shoes would you be wearing?  

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A lot of y’all who follow me have been here for years have been around the block a few times. We ain’t youngsters. We’re probably mad at some of the sneaker stuff we see and we’re probably amazed at some of the others…things have definitely changed, but the culture *definitely* isn’t dead (see my last post). 

There are a TON of things about today’s sneaker culture that are well and alive for me…I don’t think there’s been a better time to *really* be into sneakers. But it does make me think: what (about sneaker culture) has died for me? 

• eBay was the first domino for me…when they added that ‘authenticity guarantee’ a few years ago I was livid. Because I don’t need ANY of them dudes telling ME what is authentic. 

• Basketball retros are dead to me. 

• The used sneaker market is dead to me.

• Quick flips are dead to me. 

• Buying anything that’s a ‘good deal’ is dead to me. 

• Triple black and black/white shoes are dead to me. 

• StockX is dead to me…but…that’s also because it was never really alive for me in the first place. 

• The concept of a ‘grail’ is dead to me. 

What about you? What has died for you? 

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Sometimes when I see these sneaker drops and the sneaker riots I think…what if this stuff *never* stops? Speaking of the ‘death of sneaker culture’, have you ever thought about the death of a civil society? LOL. 

I guess my Netflix ‘home’ screen can tell you a bit about my viewing habits: It’s mostly apocalypse-related movies and shows. And, there are THOUSANDS of apocalypse-related shows and movies. I’ll start watching one, get bored, then switch over to another. And another. And another. I was scrolling through my ‘continue watching’ list the other night and it was just apocalypse title after apocalypse title. 

So. Yea. You guessed it. I was watching this one called new one ‘Annihilation’ the other night and couldn’t help but wonder…if the world were to end tomorrow and my family and I had to pack the car and get the hell up outta here…which pair of shoes in my closet would be the *smartest* choice in a post-apocalyptic world? 

They’d obviously have to be something practical, durable, comfortable, and multi-functional...so…Air Maxes are completely off the table, as well as Jordans and anything Off-White (although those AF1 Mids or the Terra Formas might not be the worst choice…). Waterproof or at least water-resistant would be ideal, with maybe a free trail sole to help with fatigue. Black would be my preferred color, but…a dark brown would also suffice…

Yeezy Tactical Boots look pretty functional…maybe…those Kobe X EXTs (the super high ones)…or…even…those @acoldwall Vomero’s that ALREADY look apocalyptic would suffice…I really don’t have a good answer. No chance I’m running out the house with only one pair. I’d probably try and grab something sturdy and something simple (like a waffle racer). What are you grabbing? 

About 10 or 15 years ago, there were all of these ‘crazy casket’ pictures going viral. Dudes buried on their motorcycles or dudes buried in Nike boxes or…I don’t know. Gucci caskets. I think it’s largely a cultural thing…not really something I’m familiar with. And most of the funerals I’ve been to have been pretty standard catholic ceremony’s with dark, shiny, wood caskets. Nothing too exciting. 

But…continuing along with this weeks theme of ‘death and sneakers’…have y’all ever wondered about what sneakers you wanted to buried in? Assuming you have some sort of will written out, and there’s a box for ‘resting sneakers’, what are you filling that box with?

Is it something comfortable? To get you through the valley of the shadow of death? 

Is it something stylish? So you can stunt in heaven? 

Is it something nostalgic? Something people will probably remember you by? 

TODAY: #DunkyDunks 2 Release & IRL NIKE DUNK SB GIVEAWAY!

It's that time again.

Truth be told, this stuff takes a lot of energy. And, sometimes I get tired. I get tired of Nike, tired of IG, tired of writing, tired of trying to get the sneaker world to care about the things I think the sneaker world should care about. And I get kinda tired of this pattern I've carved for myself...this seemingly never-ending cycle of consumption and elation and disappointment and seeking and....yea. I know you feel me.

So I've kinda come to this point where I'm super excited in creating something for my own edification, but also like absolutely terrified about showing it to the (sneaker) world. And that's nothing new, for me, as I'm always loathe to put my heart and soul into something that is ultimately validated by a (fickle) market...

With that knowledge in mind, tho, it's that time again.

Time for me and Sonsofblackmaria to drop another card set on y'all. Or, more appropriately...I think it's time for me to let some more of that useless knowledge out into the world...With that I present you with: Dunky Dunks 2!

For the past few months, Sons of Black Maria have been going back and forth about what card set or what we should create next, and we kind of centered on an idea that we wanted to go out with a bang on a Jordans set, so we started working on it. Before we got too far, though, we realized what a gargantuan task that was going to be, so took a step back and asked ourselves...is there anything else we want to do before we hang it up on the MJ set? Little did I know...Sons was aching to do a Dunks set since he missed out on the first one. So we decided to drop another one. Thing about this process, though, was that things have changed since I dropped that first set in 2020. Suppliers have changed, prices have changed, workes and processes have changed. So it's been tough trying to navigate this new world of creation while trying to stay true to the original idea....all I can say about that - this set simply wouldn't have been created without Sons pushing me through to the finish line on it. And for that, I'm proud as hell with the working relationship we've built and the products we've created...

