4/12 - Converse x A Cold Wall

Living in the nether-regions of rural California, ‘A cold wall’ stuff looks so impractical, but for whatever reason I’m really drawn to it. I wear my black-on-black Vomero’s WAY more than I ever thought I would, and even though that massive heel bumper gets a bit annoying when I’m driving, I *really* like them. These ‘Converse x A-COLD-WALL* Aeon Active CX’ are no exception. I can’t really put my finger on it, but I really like the way these look…branding is key on these, because (if you told me they were a GR Puma, I don’t know that I would have cared in the least). This colorway definitely reminds me of a Nike Yeezy 2.

4/15 - Union Jordan 2

I love butterflies just as much as the next man - I mean, we have made several *planned* trips over the years to the butterfly grove in Santa Cruz - but I’m not totally sure if I need them included in my Jordan 2s. I like a lot of what Union is doing, but IMO this might be the definition of ‘doing too much’. It’s clear that Jordan Brand is slowing down releases on Jordan 1’s and is moving towards Jordan 2 territory. I’m happy they’re going to let the 1’s breath for a bit, and I’m happy that 2’s are ramping up, but I’m just not all that into light-colored suede Jordans. And I prefer 2 low’s to 2 high’s any day.

4/15 - Air Max G(olf) pack (tiger, leopard, zebra)

When I was around 20 years old, a friend who worked at a swanky Golf Course invited me out for a late round. I showed up wearing (actual) Jordans and jean jorts. I didn’t understand it at the time, but apparently, the only type of clothing I owned was frowned upon by course management, and my friend had to hear it from them before we went out on our round. He was not pleased. Funny to see how much the tide has turned, though, I often wonder how those old dinosaur golf course managers are dealing with the golf style of today.

Sean Wotherspoon x Atmos Super Turf

After last week’s newsletter, I went out and clicked ‘buy now’ on that pair of SW x Atmos x Adidas for like 33% off of retail…$86…this is an awesome shoe if you fancy yourself an outdoorsy type. They’re dope for hiking. Funny (not funny) to see how his Adidas collab has priced next to the other collabs he’s put out…Nike collab: ~$1500. Asics collab: ~$230. Adidas collabs: ~Retail - $50. At least Adidas’ are accessible.

Adidas shorts

I mean…could I tell you anything more exciting than the everyday clothing I chose to purchase this week? I looked around my closet, noticed I had way more Nike shorts than anything else, and decided I wanted some Adidas shorts. I, too, suffer from the irrational fear of mixed branding. So I bought some shorts. Crazy interesting, huh?

Air Max 1 x Concepts ‘Heavy’

Some of y’all might have seen my IG story - I finally got my pair from eBay - which came from South Korea (so they had no auth guarantee). I wasn’t skeptical at all until I opened up the box and was assaulted by the toxic glue smell…I even left them in a back room and came back an hour later to the whole room smelling like glue. I couldn’t handle it. A few people also pointed out the ‘Nike Korea’ tag that came with my pair and were curious as to why they came with the tag. Check this thing out:

So…I assumed they were just a good fake…I haven’t had that toxic glue smell on a pair of Air Maxes in YEARS. So I sent them back for a refund and copped a pair off StockX. StockX pair arrived today and they had the exact same smell and the exact same ‘Nike Korea’ tag. SMH. So I left them outside overnight and the glue smell has somewhat subsided. Great looking pair. And those velvet laces are the bees knees. (I’m also glad this pair has a more interesting denim pattern on the toebox).

I (finally) found a manufacturer for our 90’s card set.

One thing I keep hearing about in the news is these ‘supply chain shortages’ and lemme tell you, for a guy who deals with international supply chains - these issues are real. Prices for all of my products have risen - at the VERY LEAST - 50%. (And I have yet to raise my prices). In any case, for the 90’s basketball set, I ended up shopping the quote around to several different manufacturers and ended up continuing along with the company we’ve been working with. Prices are a bit higher, but I think we figured out a workaround. The format of this set is going to be a bit different than the last one - we’re not going to be doing randomized packs and boxes - but we will be doing full sets instead. It’ll be an interesting rollout.

‘The Sneaker Savant’ physical issue Number 1 - published by 1 To Stock!

As if creating cards weren’t crazy enough, @sonsofblackmaria created a full length comic book for The Sneaker Savant - I placed the order at a stateside shop and the order was delivered last week. My own comic book!

Gardening!

On the frfr, wifey, kids and I planted a whole bunch of fruits and veggies this past week. Sometimes lifetime achievements exist in real life and not on the internet and sometimes they have nothing to do with sneakers!

Blood River - Tim Butcher

I guess in the late 1800’s, this white explorer documented his journey as the only white explorer to actually trek the FULL Congo river. And the journalist who wrote this book - Tim Butcher - decided to follow his path in 2004. He chronicles his whole journey interspersed with the history and politics of each region and…the story is just compelling and tragic and fascinating all at once. Having actually been to (a few places in) Africa and having actually spent a few years pondering the absolute enormity of Africa (after *teaching about Africa*), this was an engrossing read. I had *no* idea that the Congo river was as hype as it really is… My dad gave me this book a couple of years back and I finally finished it the other day. Just a really dope story.

Top Boy Summer House season 2

After my gleaming recommendation of Top Boy last week, I went back and watched one of the other seasons…even better now that I know where it goes.

I started re-watching ‘Arrested Development’

I’ve been listening to Smartless every week for the past few months and the shit-talking between Will Arnett and Jason Bateman is just legendary. I listened to the Woody Harrelson episode the other day and he was talking about Arrested Development and I realized that I haven’t watched it in a few years so I wanted to re-watch it. Again, it’s better than I remembered.

Shoemetrics

Newsletter 4/11-4/17/22