Speaker 1: Wait, what's up? Gods, y'all know what it is? KG certified.
Speaker 1: You know I'm a sneaker here, right, you know I
Speaker 1: love shoes right, had to come down here and check
Speaker 1: out Flight Club, chop it up with Nick on the
Speaker 1: latest and greatest and trending and shoes. Y'all check this out? Ah,
Speaker 1: what's up man? How you doing great? So they was
Speaker 1: trying to give me. They were trying to give me notice,
Speaker 1: and I had to quickly remind everybody but that this
Speaker 1: is my show for its probably my favorite. Jordan shot
Speaker 1: on e Loo he's right here, the black and reds.
Speaker 1: You was that dude? If you had those? You feel me? Right?
Speaker 1: This model right here was the first one I bought
Speaker 1: on my own, and my mom thought I was dumb.
Speaker 1: I'm crazy. I was at burri Keen at the time.
Speaker 1: Shout to BK. You can have it, cho way, baby,
Speaker 1: you can have it cho waight. My homeboy, who was
Speaker 1: bow legged as shit, used to always have these on.
Speaker 1: He was a little risk kid. Drakes ugly ass.
Speaker 2: The only nine players in league history that had a
Speaker 2: shoe series that went had on Mama Bottles, really, mj Ji, Kobe,
Speaker 2: lebron kd Mellow, CP Derrick Rose Mellow, I love Mellow,
Speaker 2: and then most recently Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: I need a wall like this in the Crier. I
Speaker 1: gotta put a wall in front of this wall. Who's
Speaker 1: been dead? Ash? I want to let nobody test nothing
Speaker 1: in here like club? When'd y'all get this idea to
Speaker 1: put the shoes on the wall like this? I went
Speaker 1: over to Japan and had to break dance again. I
Speaker 1: met a joint even get done eating, and this kid
Speaker 1: walked right up on me. I was eating. He was
Speaker 1: like I had to go in like a whole yo,
Speaker 1: sweat and everything like I had. I had to shoot
Speaker 1: him out here like get out like I don't know
Speaker 1: what just happened when there was a real battle walked
Speaker 1: on me in battle, Yo, collap is important? Oh yeah today?
Speaker 2: I mean this whole wall right here is collapsed. This OVERO,
Speaker 2: that's the Kentucky UK on the top.
Speaker 3: Sup Price, Damn say word where Cory Rax for some shoes?
Speaker 3: Damn fifteen in this when walkin the flight club is this?
Speaker 3: I feel like a whole little kid coming in here.
Speaker 3: And that's why you love coming in steaker stores all
Speaker 3: that on the.
Speaker 1: iPad ship, I can't. I need to feel my shit.
Speaker 1: I needed I need to smell my shit, right, I
Speaker 1: need to damn being my You know what I'm saying
Speaker 1: the fun now, I'm not an iPad God, you put
Speaker 1: on fresh teams. You need to put the teams on them.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I'm to them from the
Speaker 1: old country. Man. First off, its great to see you, man.
Speaker 1: I see all the stuff you're doing. Man, it's do fuck.
Speaker 1: I was talking to my homie over the way over here.
Speaker 1: You know, he was talking about Morris Blackman. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: talking about how Morris Blackman put commercials on the map. Yep.
Speaker 1: I think I said Morse black Men than him. And
Speaker 1: then he shot back, He's like, what about the weapons
Speaker 1: member conversion? I ran and right with the envy, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh so it got need to thinking. Man,
Speaker 1: Just let's go back in history a little been like, what
Speaker 1: to me, what is your favorite shoe and shoe history?
Speaker 1: And you can bring it up today today, but if
Speaker 1: you go through the timeline of all the dope commercial
Speaker 1: and stuff, what's what's one of your favorite shoe memories?
Speaker 2: So I consider the Converse weapon the first to bring
Speaker 2: like Superstars together, right, Okay, and Mars Blackman was like
Speaker 2: the first to touch like MJ shoes culture and going
Speaker 2: to a character, yes, right, And obviously Spike was as
Speaker 2: big as it gets.
Speaker 1: To that touch. So first time seeing street culture other
Speaker 1: than run DMC, Adidas, Nike and rock Camp are being
Speaker 1: Rock Camp. But it's the first time I see culture
Speaker 1: come together and it's like a character, right.
Speaker 2: But my era is really the Zoom Flight ninety fives,
Speaker 2: the Penny Twes, Little Penny Fun Police, that whole chapter
Speaker 2: where the ship was fun. It was, you know, and
Speaker 2: it wasn't as serious, and you got to see personality everybody,
Speaker 2: and then the designs and the technology was just all
Speaker 2: out there.
Speaker 1: So for me, that's where it really starts. Nike. Being
Speaker 1: with them five years, I learned that through storytelling, you
Speaker 1: can put equipment, You can tell eccentric and fictional stories
Speaker 1: through characters, almost like you're doing like a comic book.
Speaker 1: But they did a great job of putting utility. They
Speaker 1: did a great job of telling the story of how
Speaker 1: that utility would work in the fantasy world cold jumping
Speaker 1: over a car and the moon, having Zoom having air.
Speaker 1: Mike was dunking on a hundred foot hoop. I mean
Speaker 1: the concept of where commercials shoots to be in selling technology.
Speaker 1: Why do you think it's such a lost start or
Speaker 1: while we don't see it so much.
Speaker 2: Today, that's a good question. I think now everything is
Speaker 2: on social media first. So this idea of like a
Speaker 2: ten million dollar campaign that's on TV for a whole month, like,
Speaker 2: stuff goes so quickly that it's a little different.
Speaker 1: Lending a TV ain't the same, no more, nobody parts different.
Speaker 1: And then or people are getting the information from.
Speaker 2: Straight from the players too, right, so the players want
Speaker 2: to post stuff their own way. Yeah, Bronz on the
Speaker 2: fly just posting hissues every day on Instagram. Story, Like
Speaker 2: the whole dynamic changed personally. I like the old school
Speaker 2: where you have like stuff that's really well thought out.
Speaker 2: You have like, you know, a little penny hosting a
Speaker 2: Super Bowl party.
Speaker 1: You know some ship like that is coming in. You know,
Speaker 1: to me, that was more fun. Do you think that
Speaker 1: we can ever get back to where players are not
Speaker 1: only having signature shoes or part of you know, shoe campaigns.
Speaker 1: Where's fun? I think so.
Speaker 2: I think we saw the Rebok announcement. I think that's
Speaker 2: what Shock's trying to do now.
Speaker 1: Trying to bring a little resurrection to the brand of
Speaker 1: this yesteryear's.
