Wednesday, June 02, 2004
I had heard rumours of a shoe shop in Bethnal Green that was somewhat out of the ordinary. Bethnal Green is one of the traditional cockney slums of London's East End. My sources suggested that unlike other local emporia Meteor Sports stocked more than just the usual fake Timberlands and ugly Skeechers. Yesterday I decided to pay it a visit. The shop is completely nondescript, even lacking a sign; I had to identify it by the numbers of the shops either side. Once inside though, it was unmistakeable. It is clearly the product of someone who lives and breathes sneakers. Every wall is covered in rare and unusual kicks: 50 colourways of Dunks, 50 AF1s, seemingly all the Nike Footscapes, every Prada sport colour, even a reasonable stock of the usually unobtainable Bapestas. I was on an even rarer hunt though: Nike Air Wovens.
For non-regular readers, the Nike Woven is the only handmade shoe Nike have ever produced. In 1995 a shoe fetishist's version of tulipmania developed for it. All across Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore insatiable demand for the shoes led to ever spiralling prices. This mania spread to the US in 1999 when Nike allowed Alife to become the first Western retailer to stock them. The prices eventually plateaued in the region of 4-5 thousand dollars. This puts the 1st edition colourways on a par with vintage Air Jordans and the rarest Dunks as the most valuable "production" shoe Nike have ever made. They also happen to be the most comfortable.
After a few minutes stalking the shoe shop aisles, it became obvious, that despite the presence of practically every post-millenial Nike shoe on the walls, no Wovens were in evidence. I tentative enquired of the shop assistant whether he had any in stock. In hushed tones he referred me on to a junior honcho in a backroom. The junior honcho pointed to a box on the floor, and said that yes he had a few, but he couldn't sell them today, because he needed them for a GQ photo shoot. In the box were eight different colourways, of which I only own 3. Then he in turn said that the manager himself would be delighted to field my enquiry. The manager appeared up a ladder from a basement filled from floor to ceiling with the alluring orange Nike shoe boxes. He revealed that the Wovens were not on display, because they were kept in "The Archive". However he had in excess of 30 pairs, the catch being that he could only accept offers in writing.
As I've commented before, a collection completed is a collection ruined. With just 12 pairs clogging my cupboard, I have at least 20 pairs still to go. Even if I had the spare thousands needed to complete my collection, I would prefer to hunt them down one by one at sensible prices. Still it's great to know that less than a mile from my apartment the coveted missing shoes are hidden in a backroom of a shoddy shoe store.
I was wrong about Rance, (as were Mondo Retro who kindly linked to me yesterday) His true identity was identified with some impressive googling. If you want skillz like that check this Mini-Guide to Google Hacks.
MemeFirst have come MemeSecond: to me! You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat How It Happened to a new meme.
Double Tongued is a tasty resource for the neophyte lexicophile.
The infamous Sesame Street Pinball Song Remix is now available from Ninja Tunes as a Real stream.
Porn Star names suck, you need a Smurf Name.
Today's update brought to you by "Pimpin' Smurf" Cartwright.
For non-regular readers, the Nike Woven is the only handmade shoe Nike have ever produced. In 1995 a shoe fetishist's version of tulipmania developed for it. All across Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore insatiable demand for the shoes led to ever spiralling prices. This mania spread to the US in 1999 when Nike allowed Alife to become the first Western retailer to stock them. The prices eventually plateaued in the region of 4-5 thousand dollars. This puts the 1st edition colourways on a par with vintage Air Jordans and the rarest Dunks as the most valuable "production" shoe Nike have ever made. They also happen to be the most comfortable.
After a few minutes stalking the shoe shop aisles, it became obvious, that despite the presence of practically every post-millenial Nike shoe on the walls, no Wovens were in evidence. I tentative enquired of the shop assistant whether he had any in stock. In hushed tones he referred me on to a junior honcho in a backroom. The junior honcho pointed to a box on the floor, and said that yes he had a few, but he couldn't sell them today, because he needed them for a GQ photo shoot. In the box were eight different colourways, of which I only own 3. Then he in turn said that the manager himself would be delighted to field my enquiry. The manager appeared up a ladder from a basement filled from floor to ceiling with the alluring orange Nike shoe boxes. He revealed that the Wovens were not on display, because they were kept in "The Archive". However he had in excess of 30 pairs, the catch being that he could only accept offers in writing.
As I've commented before, a collection completed is a collection ruined. With just 12 pairs clogging my cupboard, I have at least 20 pairs still to go. Even if I had the spare thousands needed to complete my collection, I would prefer to hunt them down one by one at sensible prices. Still it's great to know that less than a mile from my apartment the coveted missing shoes are hidden in a backroom of a shoddy shoe store.
Today's update brought to you by "Pimpin' Smurf" Cartwright.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]