So. Dunky Dunks 2. Part 2. Series 2. 2024. Whatever the hell you want to call them. We went with a simple '2'. And...looking back...I think we should have called them 'Dunkier Dunks' or something a bit more clever. These are the things you overlook when you're in the heat of it.

Last time I did a DunkyDunks set, I wanted to catalog exactly what was released when - and IN ORDER. But. I realized, that kind of information isn't always the most fun. When Sons argued that we should just do a bunch of shoes we wanted to do...I kinda went wild with the checklist.  Once the chains of practicality were removed, this gave me the freedom to let my imagination run wild...so that's what we did. Before long, we had a checklist that was FAR too long. For the base set...we decided...this time...we'd work around a budget instead of our budget working around the idea. Instead of just going until our brains wouldn't work any more, we asked the manufacturer, this time, what the perfect number of cards would be, and when they gave us that number we began removing items from our neverending checklist. So, for example, if we wanted to do 167 cards and the manufacturer told us they do sheets of 130, we'd cut out 37 cards for the sake of simplicity. This made things easier in a way, too, as the neverending excel iterations of odds and packs and boxes wouldn't need to be a neverending question mark. We had our numbers and went with them. So...we included a handful of cards from each 'box' era that we both liked...and instead of putting in the random colorways that we didn't give a damn about...or....shoes that we simply liked...we put in shoes that we deemed to be important, whether we liked them or not.

Base Set: If you remember the first Dunky Dunks set, you might remember how sterile the base set looked. Very rudimentary in illustration and idea. There were some deep moments, but overall I was trying to appeal to a wide audience that understood the concept from a very basic perspective. But now that we are 4-5 sets deep, we wanted to 'jazz it up' a bit and try to make things a bit more stylized. Obviously, we needed new illustrations for the shoes, and some shading, but the first order of business was the background of the card. Although we stuck with the concept of using the box they released in amongst a sea of the previous box to release (ie: if something was from the gold box era, we had it sitting on a gold box while everything else in the image showed the previous black box era). But this time...we added stickers. Or, the appearance of stickers. Because...well...stickers were a big deal back in the day. When I didn't need a new skateboard and I had a few dollars in my pocket ready to burn - I spent a GREAT deal of time looking in the stickers case. Because...well...stickers. As stupid as it sounds - stickers used to be an affordable form of expression before the neverending barrage of fast fashion and cheap clothing. If you wanted to rep your favorite skaters or skate brands, likely you couldn't afford to buy all their shoes or all their shirts and certainly not all their decks. You bought their stickers instead. Explaining it now in this context makes it sound stickers are from a bygone era...but, yeah. You could also think of stickers as showing where your loyalties were: Me - for example - I started out on a Roskopp that my dad had bought from some neighborhood kids for $6. When my dad realized that board was far too big for me, he bought me a freestyle board; so I started riding my Per Welinder freestyle but had to pay homage by slapping it with a Roskopp sticker. And then after that I went to a Think board a few years later and couldn't ride without a Per Welinder sticker. The cards, tho, Sons and I both talked and commiserated on the stickers that we remembered and slapped them on the shoeboxes. Look hard and you might find *your* favorite.

A relatively short checklist was created for this round (last time was 70 cards, this time we did 60) but tried to include a few important shoes from each box era. As long as we did a smaller amount of base cards, we could fit even more special inserts. Yes please!

SBSBs (Special Box SBs): I know, logically, that the box always matters to collectors. I know, logically, that shoes with a box always command a higher price than shoes without a box. And I know, logically, that shoes with a special box always command a higher price than shoes with a regular box. But I still think it's stupid: I don't WEAR the box, I WEAR the shoes. I hate boxes. Boxes are like the bane of my existence as a collector. That being said - there ARE certain boxes I will not get rid of; especially for the older pairs. But. That won't stop me from making fun of the idea of Box Nazi's...with this special insert - I wanted to highlight the ridiculousness of paying as much (or more) for the box than the shoe.

SB Eats: This was kind of a half-assed idea that I wasn't really all that sure about UNTIL Sons told me he loved the idea and he loved my execution. As we all know, there are PLENTY of food-themed SBs...we toyed with the idea of 'scratch and sniff' cards, but the idea that someone would be scratching a card to smell some shrimp or crawfish was just too cringe...so we opted for a restaurant menu-styled set instead. I found images online of random foods and found ways to remove the food while simultaneously adding the shoe. We went with a lenticular effect as the most basic way to say…you can substitute one for the other.