Speaker 2: Because I don't know how much he you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: he probably embellishes the ship a little bit. But he
Speaker 2: says he wrote the first ever commercial that he did
Speaker 2: a Rebok and that was where he had he had
Speaker 2: all the all the guys come back in. So he's like,
Speaker 2: I will be hands on. I want to have you know, say,
Speaker 2: I could drop this on you now. Actually, but he's
Speaker 2: gonna sign Angel Reees first athlete the Rebok, so it's like,
Speaker 2: let's do something different.
Speaker 1: She's at LSU. Of course he went to l s U.
Speaker 1: She's getting it too though.
Speaker 2: She instead of just getting the guy in the league,
Speaker 2: let's take an NIL player off top.
Speaker 1: So I think it's gonna be stuff like that that's
Speaker 1: going to be really like unique and creative that they've
Speaker 1: come together with. Who's your favorite shoout right now? I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see what Kyrie does. Yeah, shout to Kyrie
Speaker 1: and answer.
Speaker 2: Obviously you were with Antwa, but they got I would
Speaker 2: say they've evolved a business.
Speaker 1: You started out there a little bit. It was a
Speaker 1: little rocky for a little bit, a little bit and
Speaker 1: I've actually been over there.
Speaker 2: I didn't even realize they had like ninety six hundred
Speaker 2: stores in Asia.
Speaker 1: Like the volume was crazy. My draw to answer was
Speaker 1: not just the freedom. I learned so much by being
Speaker 1: with Nike those early days, so I took it to
Speaker 1: and One. I learned so much being with and One
Speaker 1: from a street culture that I took it to Adidas.
Speaker 1: And when I got to Adidas, THETAS was really a
Speaker 1: soccer soccer company, at least it felt soccer is. There
Speaker 1: was ahead of dry Fit, There was ahead of sweating
Speaker 1: apparatus and using Clima coal control. There was ahead of
Speaker 1: all of that. Technology wise, they had actually technology they
Speaker 1: wasn't releasing yet that was speaking back to you. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you followed the league now. I think
Speaker 1: I saw something and something to where a camera now
Speaker 1: has AI in it, to where it can tell you
Speaker 1: at Starbucks if someone's out working you and you're making
Speaker 1: something right, well like the heat map and shit. Listen
Speaker 1: to me. It's crazy because I think twenty fourteen fifteen
Speaker 1: I got with the Nets and they were using technology
Speaker 1: to see the productivity in which he was put into practice,
Speaker 1: and the days of I ain't gonna call it free
Speaker 1: loading or what we call gliding and chilling. They was
Speaker 1: able to see if guys were putting in certain times
Speaker 1: and when they went and they was putting them on
Speaker 1: to some I'm saying all this that and THEESUS was
Speaker 1: ahead of that, and now I'm starting to see it
Speaker 1: in today's stuff. I know, since you got the curry
Speaker 1: stuff on them. Talk about the evolution of his brand.
Speaker 1: I've followed him since he's started this. I know the
Speaker 1: underground people came in and helped them with some of
Speaker 1: the stuff on the inside. Talk about history. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: his growth of all that.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously he was a Nike first, right, and
Speaker 2: he was having his ankle problems and in twenty thirteen
Speaker 2: I did an interview with him. I didn't know this
Speaker 2: Brand Black offered him equity have been the first guy
Speaker 2: at Bran black the web sign of Jamal Crawford instead,
Speaker 2: but he had Brand Black, Adidas under Armour and then
Speaker 2: a couple of Chinese brands as well, and under Armour
Speaker 2: was liked.
Speaker 1: Yep, we're gonna kick this bottom way. They're not this
Speaker 1: out of the ship. I should like this in parts
Speaker 1: and we were doing the little atmosphere. I love it
Speaker 1: because this is the reality part some it. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: in La fas facts right, get it.
Speaker 2: And so for him, it's like they took the bet
Speaker 2: on him. He wasn't an All Star yet and they
Speaker 2: were gonna give him his own shoe, and then everything
Speaker 2: kind of came at the same time. He got MVP,
Speaker 2: first shoe title, all that twenty fifteen run. And so
Speaker 2: more recently when we just talked about Shaq and Rebok
Speaker 2: him being president, but Steph just did a lifetime deal
Speaker 2: this last spring. He's now president Curry brand. He's running
Speaker 2: that whole thing. They're going to be signing athletes as well.
Speaker 1: Wow. So it's exciting to see.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, shoe wise, like you know, they
Speaker 2: had their little struggles a little bit, I would say
Speaker 2: early on, like the chef Curry was obviously like some
Speaker 2: legendary jokes. But then Curry for Curry ten now and
Speaker 2: the flow they got like it's starting to get there.
Speaker 1: Is the plan is the MJ model, the MJ structure,
Speaker 1: a more realistic structured TV these days, not just so
Speaker 1: much of having a signature shoe. It's all about having
Speaker 1: a brand now. I think everybody's realistic.
Speaker 2: They know, like the MJ thing is like going to
Speaker 2: be impossible to replicate. Like I think MJ's at like
Speaker 2: almost seven billion now, which is bigger than the whole
Speaker 2: under Armour company itself.
Speaker 1: So I think, which is crazy right today today is
Speaker 1: about waves?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think from Steph's angle, it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: I almost look at it like Live Strong. Remember how
Speaker 2: Livestrong had like the give back component. Like, I think
Speaker 2: they're a little more realistic on like the revenue targets.
Speaker 2: Maybe they can get it to a billion, but they
Speaker 2: have all these other elements of it where there's like
Speaker 2: give backs and building out courts that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Think about this too, man. You know when stuff came
Speaker 1: in the league, stuff came in the league went to
Speaker 1: thirteen to twelve, drafted somewhere around there nine nine, So
Speaker 1: we say signature shoe or our brand to where fifteen
Speaker 1: it hit. Look at Giannis, honest is in the league
Speaker 1: about five years. People forget he was in the lead
Speaker 1: about four or five years before it became feel me.
Speaker 1: So when you speak on MJ being seven b today,
Speaker 1: you got to say, man, that the wave is so
Speaker 1: different than I'm watching street brands, the A life, the Supremes,
Speaker 1: the joints. That was. I mean, I'm much older than you,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure in history here in my age, but
Speaker 1: A life used to be in the corner. Supreme used
Speaker 1: to be out of the back of a van. They
Speaker 1: were just hustling, you know what I'm saying. And street
Speaker 1: brands now with the ability to speak for the culture,
Speaker 1: to represent the culture, I'm seeing a lot of commercial
Speaker 1: brands and traditional brands do collapse. It's only right that
Speaker 1: I got to say that. Just like you expect players
Speaker 1: to evolve, and it takes time for them evolved. Man
Speaker 1: Curry has something. Not only has he embarked his his
Speaker 1: mark on basketball, but it's mark on the shoe brands,
Speaker 1: and so are creative. If I may just shit light
Speaker 1: up or you used to levitate right now, I probably
Speaker 1: about three of these and get you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You feel me. So I got to think that the
Speaker 1: street brands have made them mark into the shoe coach.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit about Well.
