My fascination ( I call it a fascination as I still get that same buzz and weird intrigue today) started when I was about 10. When I first saw the challenge court apparel of Andre Agassi I was hooked, the bold ‘rock and roll’ of tennis and those neon combos had me wanting it and needing it. Having it was a different story ....like many others, the parents polite but firm no meant I had to discover getting it in different ways. Cutting out the Nike adverts (in particular the agassi and jordan ones) from my dads GQ and putting them on my school folders and bedroom wall was one way. Drawing said gentlemen and sneaker designs was another (however the resemblance was far from uncanny). It is this young 10 year old that still to this day, makes the air tech challenge 3/4 in Neon yellow, my favorite ever shoe. I will never forget the feeling when the local butchers son came to school in them with the tag still attached and it lit up my life ...with envy and in awe. I was slowly allowed to introduce bits of Agassi’s wardrobe into mine (probably from a trip to London in the sales) and the pleasure I got from wearing those pieces (which soon moved into Jordan) was that good old child excitement. Sneakers took a long while to come into my life from an early age. Not for the want of trying! From as early as I can remember my mum bought me the same style of sneaker from the local supermarket, each year just going up a size. They were like a bad adidas samba but called ‘cannon’. So bad they were (in my head), that I used to stick an adidas pencil case down the tongue of one shoe (I didn’t have 2 pencil cases!) to pretend they were adidas ! I grew older and my obsession with agassi and more so jordan meant a progression in what I was allowed to get. It Started with bootleg jordan tee’s from the seaside market (wish I had kept those) to a Nike t-shirt or equivalent on holiday trips. My first pair of Nike was on a trip to France (cross trainers with a pink tongue ..dope !) and my first pair of Jordan’s was the aqua 8’s in the sale in 1993. My love for Jordan started around 11, it stared with the sneakers and moved to the bulls and that contributed to my love of basketball. My first pair of full price Jordan’s came when I was 16, the original 1998 ‘he got game’ (before they were known as this) 13’s as I was playing basketball a lot by then. I remember sitting in footlocker seeing that silver box coming my way. Despite always loving kicks, sports and the culture of it ...I took a bit of a hiatus from 17-23. Uni, girls, very bad fashion getting in the way. My serious collecting years started back up with the Nike SB and in particular the slam city Nike SB. When the local skate shop in Leicester (where I was living) hooked me up with those, I was well and truly back in! Fast forward to now and I am lucky enough to own some amazing bits in my collection, (finally have the 1990 air tech challenge after all the NO’s at 10!) and another grail, an original pair of 1985 air jordan 1.