Streetfighter: Similar to the SB Eats cards, we went with a lenticular effect on these cards. The cool part about this – and the design that Sons went with – is that these cards actually *look* like a 90’s video game. Obviously, we took the player selection screen image from the original arcade game and when I’m sitting there looking at the card I half-expect to start playing. Amazing what memories can due to the imagination…

S Beats: TBH I really expected there to be a lot more music-related SB cards. Problem is, it was kinda hard to focus on the ones we found to be the most important. Obviously we’ve got a handful of F&F pairs (Iron Maiden, Deftones, etc.) and then we’ve got a handful of bands that got shoes that most people don’t even know are based on music (U.N.K.L.E.). We wanted to pull a few of the most important. Arguably, the MF Doom pair, De La, and Travis are the most important…the RTJ and Dino Jr. pairs are important TO ME. Plus, the branding on every musical act we chose is great, so…these cards came out *great*. Much more respect to the artists and the sneaker designers than the card makers (lol)

(Base)Balls: I mention this often – but when I first started getting into SBs around 2003 I remember saying to more than one person – this reminds me of searching out and collecting baseball cards. When I mentioned that to Sons, he said ‘oh that’s interesting, my favorite SBs are from the Unheardof Baseball pack’. I didn’t know much about that pack in particular, but when I started looking into I realized that Philip from Unheardof ALREADY did two baseball cards with his release...which were subsequently BANNED. I reached out to him and asked if he could share some images he had of the original cards and he obliged…to which we slapped illustrations over and rebranded. Another important artifact from my childhood – the 1989 Upper Deck Griffey Jr. Rookie card serves as the backdrop to the last card in this set.

(Other)Balls: This is probably the most questionable subset we’ve created. And when I showed these to my sneaker bestie, this dude that works at Nike, he told me he thought it was a bad, bad idea. But. Whatever. This is our art. And art isn’t always meant to be a good idea. I will say, tho, that this was fully Sons idea and concept – I think he wanted to highlight the fact that dudes beast over certain shoes WAY too much…like…to an unhealthy level. If you recognize the background (which I’m sure you do) you probably have some unhealthy parts of your life, too, so…keep the judgements to yourself!

DNA: A cleaner, more visually appealing continuation of the DNA set from the original Dunky Dunks that dropped back in 2021. The original set included the OG Hemp pack and Heinekens…this one expands on the ideas presented in that first set. Shroomz, smoke and beer are the highlights of this set.

Grateful Dead: These came out great, IMO, but could have been just a little better. My aunt is the primary ‘dead-head’ in my life and she’s also a painter. So I asked her - about 10 days before our due date – whether or not she wanted to paint a GD poster for the GD cards in our set. She obliged but something came up and she had to pass at the last minute. Being that we had a deadline, Sons and I put some sketches together and got something done. Cool thing about these cards – I gave my kids some GD coloring pages, which can be seen on the backs of these cards. These cards come printed on ‘cracked ice’ paper and are embossed. A very visually appealing set (if you can pull all 6!!!)

One-offs: The way that card production (at scale) works – you basically get a certain number of slots (for cards) and if you don’t use it, you lose it. These ‘one-offs’ were cards we tried to build a cohesive set around, but couldn’t. The ‘Skeledunks’ card is from a piece that Sons created a couple of years back…the ‘Adobe’ card is a look into the tool we use to build these cards (adobe Photoshop)…and the ‘flying formations’ card is a throwback to the ‘flying formations’ card we dropped in the 2023 Air Max Pax…

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As of this moment - cards are now LIVE!

• Please note: NOTHING will be shipped out before April 3rd.

Blaster boxes are $24.99 (shipped) and include 7 (or 6 - read below) packs of cards

• Unfortunately, due to the relatively small size of this set, I have noticed plenty of packs with duplicate cards, so that should be expected. I opened 10 boxes as a test – 9 of the boxes had 10-11 duplicate cards, but I also opened one box that had 29 duplicates (*barf*)

Individual packs are $4.99 (shipped) and include 7 cards – 6 base + 1 special insert

• Individual cards are also available as loosies – their prices represent their rarity.

SALE ALERT…I have a handful of past set releases available so I’m offering a package deal on everything – buy one box of #DunkyDunks2 and get any past set for half off (reg price $50-60).

AND

I’m gonna do a GIVEAWAY. I’m gonna run a poll on my IG to determine exactly *which* pair to give away, but…it’ll be dope, whichever one y’all decide.

Feel free to tag me in all your breaks! I’ll definitely repost them on Instagram…Happy Dunking!

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(FYI - I am going to turn off new signups to this weekly publication starting March 31st. After that point, I will be charging for new signups. )