Categories
New Releases

Release Recap 3/27-3/29

This last weekend was a little slow for drops because of Air Max Day taking place on Thursday but there were some really good drops that you’re gonna want to take a look at!

Starting off is a sneaker that usually goes under my radar. ASICS released two shoes, a Gel Lyte 3 and a Gel Lyte 30, both in a similar black and white colorway called “Tokyo”.

The midsole features the ASICS logo but altered to represent the Shibuya Crossing, one of the busiest intersections of the world. These were released on the 27th. The Gel Lyte 3 is still available on GOAT in 4 sizes, 9-11 and go for around $160. The Gel Lyte 30 is sold out.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Adidas dropped a collaboration with Olivia Oblanc and Ji Won Choi, famous designers.

It’s their take on the classic Adidas Superstar model. They’ve replaced the leather with a translucent mesh and hook-and-loop straps instead of laces. They kept the signature toe box so we all know it’s a Superstar.

They were released on the 27th and are sold out.

The next shoes is a collaboration from popular street wear brand, Stussy, and Nike. The Stussy x Air Zoom Spiridon Caged “Pure Platinum” and “Fossil”

This shoe is interesting to me because it shows how Nike pays attention to what’s selling. They brought back the Air Zoom Spiridon, a shoe from the early 2000’s and let Stussy, a street wear company that’s been popular since the 90’s try there take. They also took a nickname given to the shoe “Caged” since the first release and added it into the name. The “Fossil” colorway might also be Nike trying to fight Kanye’s desert colored Yeezy line.

The shoe was released on the 27th and is currently in stock on GOAT. The price ranges from $325 to $1,000.

The last shoe of this weekend was a Lebron 17 Low “Bred”.

The difference in this shoe and the regular is the midsole features transparent textile and synthetic nubuck versus the Knitposite. It features the signature swoosh, react foam in the toe and a Max Air Unit in the heel.

Categories
Shoes in the News

Air Max Day 2020

It’s finally the sneakerhead holiday, Air Max Day. Taking place on March 26th every year, this year Nike had a lot planned for the holiday.

The holiday started on March 26th, 1987 with the release of the first Air Max, Air Max 1.

The most important news is the announcement of a new model of Air Max, the 2090, in 3 colorways.

Nike also released a pack of the Air Max 90 and Air Max 2020 in called “Duck Camo Pack”.

Nike also released a Women’s pack of Air Max 90’s called the “Metallic Pack”.

GOAT is also running a contest to help you win a pair. Instead of the normal retail price, $150, you can get a pair for $3.26. To win the contest you have to scour the website and look for a secret link hyperlinked as an image of an Air Max 2090. The contest brought too much traffic to the site and the contest has been moved to Instagram on their account, goat.

Go out and get you a pair of Air Maxes, you won’t regret it. As always, this is Robbie telling you to keep your laces tight!

Categories
Shoe Review

Shoe Review: Air Max 2 Light

If you payed attention to sneakers in the last couple of years, you’d see the rise of the “dad” shoe. They’re the chunky sneakers often in basic colors that up until 2017, your dad might wear to cut the grass or barbecue. The Balenciaga Triple S model was released in September 2017 and started the trend. After that, Adidas’s Yeezy line also started making them.

Back then, like most people, I didn’t like them. They were too big, costed thousands of dollars and were only a new flex for celebrities. I couldn’t believe people were paying that much money to look like my dad on Sundays.

I softened my opinion on the dad shoe over the years until late 2019, when I found a dad shoe I liked. The Nike Air Max 2 Light. I was in love with this shoe and the best part was that I could get a pair of under $100. I bought them and haven’t looked back since.

Because I’m stuck in the house, I decided to do an official review of a shoe in my closet.

In my opinion, it’s a pretty shoe. It’s colored lightly so it looks especially well in the summer time with lots of sunlight. It being mostly white, it works well with a lot of other outfits as well. Due to being stuck in the house because of the Corona Virus, I really enjoy the seconds of sunlight that glimmer off of these shoes from when I pass a window in my home.

Because it’s an air max shoe it’s also super comfortable. I walk miles on campus in these everyday and they support my feet all day. Because they’re a bit chunkier than most shoes, they also fit extremely well. Snug enough to hold my feet but they don’t rub against my feet uncomfortably.