Speaker 2: That's what's the instrum nout Jordan Like, as successful as
Speaker 2: they are, they have Travis off White, they've done stuff
Speaker 2: with Drake like, they've probably been more open minded than
Speaker 2: most to have a lot of collapse that they like
Speaker 2: maybe it wasn't even necessarily.
Speaker 1: I want respect that though. It's Jordan. Think letna give
Speaker 1: you one Jordan. First thing you think of Jordan black
Speaker 1: red elevenslave, black black. When I think of Adidas, I
Speaker 1: think of Adidas, I think of his brother, I think
Speaker 1: a Puma. I think of soccer. If I said nike Ya,
Speaker 1: I say Phil Knight, I would say jogging, I would
Speaker 1: say running. Jordan's excuse me for all the non black
Speaker 1: people in him, but my nigga, I feel me. If
Speaker 1: it's one brand that's gonna represent the culture. If it's
Speaker 1: one brand, it's gonna come from the neighborhood, it's one brand,
Speaker 1: it's gonna flow through the air. Yeah. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: expect Jordan to go sign Travis Scott. Expect Jordan to
Speaker 1: go sign you know, like, Yeah, I would expect that.
Speaker 2: And that's where I think Reebok has a lane coming
Speaker 2: in that's gonna be unique.
Speaker 1: Yeah Yeah. Ai has street Yeah, yeses and a I
Speaker 1: always made dope shoes too. He always had a combination
Speaker 1: of shoes that outside of my own that I that
Speaker 1: I had some appreciation talking about some of your favorite
Speaker 1: shoes and shoe history. You got to bag them. I'm
Speaker 1: all over, yeah, all right.
Speaker 2: Zoom Flight ninety five for sure, remember the hyper flights
Speaker 2: hyper Flight. You might have a bad memory of this
Speaker 2: shoe because it was the all patent leather ones I
Speaker 2: grew up in Sacks or j Will Warlows. I think
Speaker 2: it's the shoot to Rell Brandon busting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know exactly what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they were kind of flimsy, but I love
Speaker 2: that design. They were just real fast.
Speaker 1: So you're like lighter zooms, like you're more you more,
Speaker 1: you're more guard, you more speed. Right, So you know
Speaker 1: you know what Nike creator right with the air, with
Speaker 1: the zoom and the force, right, that was supposed to
Speaker 1: be like the whole this depiction of garde arts forwards
Speaker 1: and yeah, I know what people knew that those airs
Speaker 1: and those zooms and those ghosts looks actually meant something
Speaker 1: as a categoration of players, and Flight was always my favorite.
Speaker 2: Flight to me went right into alpha projects, okay, okay,
Speaker 2: and that's where they're just the technologies went to a
Speaker 2: whole other level.
Speaker 1: And they start to be really creative without for two.
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, you know, I was the
Speaker 1: first person to get the opportunity to represent the Boings
Speaker 1: and you passed. Yeah, it looked like some ship. Yo,
Speaker 1: so I Nike brought some ship. Listen, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: Two thousand Oakland ninety nine. And do I have a
Speaker 1: right two thousand, two thousand All Star Game Oakland. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in San France. You go jointing Nike on the
Speaker 1: on the Nike TWN right there, dope, event come in
Speaker 1: the bag before I go out. They're like, Yo, we
Speaker 1: want to show you something. You know, night you always
Speaker 1: got the right to come out. The bag is blowing.
Speaker 1: Whoo people. I see some ghosts start doing the three
Speaker 1: sixty in the room. It's like, you know, they poured
Speaker 1: this ship out and they had the camera. I was like,
Speaker 1: oh hell what what what the oh no, turn the
Speaker 1: camera on for I fucked that up. Anyway, the gain
Speaker 1: that the Vince called the shot to VC, so you
Speaker 1: could have were the shocks be before them. I wasn't
Speaker 1: feeling it though, you know, like as a player, I
Speaker 1: needed more cushion in the toe. I was whenever I
Speaker 1: would I would I would be whenever I handled the ball.
Speaker 1: I was on my toes. So when I went to
Speaker 1: go give you whatever, I need to be on my
Speaker 1: toe So I need the cushion of the front cap
Speaker 1: to be very cushionated. And then I was pushing off
Speaker 1: so much that the zones which was great, but probably
Speaker 1: a little thick for for the for the for the
Speaker 1: rendition of the side of it. So I like that
Speaker 1: even even kill of of of utility on the on
Speaker 1: the at least on the side of the rim, at
Speaker 1: least to protect my heels and my achilles because I
Speaker 1: was jumping and I was landing on one feet and
Speaker 1: all that type type of stuff. So when I went
Speaker 1: in to actually constructing my own shoe, I would actually
Speaker 1: sit with engineers, with these creators, and after give my
Speaker 1: two cin on what I needed, we could throw the
Speaker 1: shots under the bus.
Speaker 2: Because two weeks before my senior season in high school,
Speaker 2: tore my acl on that show.
Speaker 1: So the white, black pat and leather one, it was
Speaker 1: a rap. Those are the Jason Kids Jason Kidd shoe
Speaker 1: very famous. I love these. I want to bring these
Speaker 1: out for you though. Bring them out, man, listen. These
Speaker 1: are remember the original jump Man Pro jump Man Pro,
Speaker 1: and I was in jump man for about maybe two
Speaker 1: seconds today, show me Cky. Were these in the first
Speaker 1: playoff run? Right? These are in ninety six ninety six
Speaker 1: award these This is probably one of the more comfortable shoes.
Speaker 1: They showed me the jump man check to us. I
Speaker 1: jumped out of these.
Speaker 2: So, like my favorite thing is untold stories. Right, So
Speaker 2: shocks you could have had you didn't want them. But
Speaker 2: with these, the idea was that they wanted you to
Speaker 2: be the first Team Jordan athlete.
