adidas gave Kader a signature shoe and Mike Guillory interviewed him about it:

https://youtu.be/Wa7qCVGOzJY?is=yXnXSEu_RyHeRtCz

I like that they’re using some EQT flavor. I think skate shoes need more of that kind of crossover again.

Hi it's hassun from the internet.

I don't have a specific shoe that started this addiction, it was more the lack of shoes that did. I wasn't allowed to wear sneakers outside of sports as a kid, so when I finally became old enough to buy my own, I went ham.

It's honestly hard to pinpoint one single shoe that started my obsession but I remember drawing the Nike Air Max 1 with my brother when we were kids. It was probably a combination of Michael Jordan's early years, Nike using The Beatles' Revolution for that 1987 commercial, and the fact that my parents wouldn't allow us to spend more than $30 per year on a pair of shoes.

But if there was a moment, I always go back to the free throw line dunk and the White Cement Air Jordan 3. Seeing that gives me chills every time, still to this day!

What was the pair that got you started?

YouTubeNike Beatles Revolution Ad

Not sneakers.

What else are you deep in? Cars, records, watches, cameras, music, movies, running, whatever the second obsession is.

Everybody in here has one.

Member to member. A few ground rules first.

Post what you have or what you want, your size, your price, and your location. Photos of the actual pair, never stock images.

Deals here are between you and the other person. I am not a middleman and I cannot get your money back if something goes wrong. Use a payment method with buyer protection and do not let anyone talk you into one without it.

If somebody burns you, report it here. I will act on it.

What did you just get?

Retail, resale, thrift store, or a box you forgot you owned. A pickup is a pickup.

Bonus points if it cost you next to nothing.

What is on your feet right now?

No story required, no context needed. Photo if you have one, words if you do not.

Beaters welcome. This is not a flex channel.

What is the last pair you actually bought?

Not added to a cart. Not entered a raffle for. Bought, and have worn since.

I am curious how much of what drops now is landing with people who have been doing this twenty years.

For anyone who had the magazine.

Three pages on one shoe review, because somebody decided it was worth three pages. That is not how anything gets covered now.

If you had a subscription, what do you still remember? A cover, a feature, an issue you held onto.

What year were you at your most obsessed?

Not the year you spent the most money. The year you knew every release date and every colorway, and you would have argued with anybody about any of it.

Mine is in the comments.

Every shoe has the version of its story that made it into print, and the version that did not.

What is the one you have never gotten a straight answer on? A sample that never released. A colorway nobody can explain. An origin story that changed depending on who was telling it.

Somebody in here probably knows.

Easiest way in.

Name, where you are, and the pair that started it. Not your grail. Not the most expensive thing on the shelf. The one that made you care in the first place.

I will go in the comments.

Every issue lands here automatically.

If you want to argue with something I wrote, this is the place for it.

You cannot start a thread in this one, and that is on purpose, so the archive stays readable. Everywhere else is wide open.

The community is open.

Twelve channels, four sites, one room. Introductions is the best place to start.

I will keep this channel for things worth interrupting you about. New sites, big changes, anything that affects how the network works. Everything else lives in the other channels.

Twelve channels, four sites, one room. Here is how it works.

Introductions is where to start. WDYWT and New Pickups are the daily ones. Nostalgia, Sneaker History, Sole Collector and Releases are topic channels and the names do what you expect. Off-Topic is for everything with nothing to do with shoes. General is for whatever does not fit anywhere else. Announcements and Newsletters are read-only, so I post and you reply.

Four rules.

Be decent to people. Disagreement is fine, contempt is not. This industry is small and you will run into these people.

Keep listings in Buy/Sell/Trade rather than spread across every channel.

No fakes passed off as real, and no help sourcing them.

If you would not say it out loud at a trade show, do not type it here.

Buy/Sell/Trade deals are between you and the other person. I am not a middleman and I cannot get your money back. Read the pinned post in that channel first.

To reach me, reply anywhere or send a DM. If somebody is being a problem, report it and tell me. I would rather hear early than clean up later.

I have spent twenty years watching the best parts of this culture happen in rooms that got shut down or sold off. This one is mine to keep running.

This is the room I have wanted for a long time.

Four sites, four different reasons to write, and nowhere for the people reading them to talk to each other. Sneaker History for the stories. SoleCollector.org for the eras worth remembering. becausesneakers for what is dropping. The newsletter for the business side. All of it pointed out at you, none of it pointing back.

So this is the fix. One room, all four.

Introductions is the easiest place to start. WDYWT and New Pickups are the daily ones. Nostalgia is for the pairs you still think about. Sole Collector is for anyone who remembers the magazine or the forums.

There is no roadmap here. There is a room, and there are people, and the rest gets built by whoever shows up.

Tell someone you like their kicks today. You never know how far a compliment will take you. And we all know how good it feels to be on the receiving end of some appreciation.