My favorite part about the shoe is definitely the price. This entire blog is about being broke and these shoes are still consistently cheap. On Goat, almost every size is around $90 which is a great price point for a shoe that you can wear every day.

These shoes are a must for any sneaker collector and I don’t know how I got around without them.

As always, this is Robbie telling you to keep your laces tight!

Categories
Sneakers 101

How to be a Sneakerhead Indoors

As most Americans are instructed to stay inside their homes, you may be thinking how you can still be a sneakerhead. Lucky for you, using the internet is half of what it takes to be a sneakerhead so you can still flex from your bedroom that you haven’t left in 3 days.

First thing is to take selfies. The best way to show of your shoe is a picture. The internet is really the only place that people ever see your shoes. It’s the best place to share them to people who like sneakers. Twitter is a great place to talk about shoes but Instagram is the best place to post pictures.

If you’re already trapped in the house, try out some fits. If nobody is gonna see you, experiment. I know you’ll only wear that certain pair of Jordans with that single outfit but stop doing that. Go out of your comfort zone.

Hashtags are your best friends when posting. #sneaker #sneakers #sneakerheads are all staple hashtags. Really though, as long as you make sure and get the hashtags under the “read more tab” you can put as many as you like.

Shameless self promotion! My Instagram will be at the bottom if you need tips.

For picture, it’s the same rules as any. Natural lighting is the best to take a pic in unless you need a light with a flash for any kind of reflective material. Do what you need to do and drag any body size mirror near a window for a picture. The muscle pain and scratched walls are totally worth the likes.

The left pic was taken outside with natural light and the right was indoors. Notice how the colors on the shoe really pop with the sunlight and the wrinkles and stains fade out.

Another big part of a sneakerhead is buying and selling shoes. For doing both of these StockX and GOAT are gonna be your best friends. For starters, they’re both safe. Both have a team making sure all sales are legitimate. If anything goes wrong, they also have staff for easy and helpful customer support. They also have the largest collection of sneakers you can find online.

StockX is a great place to start when buying shoes. It’s a literal stock market for sneakers and the best place to check average price. For selling, it has great stats for prices of sneakers as they move up and down. It’ll tell you when to sell and it makes it really easy to make your money back.

GOAT is my favorite place to buy sneakers. GOAT is full of independent sellers that often undercut their prices to sell their shoes. They always have shoes the second they’re released. GOAT also does a Black Friday giveaway with around 100 prizes. Most are being able to buy shoes for their regular retail price but they also giveaway gift cards.

I had time to recreate one of my favorite pics of all time!

Most importantly during this virus outbreak stay safe and be smart. As always, this is Robbie telling you to keep your laces tight!

https://www.instagram.com/tacobelman/

Categories
Sneaker Saturday

Sneaker Saturday: Collin Brazan

This is how he wanted to take the picture I swear.

This week, I caught up with Collin Brazan, a Mass Communication senior wearing his “80’s Mickey” Old Skool Vans. They’re a limited collaboration between Disney and Vans that Collin was able to get before they sold out. He’s really happy he didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for them, too. Between us getting distracted online shoe shopping, I managed to get enough of an interview done to get some conversation

“That’s why I like Vans. They’re not expensive and they all look so unique. Every design of vans are so different. They all have their own style and you can rock your own style with them.”

-Collin Brazan

We talked a lot about how Vans are definitely an essential pick-up for all college students looking to improve their shoe game. Besides just enjoying the designs of his shoes, Collin also really enjoys Vans because they’re affordable. As shoes can sometime climb into quadruple digit prices, it’s often so relieving to be able to get a nice pair of sneakers for under $100.

“When you think of college students, you think of style, you think of affordability. Everybody wants to flex a little bit and Vans are a great way to do that.”

-Collin Brazan

I asked him if he ever thought about lace swapping or doing anything to the Vans to change them and Collin said how he was perfectly happy with the stock pair. There’s so much already going on in the shoe that I’d hate to ruin the checkerboard print with weird laces, he said.

When he isn’t wearing those, Collin likes to break out his Adidas Ultraboosts. A super comfortable shoe that is meant to be worn and is a great sneaker to rotate to on a rainy day.

We started to discuss grails (sneakers that you really want). Collin had two. The Hallow’s Eve Off-White Blazers and the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Air Jordan 1s.