Speaker 1: Right. Well they well they had a Team Jordan already
Speaker 1: with Vin Baker, Eddie Jones. I want to say, Derek Anderson, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Derek Anderson, yep, yep, Mike Finley, Mike Finley early on
Speaker 1: uh Ray ninety five, raised ninety six, they a little
Speaker 1: later and then this. I just kept, you know, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no contestant Jay and none of that. Man, I was
Speaker 1: arnored through wet this. But yeah, I had aspirations of
Speaker 1: having my own and I wanted my own signature, and
Speaker 1: I wanted my own shoe. And I thought that under
Speaker 1: what they was telling me a sports performance and you
Speaker 1: know the four, that if it was there, then I
Speaker 1: could have the opportunity to and I did so you know,
Speaker 1: I passed on being able to be part of a
Speaker 1: group of something that was special at the time and
Speaker 1: have my own and create my own you know, Garnet
Speaker 1: brand and Aaron Cooper was a designer shot there and
Speaker 1: Coop on the way yet in the world, but salute
Speaker 1: torn in Hawaii right now. I talked to him last
Speaker 1: night over there at Ringo. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: live in as neighbors on a banana joint. Okay, IM
Speaker 1: holler at you y'all over there on that Donnie, Donnie,
Speaker 1: I know, y'all. You know what I'm saying. I got
Speaker 1: y'all and hit you right. But that was my guy. Man,
Speaker 1: Me and Anne Coop came up with some dope ideas. Man,
Speaker 1: he had a he had a he thought outside the box.
Speaker 1: We were huge gien utility, you know, air bubbles and
Speaker 1: and in elastic cushions and stuff that wasn't out at
Speaker 1: the time. Really grew grew my knowledge so that I
Speaker 1: can build something like this. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: This right here, This was like a one take. Usually
Speaker 1: they give you like three different redition remissions of this
Speaker 1: and you have like and then you can see and
Speaker 1: you can see the steps of it. This was like two.
Speaker 1: They brought the sample out, we did the sample, and
Speaker 1: then this was it. You know what I'm saying. I
Speaker 1: loved the tide out the tide that was so different.
Speaker 1: I started flow with the Minnesota colors. Although we wasn't
Speaker 1: in this blue. Uh, some of the Orlando guys would
Speaker 1: actually play with this, and I've seen guys playing this
Speaker 1: at the time. Cleveland had a dark kind of blue.
Speaker 1: You know, you remember Cleveland went black, blue and orange
Speaker 1: and it was like, yeah, yeah they were remember that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I see a couple of guys. But this is probably
Speaker 1: the most comfortable show I've ever worn. The White the
Speaker 1: White Woman was probably my faceaite pair. I want to
Speaker 1: do more colors than Nike wasn't feeling it. Later on
Speaker 1: they would take my name off and put this in
Speaker 1: the same ship. So yeah, so good. But yeah, this
Speaker 1: is probably one of my the favorite or one of
Speaker 1: my favorites.
Speaker 2: Do you remember the air Max plus the running shoe
Speaker 2: A Max that had like the mesh fade to air
Speaker 2: Max is probably the air Max one is my favorite
Speaker 2: shoe of all time.
Speaker 1: So he said the air Mass one plus yes, yes,
Speaker 1: with with the lightning yes, that connected at all. If
Speaker 1: you're asking me, I can say that this was on
Speaker 1: the wall as inspiration. I can't speak for the designers
Speaker 1: that put what into what, but I do know Nike
Speaker 1: shares a lot of notes throughout the whole course of it.
Speaker 1: It's a one it's a one revolving circle, so who knows,
Speaker 1: you know, it's so many and then they pulled from
Speaker 1: so many different elements of inspiration that yeah, they Nike
Speaker 1: is probably one of the best at conceptualizing in in
Speaker 1: their renderings that I've that I've seen, I've been with
Speaker 1: a one, I've been with a didas, I've been with
Speaker 1: an answer. When Nike come and sit down, it's like
Speaker 1: it's like it's like the president here, boom come, haircuffs,
Speaker 1: security guards, fucking you know what I'm saying. Earpieces. It's weird.
Speaker 1: But but when they poured that, when they pulled the
Speaker 1: shoe out, man, you're you're you're, you're excited and you're
Speaker 1: amazed every time.
Speaker 2: So at that point it was probably what season four
Speaker 2: for you? How much were you aware of just like
Speaker 2: the money, the business, like all the all the financials
Speaker 2: going on around you, Because I think that's the interesting
Speaker 2: part with shoes for me is like, so I was
Speaker 2: some of the players are really locked in on that
Speaker 2: learn so.
Speaker 1: I was very aware of all of the information. I'm
Speaker 1: coming from high school, so I felt like I was behind.
Speaker 1: So when it came to the collecting bargain agreement, I
Speaker 1: wanted to know the ins and outs of that. I
Speaker 1: want to be in those meetings. I want to hear
Speaker 1: the realness behind the curtain shoe comes the same thing.
Speaker 1: I would go through these negotiations with Nike, you know,
Speaker 1: and and I want to hear the realness of how
Speaker 1: the company actually hurt me through a negotiating standpoint, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's brutal, and you know it's negotiating, you don't, you know,
Speaker 1: you program yourself not to take it personal, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you hear it. But then I started learning how to
Speaker 1: build a shoe. I actually start wanting to go to
Speaker 1: these factors and see how my shoe was being built.
Speaker 1: And you know, Nike had a uh, not the best
Speaker 1: reputations for how they was making shoes, the way they
Speaker 1: was making a map, and they cleanked it up just
Speaker 1: by letting players go in, you know, do the insight,
Speaker 1: go in and see it for themselves, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like it it says something for us to
Speaker 1: speak on that experience and for it to not be
Speaker 1: what's out here. So it helped. But then being part
Speaker 1: of that, man, you learn last you learn how shoes
Speaker 1: come together, the glues, everything. Man. I appreciate my time
Speaker 1: with the Swoosh Man. It was a very educated experience,
Speaker 1: so much that I was able to take that experience
Speaker 1: and go to different places and have a no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I don't want that. I want that dinna done on this.
Speaker 1: I don't put you know what I'm saying. You know,
Speaker 1: I was creating director at the Air one for a
Speaker 1: little bit for about three years. What happened with that? Uh? Covid?
Speaker 1: Ah yeah, covid. COVID hit everybody like you know, like
Speaker 1: like Mike Tyson and the business kind of you know, physic.
Speaker 1: But that was a dope experience too. What are the
Speaker 1: trending shoes? Man? Man? LaMelo's on fire right now. Really
Speaker 1: he makes some hot ship though. I like young Fellow,
Speaker 1: Young fella, he's saucy.
Speaker 2: If you're in middle school, you want to be loud
Speaker 2: out there, He's got like the crazy loud colors you
Speaker 2: saw like the Ricky Morty where like got the red
Speaker 2: with the neon. So he's right now. He's been doing
Speaker 2: really well.
