{"id":16744,"date":"2018-04-02T12:18:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T20:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=16744"},"modified":"2019-09-25T15:01:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T23:01:19","slug":"the-art-of-the-sneakerhead","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/the-art-of-the-sneakerhead\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of the Sneaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the many quiet revelations for me in the documentary <\/span>The Art of the Shine <\/span><\/i><\/a>is that despite being in what seems like a casual and disposable culture, many people these days actually still take great pains to care for their shoes, including partaking in the ancient art of shoe shining. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whether brown leather loafers or black boots or, heck, wing-tip spats, polishing your shoes can change your outlook on life. At least until they’re dirty again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But what’s even more eye-opening is a whole subculture spinning around <\/span>sneakers<\/span>: an obsession in caring for your kicks that goes well beyond just trying to have the latest Air Jordans and looking spiffy. “Sneakerheads” are everywhere and they are taking care of their footwear.<\/span><\/p>\n

I even asked Kevin of the Shoeshine Guild<\/strong><\/a>, one of the shoe shiners featured in Art of the Shine<\/em><\/a>, for his thoughts on sneakers–and the shining thereof. “In the last three, four years we\u2019ve gotten quite a few sneakerheads, nationwide sneaker cleaning special events and just more sneaker customers in general,” he told me. “Now that it\u2019s okay to wear them to work and now [that they’re] business casual with a suit. I love cleaning sneakers, it\u2019s fun and we charge $10-$15 for the service.”<\/p>\n

Looks like some of Kevin’s colleagues there get up to some cool mischief with sneakers, as a matter of fact:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bf_il06F1uz\/<\/p>\n

Sneakerheads Like to Drool Over the Coolest Kicks<\/strong><\/p>\n

How does one become a “sneakerhead”? “True sneaker knowledge is something you develop over time,” says Nadir Nelson, a Bay Area media professional. “You must know your sneaker history before you can consider yourself a sneakerhead or guru. Most designs that come out today are retro designs and inspired by the past. I get my sneaker news from\u00a0Nicekicks<\/span>.com<\/a> and\u00a0Hypebeast<\/span>.com<\/a>, [but] I prefer word of mouth. There is nothing like finding gems at your local mom and pop sneaker store, I\u00a0live for moments like this.”<\/p>\n

Another online magazine is evocatively called HighSnobiety<\/a>, which celebrates “streetwear, sneakers, lifestyle and the arts,” seems to wrap all those things together (in male-centric fashion)\u2014on the coolest, shiniest in footwear (and other wear). Unsurprisingly, they mostly focus on the latest and hippest, but like a lot of sneakerheads they enjoy stepping back in time to look at “vintage” sneaks, like this look at the influential design of the Nike Air Grudge<\/a>. (Calling something from the ’90s “vintage” will make a 40-something shudder, but I get it.)<\/p>\n

These sites also like to poke around Instagram to find some of the most inspiring shoewear. Instagram is not surprisingly Grand Central for drooling over new and fancy sneakers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sneakerhead has some recommendations for you<\/a>, and here’s just a sampling of some other eye-popping collections from Insta:<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’re an Air Jordan aficionado you will practically fetishize some of the AJ’s collected in Dylan Ratner’s feed<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>You have to admit, these limited edition vintage Jordans are pretty sick, as the kids say:<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bd_JAZmljsX\/?taken-by=dylan_ratner<\/p>\n

A lot of these feeds and sites keep a decidedly male-dominated bent<\/strong> to their sneaker coverage, but there are thankfully exceptions. [From <\/span>Complex<\/span><\/a>:] “<\/span>French blogger Amel Mainich, better known as <\/span>Ugly Mely<\/b><\/a>, reps hard for <\/span>females in the heavily male-dominated sneaker world<\/b><\/a>. If there\u2019s an upcoming women\u2019s sneaker release, chances are you\u2019ll see her with it first. With a Reebok sneaker collab and a published book entitled Sneakers<\/em>\u00a0under her belt, there’s no doubting her importance to the culture.”<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bgn4EW1jvb5\/?taken-by=uglymely<\/p>\n

In fact, acknowledging how male-centric the sneaker industry had become led the Brooklyn Museum to host a discussion<\/a> about it wherein a panel of women collectors, aficionados and designers came together to take head-on the \u201cpurposeful emphasis of sneakers as expressions of masculinity\u201d in our culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Care and Feeding of Sneakers<\/b><\/p>\n

How do the most sneakerheaded care for their footwear, if they’re not necessarily taking them to shoeshiners on busy streets in Manhattan or San Fran? (<\/span>Hey, if you can drop nearly $600 on shiny Italian <\/a><\/span>raised-sole trainers <\/span>by Alexander McQueen,\u00a0<\/span>you’d probably want to keep them professionally shined.)<\/span><\/p>\n

First, let’s cut to the chase, if you’re here for some advice on cleaning your sneaks, GQ has you covered<\/a>, including advice on the right kind of cleaning product. <\/span><\/p>\n

Next, to get a sense of who sneakerheads are and how they act around shoes (and to see whether or not you may be one of them), in the spring and summer, there’s\u2026 [cue overly dramatic lightning FX and booming voice over<\/em>] SNEAKER CON<\/a>!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>A gathering of shoe fanatics founded in 2009, it’s not especially shocking that such a thing exists. But it’s an eye-opening experience for anyone wondering about the lengths of obsessive interest that sneakerheads will go to. <\/span><\/p>\n

And while at SneakerCon, The New York Times<\/a><\/em> learned some great tips on sneaker care:<\/span><\/p>\n

1) Store your sneakers in a dark space, because light can cause yellowing, which devalues your shoes.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Become friends with people who work at sneaker shops.<\/span><\/p>\n

3) Always check details like font and stitching when verifying real versus fake sneakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

4) Ask your elders for their old clothes and sneakers. Chances are they will eventually come back in style.<\/span><\/p>\n

5) Wash your insoles for, well, obvious reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of SneakerCon, could the future of sneakers be female? @ELLEmagazine writer Chloe Hall thinks so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there are multiple YouTube channels focusing on caring for and restoring special sneakers, including RetroSnickers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch him restore these “peanut butter looking Space Jams” into their full glory:<\/span><\/p>\n