The Jordans are particularly special to him. Collin is incredibly passionate about animation and he’s a huge fan of Marvel. This shoe was a combination of all of his interests. Unfortunately, this shoe was also the one that got away from him. He was in the theater watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse when he finally made the decision to not buy a pair. Now the price has doubled and he is just waiting to get a pair.

I really enjoyed that story and that he remembered it to tell it to me. That shows that shoes stick with us, even if was a pair we decided to not buy a year and a half ago.

Make sure to follow Collin on Instagram!

As always, this is Robbie reminding you to keep your laces tight!

Categories
Shoe Review

Shoe Review: Air Max 1 “Aqua”

I’ve been waiting to do this review all semester and after wearing them one day this week, I’ve decided today was the day.

The Nike Air Max 1, originally released in 1987, have been a constant fan favorite for the last 33 years. With multiple different designs coming out every year, it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop soon.

The pair I’m reviewing, the Aquas, were originally released in 1988. They were released again in 2018 and I grabbed a pair.

On first glance, it’s a very pretty shoe. A very subtle white and light grey is on top with a contrasting aqua blue in the middle. The top lace hole, the Nike logo, and the inside of the shoe are also accented in grape for a nice touch of color.

The shoe consists almost entirely of suede with a mesh design over the toes. Even though the shoe is suede and white, it still looks great after two years of wear and tear. I’ve worn mine multiple times a week since buying and the white still stands out.

These shoes are the only shoes I have right now that truly fit to size. I’m a size 9 and it’s like they were made for my feet. They fit snugly on my feet as well but never rubbing against them so much it starts to irritate me. For other wearers, you may find a little extra room in the toe box but the shoe fits so well everywhere else, you don’t even notice.

They retailed for $140 and the average resale price on GOAT and StockX right now is $150 dollars. In my opinion, it’s a great deal as most shoes don’t ever stay anywhere close to retail price.

The shoe is a great addition to my closet and a comfortable pair of shoes I can wear anywhere. I definitely plan on buying another if these ever fall apart.

As always, this is Robbie and remember to keep your laces tight!

Categories
New Releases

Release Recap: 2/28-3/1

This weekend had a multitude of releases from Nike and Adidas and I’m here to help you keep track!

First off is the Nike/Jerry Lorenzo collaboration. The Air Fear of God 1 “The Question” released on February 28th.

I’m excited to see this shoe released as I’ve been a big fan of the model but not a fan of the bright neon colorways they’ve been releasing. A clean black, grey, and bone is easy to wear with anything.

They’re sold out and resell from $825-$2,000.

Next is the Lebron 17 Low “Tune Squad” released on February 28th.

This pair is a nod to the “Space Jam” sequel starring LeBron James. It’s colored like the jersey’s that Bugs Bunny and his team wear in the first film and has it’s swoosh covered in tufts of hair.

They resell from $205-$240.

From Kanye and Adidas, we have the Yeezy Boost 700 MNVM “Orange”. Released on February 28th.

Yet another Yeezy model, but for this one Kanye had influence. He brought in designers Stephen Smith and Christian Tresser. The orange coloring is unique as well as the reversed “700” across the shoe instead if the three stripes. The shoe was only released in Paris and Los Angeles in select stores.

It resells from $410-$700.

The Travis Scott SB Dunk Low PRM QS “Cactus Jack” released on February 29th.

One of his dozen collaborations with Nike, we get to see his take on the Dunk Low. The cool thing about this shoe is there are two swooshes, one black and one pink. The plaid can also be torn away to reveal elephant print underneath.

The shoe resells from $1,100-$1,350.

Finally is the Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG “Pine Green 2.0”. Released on February 29th.

It’s the colorway of the original Pine Green Air Jordan 1 but the same design as the original Jordan’s from 1985. It’s easy to wear and easy to hoop in.

It resells from $210-$300.

My favorite drop from this weekend is definitely the Air Jordan 1’s. I’m a sucker for them and they have a very wearable colorway. They’re in my size for $220 too so I might just have a pair next time you see me on campus.

As always, this is Robbie telling you to keep your laces tight!

Categories
Sneakers in Pop Culture

Sneakers in Rap

Rap and sneakers go together better than peanut butter and jelly, Batman and Robin and even french fries and ketchup. There have been songs about shoes for a long time but is started around the 80’s. For this story about the collaboration, I made a playlist of songs that all pay homage to sneaker culture.