Speaker 1: He makes dope shoes too, man, Yeah, who else has
Speaker 1: a dope show that that that you're looking for that's
Speaker 1: coming up the ship.
Speaker 2: The line's been a little up and down, but I
Speaker 2: really like the Heart and seven, the last one.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you see those, you know what.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen him up close always. I always see
Speaker 1: him in colors. He went like super like it feels
Speaker 1: like something like Prada or something that hid designer would
Speaker 1: do right. And it almost looks like a Bugatti how
Speaker 1: it like wraps around. I haven't seen it, but on
Speaker 1: his foot it looks crazy.
Speaker 2: From those are fresh and I and some of the
Speaker 2: hardens before that, I wasn't crazy. And then the one
Speaker 2: that's coming is the ant shoe. Oh yeah and Edwards, Yeah,
Speaker 2: he got like that fresh like so that's probably immediately
Speaker 2: one of the best Adidas shoes they've done. Really yeah,
Speaker 2: Like I'm gonna put that in the top ten, like
Speaker 2: off top wow.
Speaker 1: So and they've had up and down on some.
Speaker 2: Stuff, you know, but but for me, the a Edward's shoe,
Speaker 2: like if they can't get that to work, then that's
Speaker 2: another conversation.
Speaker 1: I've always liked Adidas collapse with Derrick Rose. The Rose
Speaker 1: has always been solid, He's never made a bump shoe.
Speaker 1: I've always liked the stuff they do with Beckham and
Speaker 1: all the stuff, the soccer stuff. I've always wish they
Speaker 1: would take some of that spirit and bringing them to
Speaker 1: But the DDAs is so big, they got so much too.
Speaker 1: I wish they would throw some of the Why three
Speaker 1: interact some of the you know.
Speaker 2: Why three Basketball did a Y three shoe with James
Speaker 2: in like twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Really what it look like? It was four hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: It just kind of came and went.
Speaker 2: Really Yeah, they were a little out there, but I
Speaker 2: love the why three stuff.
Speaker 1: So you asked me about the business of basketball. A
Speaker 1: lot of these kids actually in tune with the business
Speaker 1: of basketball, and I know the business have changed a
Speaker 1: lot too. Talk a little bit about the current of
Speaker 1: signature shoes. Who has Them's not what they used to be.
Speaker 2: So this season will be the most signature shoes on
Speaker 2: the court for any for any season. Twenty three twenty
Speaker 2: three signature three players spread it through how many brands,
Speaker 2: ten brands, ten brands. Yeah, so that's you know, Nike
Speaker 2: under Armor indeed is Rebok or not rebocked, but Puma.
Speaker 2: And then you have your Chinese brands like Leaning and
Speaker 2: Peek and Anta and Austin Reeves with Rigor, so you've
Speaker 2: got you got a wide spectrum. But twenty three guys,
Speaker 2: which is a lot?
Speaker 1: Wow? Is that the most ever? Most ever? Wow? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Back in the late nineties you had like Alonzo Morning,
Speaker 2: Tim Hardaway, like some guys had like some one off shoes,
Speaker 2: so it was like seventeen or eighteen players that season,
Speaker 2: But twenty three is a lot wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Who do you have as the top five in
Speaker 1: that twenty three as your best? Are your favorite fucking best?
Speaker 1: This is all a pin intotional fuck, y'all ain't feeling
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So the top five business wise is probably Lebron Giannis Steph.
Speaker 2: So these are KD and then wherever Kyrie is gonna
Speaker 2: end up landing, right, it's probably going to be in
Speaker 2: that mix. I think off top again, but I think
Speaker 2: Lamello is right there.
Speaker 1: He's coming. Yeah, he has that young LaMelo has the
Speaker 1: young g Z behind him.
Speaker 2: Right, and then the guy that I'm gonna be curious
Speaker 2: to see what he does because his new shoe is
Speaker 2: totally different than the last few, and now he's on
Speaker 2: the Bucks. But I'm curious to see what Dame does.
Speaker 1: He was wearing something last night. I saw him in
Speaker 1: the Lakers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's in the day Mates again, which he wore
Speaker 2: last year as well. But the Nines that he's got coming,
Speaker 2: I think are a whole different vibe.
Speaker 1: It's almost like a skate shoe vibe. It's a little different.
Speaker 1: Are the anticipation of these drops in these shoes still
Speaker 1: the same as they were yesteryear? Are kids outside? I
Speaker 1: don't know, Man, hold on here, you answered, hold on,
Speaker 1: let me get it out. Man, Goddamn, I've seen kids
Speaker 1: around the corner. And you know, I'm even thinking with y'all,
Speaker 1: like you know, it ain't music, They ain't on the drops, bro.
Speaker 2: Like so when we were coming up whatever, the newest Saturday,
Speaker 2: the newest shoe, like that was the thing if you
Speaker 2: were on East Bay and it said like discontinued style,
Speaker 2: like you didn't want the old shit like it was old.
Speaker 1: It was an outlets at that point.
Speaker 2: Now everything's different, like we're here at Flight Club, La
Speaker 2: and like almost everything on the wall is from you know, five, ten,
Speaker 2: twenty years ago sometimes, So I think it's a little
Speaker 2: different in that regard where all the new shoes are
Speaker 2: competing with kids that could buy any shoe from any
Speaker 2: year on a couple of clicks, right, So that part
Speaker 2: is totally different, Like if I want the new Lamellos
Speaker 2: or what if I want some dunks. So I think
Speaker 2: the competition of it all has changed too. And if
Speaker 2: you're a brand and you're a guy that has a
Speaker 2: signature shoe, like it's that much more pressure to like
Speaker 2: have the right campaign, have the right design, have the
Speaker 2: right rollout to really capture that audience. Otherwise we see
Speaker 2: some shoes they launch and like the very next week,
Speaker 2: it's like they're out of mind already, like they're out
Speaker 2: of sight.
Speaker 1: But the dope part about a shoe to me, and
Speaker 1: I've told marketing people this, it's only one LaMelo. So
Speaker 1: so that's your campaign there. You don't focus on who
Speaker 1: hates LaMelo, you don't focus on who ain't feeling LaMelo.
Speaker 1: You focus on LaMelo and his and who fucking we
Speaker 1: that's the campaign. I think sometimes man shoes get too
Speaker 1: gimme key, it'd be so much on the gimmicks of
Speaker 1: the shoe that you forgot who shoe it was and
Speaker 1: why to wear it. You know. I like what Yay
Speaker 1: did man when Ye came out. Man, he brought back
Speaker 1: James to be you know, functional with your every day
Speaker 1: to be able to wear it in corporate America. He
Speaker 1: walked in the meeting with a tie in a And
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, the backpack on with with
Speaker 1: jury on the Jesus Beast with Jordan's on and laid
Speaker 1: down a cold you know what I'm saying, like campaign
Speaker 1: on how we're gonna come out with this part. So
Speaker 1: I just listen, the world is changing as it should.
