Saturday 12th December 2020, 02:38

The game is effed.

I tried to wade upstream against the current as pride and price didn’t allow me to enter draws and raffles to catch Ls.

I’m deffo an old head that still lives in the glory days of obscure online independent retailers and lesser known stores dotted through the city.

Nostalgia is a strong force of nature, so much so that I cast my net in the perpetual abyss of limited supply at a stupidly high price in hope that I reel in a prized catch of some of the finest silhouettes and OG colourways that tell a thousand tales, passed down from pair to pair over the years.

I went through my functional phase, I tried the present day models but theres nothing like the allure of a retro pair of Nike.

These iconic kicks aren’t just shoes they’re aspiration, ambition, accomplishment, heritage, statements, accents, moods, memories… it’s a feeling.

The fresh out the box smell never gets old, nor does the returning them back to the box after their once every trimester wear.

I may be salty sometimes at never managing to cop a lot of pairs but deep down I must admit the price has me running scared but if it’s a particular type of retro OG I will cop with no expense spared.

Nike Verse (September 2010)

Since this is about ‘sneakers’ I thought I’d share this rare gem…

This verse was laid on a beat that I named ‘Churchill’ (after the nodding pooch) way back in the early days of my music production journey. The wider song is a track called Foxy which, as cringe as the title sounds, was made whilst I was at University. I took it to the studio as part of a recording project and created a polished, chart worthy pop-song that never saw the light of day because I always preferred the original which was created in Logic 8 and recorded in my bedroom studio on a Samson USB condenser mic (regret selling that when replaced with the Rode NT1-A in 2012 and giving away my Oxygen 8 keyboard because I’m a sucker for artefacts).

Connecting Dots

I’d go so far as to say that the year this picture was taken (excuse the FHM calendar, I was young), I made a lot of the songs featured on Autobiography of a Nobody and Rhythm & Prose: 1012BC as I had just come out of the Up In The Ear era (may be the next legacy drop in the trend of archive revivals). This was a fun time and I’m glad I’m in a place where I can connect the dots. Even seeing this picture and digging through my Logic Pro archives to fish out this Nike verse has given me inspiration to share stories because this is what a blogs are for.

What does ‘allure’ mean to you, what’s your thing, what’s your feeling?

Air Max Day in recent years has been a bittersweet celebration for me. On one hand I feel nostalgic when I think about all the great times I’ve had in both wearing and going to the ends of the earth to purchase them in the glory days, on the other side of it I’m traumatised by the sheer amount of raffles and draws I’ve lost. That email from the SNKRS app used to be a badge of honour but I quickly realised that I was doing marketing for free so I stopped sharing my Ls.

This episode isn’t marketing but a bittersweet trip where nostalgia and respect prevails any of the saltiness I felt at the start. For all those lucky enough to cop pairs of kicks at retail without the clownery of doing free marketing, hats off and raised glasses to you all who refused to jump through hoops and were successful unlike myself.

Happy Air Max Day.