(7/8) 2023: Sneaker Expo

At the end of Sneakercon, I linked up with that dude I went to college with and we decided to keep in touch. A few days later he hit me and asked if I wanted to split a booth for this other event in San Mateo, Sneaker Expo, apparently started by some of the original founders of Sneakercon. I knew he knew his stuff and I didn't have to go looking into anything so I said 'yeah let's do it lmk what I owe you' and he handled it all. He'd have a ton of hyped (but accessible) sneakers on one side, I'd have my niche cards on the other.

I showed up to San Mateo about an hour before we were set to open and he picked a great location for our booth...we had a massive corner booth with a ton of space and within a stones throw of 'the (a) stage' and a soju bar right across the way. Instead of just sneaker folks here, though, this was more an anime convention than a sneaker convention. Instead of other sellers next to us - there were arcade games, with a MUCH more interesting crowd than at Sneakercon IMO. Having @letskickifsf made setup (for me) a breeze. I brought clear binders, this time, instead of massive boxes, and still managed to fit everything on one table. And this time I brought a few pairs of shoes to *interest* people in my table (like Mr. Plushie did) and made a special card for THIS event in honor of Mr. Plushie...the Jordan 4 SB card:

I used to work in San Mateo, but hadn't been back for years, so I didn't give a single fuck about anything the first few hours of that first day besides figuring out how to get a Jersey Joe's cheesesteak delivered to me via doordash. This turned out to be a bit more difficult than you'd imagine, because I was inside an events center and he couldn't just waltz in to hand me my order. Eeventually the dude made it to outside of the events center but couldn't get inside - I met him by the 12 foot fence and asked him to literally throw the cheesesteaks over it. He was horrified. I said 'man, I've been waiting for this meal for years, I am not going to miss it'. He tossed it over and I caught it like it was the hope diamond.

Once I was satiated, and the crowd started trickling in, I decided to take a look around. I walked around and noticed that the sneaker section was only 2 rows - the anime event was closer to 20...and they had a building next door that housed another 20, plus a stage that was being used for K-Pop acts....and then they ALSO had a food truck area that looked to have about 20 or so food trucks. This thing was MASSIVE and sneakers looked to only be taking up about 5 percent of the whole thing. This wasn't a good omen for sales.

Apparently ^^^ this guy ^^^^ is some famous football player (I don’t watch football) and he looked directly at my shoe that had a massive ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ sign on it and he rubbed his hands all over it (LOL).

While my buddies struggled to make sneaker sales, I had a steady stream of small timers - I was selling a little here, a little there, talking with a bunch of people that were just checking out the scene. I was marveling at all the cosplayers and noticed SEVERAL influencers that appeared to be employed by @sneakerexpo just walking around in circles looking for opportunities to create engaging content. It looked very inorganic.

BUT I ended up being a part of some of this content...which...was good. Luckily, I was bored out of my mind for a while. And luckily my buddy from China stopped by for a bit and he was also bored. And luckily we were across from the Soju bar. And luckily we were both ok with dropping $14 on a can of Soju (each). And luckily, these cans of soju loosened us up a bit. So when the guys from @privateselection came over to talk with me (on camera) I was at ease. And luckily, when Deebo from the 49ers came over to talk with me (also on camera), I was at ease. But when some other influencer (I don't know his name but apparently he owns some massive shops in LA) asked me what the 'worst shoe of all time' is and I was still at ease but couldn't give him an inorganic answer even AFTER he prompted me with 'how about the panda dunk' I wasn't at ease, so they cut me from the final take. At least my authenticity mattered in the other interactions.

Thing about this convention was - people were MUCH more open-minded. But I don't know if their wallets were. I know sales weren't great for the sneaker folks, and my sales weren't great either, but I had a MUCH more interesting time hanging out at this even than ALL of the sneaker events I've ever been to, combined.

At one point, on the stage behind us, @privateselection held a 'fit' contest - they invited anyone up on stage to show off their outfits and the crowd would cheer for the best fit - I believe the grand prize was like a $500 gift certificate to Private Selection. Well, unbeknownst to the sneakerheads in the crowd who thought they were stuntin' with their FOG essentials and Jordan 4 SBs, the competition was also open to the anime and cosplay folks. And lemme tell you, from my vantage point, watching these pretentious sneakerheads get absolutely MURKED by the cosplay people was a scene I'd pay to see again and again lol

People were cool - I had a TON of people come by to just talk - not many people bought cards, but I sold a few pairs of shoes, which made the trip worth it. I sold a bit less than at SneakerCon, but I had more fun.

A lot of people asked me 'so, who makes these cards?' and when I said 'oh, that'd be me', they were almost always shocked and super interested and supportive to the idea of someone trying to do something different...it was further validation.

One of the things I noticed at this event - there were A LOT of people there for the sole purpose of making content. Like dudes that have been making the same content for 10 years were there making the same content. They were walking around with cameras and cameramen and microphones and...for the life of me...I couldn't understand how or why they'd be more interested in talking to YET ANOTHER guy at a sneaker table about his Pandas or SB4's than someone who created something out of thin air.

But. That's the game, I guess. At the end of the day - I didn't sell all that much, but I did have a good time and would likely do Sneaker Expo x Impulse Anime again.