Speaker 1: I'm watching the wave and how we see shoes. Are
Speaker 1: you seeing more interest in the past and shoes versus
Speaker 1: what shoes are coming out? Yeah?
Speaker 2: And I think that's part of it too, is like
Speaker 2: the last five years basketball shoe sales been down a
Speaker 2: little in terms of like performance shoes. So it's like
Speaker 2: the brand that could kind of unlock that code. Like
Speaker 2: that's the thing I liked about that hard and seven,
Speaker 2: Like I actually wear that shoe on purpose just walking around, right,
Speaker 2: And you don't necessarily say that about a lot of
Speaker 2: new hoop shoes. So I think when brands could kind
Speaker 2: of build out more of like that hybrid look where
Speaker 2: it's not just like this is my hoop shoe and
Speaker 2: I'm going to go to the gym in it. Like
Speaker 2: that's where you could have some stuff that extends off court.
Speaker 2: And like we've seen that with a little with La Mellow.
Speaker 2: We've seen that with some guys. Obviously Jordan's have always
Speaker 2: had that dynamic, But that's the piece I think that
Speaker 2: brands are having a hard time figuring out.
Speaker 1: Are you seeing capsules being dropped with these shoes too,
Speaker 1: like you know, Top Sweats, Tea's.
Speaker 2: Head parrol wise, Yeah, merch not as much my capsule. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the Mellow stuff has a lot of apparel coming. Good
Speaker 2: Sabrina you know, has has all kinds of hoodies and
Speaker 2: stuff coming. But I know, like signature apparel has been
Speaker 2: down a little and brands are more so having stuff
Speaker 2: like you see, Nike got a tech Flee in like
Speaker 2: forty colors, so they'll match it up with tech flee
Speaker 2: stuff rather than like the Yanni's signature apparel you know,
Speaker 2: so so different should Yeah, I remember that was like
Speaker 2: a big thing for you when you went to a one.
Speaker 1: Right, capsules, because back then, you know everybody's dressing, how
Speaker 1: they dressing. Bringing it back right, talk about you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Sometimes you don't even see somebody's feet.
Speaker 1: You see you see that, you know. So from that perspective,
Speaker 1: I was always weird about having my name on stuffs,
Speaker 1: me wearing with garnet. I'm looking at it, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Pee walking around with truth on his
Speaker 1: chest all the time. I mean, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But yeah, to who's his own? But yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you should though for shure, I think you should. I
Speaker 1: think merch unless you got something in the closet that
Speaker 1: custom or something that goes back to whatever you rock.
Speaker 1: And are you familiar with the Nike story of how
Speaker 1: Nike tapped into the culture, because we all know the
Speaker 1: run DMC story right then DMC collaborated with Adidas, a
Speaker 1: lawyer about the name of Rob something I'm going to
Speaker 1: blank on. This name was and I think indirectly responsible
Speaker 1: for a lot of the cultural stuff. And he was
Speaker 1: at a party in which he met Aaron being Rock
Speaker 1: Kim Rock Kim the God who was like a crazy MC,
Speaker 1: and he convinced him to wear this Nike sweatsuit in
Speaker 1: the I Moved the crowd. That was the first time
Speaker 1: he was able to how much of a shoe culture
Speaker 1: blends with hip hop, would you.
Speaker 2: Say, man, especially with the b in the fifties anniversary, Right,
Speaker 2: you can kind of see all the chapters. So like
Speaker 2: you start with run DMC and Rock Kim, like you said,
Speaker 2: the gods of it, and then I think you get
Speaker 2: to like the early two thousands when air Force one
Speaker 2: song came out. Now all of a sudden, jay Z
Speaker 2: had his own rebox shoe, like just everything changed me.
Speaker 2: And then I think you go to like the early
Speaker 2: twenty tens, and it became the artist maybe was bigger
Speaker 2: than the players, Like you could say Kanye overtook Lebron
Speaker 2: in a sense, and Yeezy's were almost as big as
Speaker 2: the signature shoes. And then from there he built his
Speaker 2: own brand with Adidas. So there's kind of the little
Speaker 2: little steps where it went from like you're wearing stuff
Speaker 2: in music videos, We're giving you a shoe, so now
Speaker 2: you have your own brand, and like each of those
Speaker 2: ten years, it was a big, big step up across.
Speaker 1: The way, would ya be the Jordan of artists? Oh
Speaker 1: for sure?
Speaker 2: Facts, Yeah, obviously that shit fizzled out as bad as
Speaker 2: it could go. But at the peak of it, he
Speaker 2: was that right.
Speaker 1: When you hit the LIFs, mister Broer, Yeah, it hits own.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you have you know, Travis and all these
Speaker 2: other guys around, But it's those are more colorways. Those
Speaker 2: are more one offs, like the design and ideas he
Speaker 2: was bringing to it, Like he had this whole phrase
Speaker 2: about like I'm building Rome, I'm not just building a shoe,
Speaker 2: like he was building a whole brand around it, And
Speaker 2: that just went to a whole other level.
Speaker 1: When I'm watching Travis and I'm watching a lot of
Speaker 1: the different artists that come out with shoes. First off,
Speaker 1: they got some dope ideas, but it feels like a
Speaker 1: signature shoe doesn't feel like a brand, doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: I feel like when Kanye's building something, he's given me
Speaker 1: a brand similar to what Curry's building. With the emergency
Speaker 1: of the big man. What happens? You thought big men
Speaker 1: shoes did well because of the scottiness or the size
Speaker 1: or big men are not cool.
Speaker 2: So you Jannis kd are like the only three guys
Speaker 2: at that height.
Speaker 1: I know you won't say you're seven foot probably, but
Speaker 1: you no, I'm seven foot, Like am off only when
Speaker 1: you asked me before jump ball, you ask me and
Speaker 1: my seven foot I can't say it. I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you an accurate answer off the jump I can't just
Speaker 1: been honest. But that's the only three guys that.
Speaker 2: Like, the shoe wasn't a big man's shoe either, Like
Speaker 2: I think it's the style of the shoe.
Speaker 1: Also, like it's the style of the play you guys had.
Speaker 1: But then the shoes were still like quick and like
Speaker 1: you said, light Barkleys, Barkley's did well. Barker's had a
Speaker 1: nice Barkley had an actually a fucking killer. He had
Speaker 1: a nice But Chuck is what six ' six, but
Speaker 1: he was Chuck is a big man, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he he was also like like for him and
Speaker 2: Shack to have any success, they had like a larger
Speaker 2: than life personality and they had like the role model
Speaker 2: commercial like they had like some different stuff coming in.
