I’ve loved sneakers (I prefer the term tennis shoe though)
since I was a child. Ain’t nothing in the world like getting a fresh box and
smelling a new pair of shoes. Holding them and looking at them, checking
yourself out in the mirror. Styling on them. Stuntin’ heavy. I got in deeper in college in NYC checking
out the serious shops and such up there. Trying to find out how to intern at
Nike (still a dream job by the way) and always trying to get a pair of Jordans.
Got some at age 23, them 18s. I really wanted to learn even more in the early 2000s
around that time a documentary came out call Just For Kicks came out. It was a
pretty great time stamp of that time in sneaker culture in my opinion and now
ten years later I get a chance to see this new film Sneakerheadz that I feel
after watching it twice is also a great stamp of time of the culture.
So what is Sneakerheadz about really? It’s about culture
of athletic shoe enthusiasts as it is right now and how mainstream it has
gotten from its underground/subculture status of the '90s. The film is mostly explained through interviews with fairly known sneaker aficionados
around. A lot are sneakerheads who became designers and store owners from all
around. Through it the film basically ends up talking about a major
factor of the spread of urban fashion over the last 25 years globally. The
film feels right for this time; it feels like the highest evolved form of
what a Complex website video piece could be.
As maybe not an expert myself but a person that enjoys
having something fresh to death; it’s interesting on how it kind of skates
around the importance of athletes in regards to shoe culture and
it never really explores how we’re at the point when maybe the shoe lovers
with means,like designers and influencers, are starting to control what the hottest shoe's potential can be. It never really explores how
rappers influence these shoes and how Run DMC – Kanye, Pharrell and
Drake are now able to sell a shoe even better than a basketball player.
Sneakheadz does a great job of asking some questions about
the state of the culture in regards to how easy it is to get into versus the past when you had to travel and learn. The Internet makes it too
easy for old heads. I wish they had a little more female representation in it
but there are a few in there who are known in the culture. Maybe in a sequel I guess? I
like that they take time to talk about the violence around these shoes. It
takes the time to explore this phenomenon of young people dying for these shoes
and tries to come up with some solutions. To be honest I think a whole
documentary could be done on the positives and negatives on just the Air Jordan
line of shoes since this violence has clouded this line for the majority of
its existence.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