Run-DMC’s song “My Adidas” was really the song that started it all. Run-DMC was payed 1 million dollars in 1986 for their song and at the time that was unheard of. It was the first rap song used to advertise shoes and the first ever million dollar endorsement a rap group had ever received.

Jordans didn’t come out until 85′ so for the rest of the 80’s they struggled to fight Adidas’ influence.

In the 90’s once Jordan started to catch up, Sports Illustrated released a magazine titled “Your Sneakers or Your Life” which followed the case of a 15 year old boy murdered for his Jordans along with many other cases of crime similar.

This cut almost all rap and sneaker deals for years. No company wanted to endorse anything that wasn’t squeaky clean. Although the endorsements stopped, sneaker references did not. Hip-Hop has never cared what anyone thought and suddenly it was a lot more taboo to talk about sneakers so that’s what they did.

The 2000’s were the year of the Air Force One. Every shoe wanted to be it. Most shoe designs this decade were low-tops like Reebok who signed Jadakiss and Rakim in 2002. BAPE was also huge his decade. Although it was a huge seller, it eerily resembled the Air Force One lows. Every rapper also had a bar about their outfit which included a basketball jersey, big shorts or bootcut jeans, and Air Force One’s like in Nelly’s song, “Air Force Ones”.

Notice the similar logo, the bottom ridges and the back tab. Other versions of the air force one were even more similar.

The 2010’s were my favorite year for rapper shoes. It started off with Kanye West’s Yeezy line with Nike. In late 2009, Kanye brought everyone out of the Air Force One Era with his shoe, the Air Yeezy. These crushed the market before 2012 when he released the Air Yeezy 2. The 2’s now go for easily over $4,000. He switched to Adidas and made the Yeezy Boost 350 in 2016. These were so popular, not only does every single colorway sell for around $1,500, he’s released close to 20 different Yeezy shoes and since then and they ALL sell out. From there, Drake got his own line of Jordans. Travis Scott now produces with Nike and has had multiple shoes in the last 2 years.

What’s been your favorite shoe of the decade? As always, this is Robbie reminding you to keep your laces tight!

Categories
Shoes in the News

Shoes in the News: Kanye West’s new Yeezy QNTM

This past weekend on Valentine’s Day, Kanye West’s newest shoe, the YZY QNTM, was given out early to kids in Chicago.

Kanye’s team drove through Chicago neighborhoods in Sherp ATV’s. Massive tank like vehicles that stand over 8 feet tall.

The shoe is Kanye’s first basketball sneaker. It was released Sunday, February and prices already between $850-$1500 dollars.

I personally am not a huge fan of the shoe but I’m all for the delivery. Kanye specifically delivered them to kids who probably couldn’t get the shoes themselves. It makes me sad they were given to kids and are still sold for one thousand dollars online. I’m also a fan of the vehicles he used to deliver them. I would take anything being given to me from a man inside a tank. Hopefully someone was blessed on Valentine’s day with the Yeezy QNTM.

As always, this is Robbie telling you to keep your laces tight!

Categories
New Releases

Newly Released: OFF-WHITE Air Jordan 5 SP ‘MUSLIN’

Just released on Saturday, February 15th, were Virgil Abloh’s first design of an Air Jordan since his popular collection of Air Jordan 1’s.

This shoe makes for the 4th Air Jordan in OFF-WHITE’s massive collection.

These retailed for $220. As of right now depending on your size, they’re re-selling anywhere from $850 to $1200.

Obviously I didn’t get a pair, but I did scour the internet for every available fact on them I could find!

Like most OFF-WHITE products, they’re deconstructed. Abloh yellowed the sole of the shoe, something that doesn’t usually happen until years of wear. The shoe is also covered in thin plastic that gives it a worn look. It also features the “Nike Air” block on the back, something we don’t get to see too often anymore. There are transparent holes around the shoes that show off the inside.

I love these shoes. I’m a huge model of the Air Jordan 5 and I love OFF-WHITE stuff like everyone else. I’m a big fan of pre-distressed shoes as well because it’s easier to keep them clean. Nicholls always has puddles and mud so with a shoe like this, I can walk care-free. I’m not a huge fan of the holes in the shoe as that usually requires me to start matching my socks to my shoes but that’s a small complaint. If I ever see a student in these, I’ll be sure to get them on Sneaker Saturday!

As always, this is Robbie telling you to keep your laces tight!

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