Speaker 2: Whereas you know, some of the big men like w
Speaker 2: Tumbo had one shoe that was solid, but it was
Speaker 2: hard to really sustain that, Like we've seen some other
Speaker 2: guys come up and back and it's just like, I
Speaker 2: don't know, it's just hard because if you're ten to
Speaker 2: fifteen years old, like you want to go out front
Speaker 2: and do the moves that that guy is doing. You're
Speaker 2: not doing the jump hooks necessarily.
Speaker 1: Right, you had to run. He's the biggest college player
Speaker 1: ever in New York.
Speaker 2: Like I think that that was, Like, you know, the
Speaker 2: market helps for sure, So I think there's always different variables.
Speaker 2: Like I always kind of say with shoes, you kind
Speaker 2: of have like four variables.
Speaker 1: And you need to have three of them.
Speaker 2: Like the player has to be somebody that you want
Speaker 2: to emulate. The playing style helps. The shoes got to
Speaker 2: be fresh, great design.
Speaker 1: I would go like that, the shoes got to be friends.
Speaker 2: Hopefully the team is winning and they're having a good season.
Speaker 2: That matters, and then it's got to be a good price,
Speaker 2: Like the value of the price gotta be right. And
Speaker 2: if you can get three of those four, you got shot.
Speaker 2: If you get like only two of them, maybe it's
Speaker 2: not gonna work. And if you have like you know,
Speaker 2: you can look at the cases of all four, like
Speaker 2: AI with the question and the answers, you know a
Speaker 2: lot of the Jordans, some of the Kobe stuff, like
Speaker 2: Kobe Four's where he's in the finals against you guys,
Speaker 2: Like that's where it's rare and feud and far between,
Speaker 2: but that's where you get like that lightning in a bottle.
Speaker 1: First time you heard someone got shot over some shoes?
Speaker 1: What did you think?
Speaker 2: Sports Illustrated had the Jordan five's on the cover. That
Speaker 2: was like a big moment. And we had a forty
Speaker 2: dollars budget in middle of elementary school, so I didn't
Speaker 2: have Jordan's growing up. But my mom was like, I
Speaker 2: think that was like the next level of like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're definitely not getting Jordan's if that's where this is
Speaker 2: going scary.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, it was wild. I remember having a job,
Speaker 1: you know, I can take my live checking, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And I remember my mom saying like, nah,
Speaker 1: like I noise your money, but safety is everything in that.
Speaker 1: And actually because I'm living in it and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood, you know what I'm saying, And you
Speaker 1: know we're going to school and yeah, first time I
Speaker 1: heard someone get hurt over some shoes, that made go
Speaker 1: what like like what I can get hurt, I can
Speaker 1: get hurt over the days. Yeah, his first three peet
Speaker 1: run like that's when that whole thing started coming up.
Speaker 1: And then when I was in high school, the drops
Speaker 1: were always on Wednesdays. The whole school would leave Wednesday morning,
Speaker 1: come back at lunch, and they moved it always to
Speaker 1: Saturday after that.
Speaker 2: So his drops have been on Saturdays ever since because
Speaker 2: Jordan's used to always come out on Wednesdays.
Speaker 1: When we ever see an impact like that again in shoes, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, because everything was new, Like Jordan eleven was
Speaker 2: like pat and leather on a basketball shoe, like you know,
Speaker 2: all the carbon fiber and then you know, the marketing
Speaker 2: was kind of new at the time, and he was
Speaker 2: just so aspirational from the way he played, like there's
Speaker 2: other players that have had great success, but it was
Speaker 2: never like anybody hitting that all times on one cylinder,
Speaker 2: like across the board like that.
Speaker 1: Thank He's genius to me in marketing is that they
Speaker 1: gave the perception that if you wear these shoes, you
Speaker 1: can play like Michael Jordan marketing one on one talk
Speaker 1: about how nil has changed the whole campaign and just
Speaker 1: changed everything of everything. So I've been.
Speaker 2: Covering shoe deals for a while and this is by
Speaker 2: far the most exciting time because you got, like we said,
Speaker 2: Angel Resa LSU right.
Speaker 1: Shot Angel Reese doing the things LSU.
Speaker 2: So the top three players at LSU all have shoe
Speaker 2: deals not with Nike. So like Haley van Lidt is
Speaker 2: Adidas flags with Puma, and now Angel's gonna be a rebox.
Speaker 1: Okay, so hold on. So the days when you had
Speaker 1: to come in with Sean with Duke and Duke probably
Speaker 1: has like three four different Nikes in and out, or
Speaker 1: Kentucky got the whole different joint, or Jordan got that
Speaker 1: tar Hill's a whole new spread. The players have their
Speaker 1: own deals.
Speaker 2: Now they still gotta wear Nike in the games, so
Speaker 2: they got to wear the team issue stuff for the game.
Speaker 1: So in the game, I'm rocking Tar Hill stuff or
Speaker 1: Georgetown or whatever. But then when I'm outside of my stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm on Puma or whatever.
Speaker 2: And that's what's great about nil. These players got a
Speaker 2: million followers on Instagram. So Haley van Litt is debuting
Speaker 2: like the Gucci Adidas collection, Flage is doing all kinds
Speaker 2: of stuff with Puma. You know, we're gonna see Angel
Speaker 2: doing stuff with Rebok Like that part of it is
Speaker 2: totally new, And I mean at the end of the
Speaker 2: day too, it's like, obviously players in the league are impactful,
Speaker 2: but from a women's basketball standpoint, like they're probably three
Speaker 2: of the most influential women's basketball players on the planet,
Speaker 2: and they're all like twenty years old, right, So that
Speaker 2: part of it, like NL is at the perfect time
Speaker 2: because now a brand could really activate tell their story,
Speaker 2: put out some stuff for them even though they can't
Speaker 2: wear it in the game necessarily, they could still be
Speaker 2: promoting and pitching that.
Speaker 1: That's fun to me. Probably more bigger brands are now
Speaker 1: killing a lot of these big budgets, chopping them down,
Speaker 1: probably going to more multiple nil.
Speaker 2: Deals, right Definitely, I think the nil deals are going
Speaker 2: to start to squeeze out some NBA guys right, Like,
Speaker 2: there's probably seventy five to one hundred guys in the
Speaker 2: league that don't have a shoe deal.
Speaker 1: Right now, I was gonna talk, I was gonna my
Speaker 1: next question was to book a business in the NBA. Yep,
Speaker 1: that's great, go ahead.
Speaker 2: So I think that's where it's going to get different
Speaker 2: because I don't have to send a bunch of money
Speaker 2: sign a guy that's ninth or tenth on the bench.
Speaker 2: If I could go and sign Page Beckers at Yukon,
Speaker 2: Caitlyn Clarkett, you know, Iowa things like that. So I
Speaker 2: think the brands is forcing them to get more creative,
Speaker 2: try a different model.
Speaker 1: See what's going to happen. Saving money. I think they're
Speaker 1: still spending it, just other ways. But I'm saying versus
Speaker 1: a ten million dollar budget, I can take a million
Speaker 1: and go to yeah and get ten hundred.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, you can maybe spend the
Speaker 2: money in a better way.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. More, that's what I'm saying, more effective,
Speaker 1: and too. You're starting to see kind of college how
Speaker 1: that buzz like it used to have back in early nineties.
Speaker 1: I would say college was probably more exciting than the NBA. Young,
Speaker 1: Chris Jackson, Young, Shack Young. You know, I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: saying all these things to just times where I was
Speaker 1: watching college basketball just as much as I was watching
Speaker 1: the NBA. Seems like the women's college game has more
Speaker 1: momentum than the men's. Are you saying the same things?
Speaker 2: Definitely, And that's because the familiarity, Like Stanford's whole team
Speaker 2: is there, LSU's team is coming back. Like, guys aren't
Speaker 2: going one and done on the women's side, right, So
Speaker 2: they're staying for three years. Caitlyn Clark might end up
Speaker 2: staying for a fifty year because of the COVID year
Speaker 2: she's got. So you get to just follow them over
Speaker 2: time and really like get built in. And I think
Speaker 2: that's what was great about like that Fab five UNLV,
Speaker 2: like that whole chapter, it was like you were really
Speaker 2: following these guys in their.
Speaker 1: Schools and Shorty can play, she's nice. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: heard these girls are making more money in college than
Speaker 1: they would be if they was in the WNBA in
Speaker 1: some cases.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like for the top ten players in college, they
Speaker 2: are probably making more right now than if they went
Speaker 2: to the w.
Speaker 1: Just yet, I asked somebody this question. This ain't really
Speaker 1: gotten nothing to do with nothing, But how far would
Speaker 1: you say, and just you know you've been around us
Speaker 1: for a while, how far do you think we are
Speaker 1: from a structure where colleges can come back and try
Speaker 1: to resign their own players two three year deal, say
Speaker 1: it's gonna be an option to where say, like you're
Speaker 1: in college, you say going forward, you got g League,
Speaker 1: you got WNBA, you got a minor league, and then
Speaker 1: you have a major league or you have Spanish on it,
Speaker 1: which is a much your major leagues in other countries.
Speaker 1: But I'm saying, for the most part, these girls make
Speaker 1: money in WNBA and then the Russian League since to
Speaker 1: bringing grinding stuff. I think the Russian stuff kind of
Speaker 1: Turkey infh'sn't out. That was a huge part of those girls' financials.
Speaker 1: That money's going to get allocated somewhere now. And Juise,
Speaker 1: I think I heard her say this, Ah, I'm making
Speaker 1: more money in college and doing less than I would
Speaker 1: in the WNBA. So I'm just configuring that from college
Speaker 1: and guess what, we're winning. Our teams have been together
Speaker 1: five years. That's saying something. So the investment has been made.
Speaker 1: How far do you think are we from college coming
Speaker 1: up with a new structure for players to be a
Speaker 1: little longated or stay at college for four or five
Speaker 1: years longer.
Speaker 2: I think that if you're a top star in college,
Speaker 2: like you're going to stay all four years and you
Speaker 2: have to stay three to be draft eligible, which is
Speaker 2: different too. With the w you can't go one and done.
Speaker 2: You got to play three years, but a lot of
Speaker 2: them are just going to stay a fourth year. And
Speaker 2: then I think the new TV deal in the W
Speaker 2: is probably going to like either triple or quadruple to
Speaker 2: where they will make a ton more on the W side.
Speaker 2: And then I don't know if you've seen but Brianna
Speaker 2: Stewart and the Feast of Collier trying to launch their
Speaker 2: own league.
Speaker 1: I've seen that, and it's going to be like.
Speaker 2: Thirty players, the top players. They'll play like three on three,
Speaker 2: one on one, all kinds of like unique formats kind
Speaker 2: of that. I think they're going to have like a
Speaker 2: whole new format and how to get sponsors in on that.
Speaker 2: How you you know, maybe you can make a million
Speaker 2: off of that. So I think that's going to be
Speaker 2: a thing where maybe you won't go play overseas and
Speaker 2: you'll play in that. They're going to play it in
Speaker 2: like Miami, so it'll be nice and you know, that
Speaker 2: could be a whole new front here that's a different,
Speaker 2: like something we never seen before.
Speaker 1: I wins basketball. Wow, that's crazy. The basketball game used
Speaker 1: to be out, you know, guys playing outside. How much
Speaker 1: of I think that's part of basketball culture, But how
Speaker 1: much of outdoors and playing outdoors having kicked someone at
Speaker 1: the court, does that even mean something? To show up
Speaker 1: with some dope fresh kicks don't mean shit. I think
Speaker 1: it's different. Man. These kids got it nice.
Speaker 2: They're all in the gyms, they all got a trainer,
Speaker 2: they're all doing you know, dribble drills.
Speaker 1: On Conso, like we used to just.
Speaker 2: Go to the park and play from twelve to four
Speaker 2: and play against grown men, and that's not really a
Speaker 2: thing anymore.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So when you think of brands like Reebok has above
Speaker 2: the rim, which is like the outdoors you know, basketball
Speaker 2: shoe and one obviously is outdoors for the most part.
Speaker 2: But how many people are really playing outdoors in the park.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Very little. Yeah, that's that's gone away,
Speaker 1: I think done. I think so a big part of
Speaker 1: how we saw basketball, a big part of how we celebrated,
Speaker 1: a big part of you know, I'm watching in the
Speaker 1: corner right here with some fly ass fours on right
Speaker 1: That told you a lot about who was coming on
Speaker 1: the court. Yep. Then I see a little cat like
Speaker 1: Nate here come in here with some hose in his jone.
Speaker 1: They have a sock out. You know you you know
Speaker 1: you're just seeing them. You know Nate, you know he
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But then Nate got that
Speaker 1: pat you know, like he might be there to lock
Speaker 1: up that short. So I'm saying to say that a
Speaker 1: lot of the commercials to culture when you watch some
Speaker 1: of them and one commercials, when you watch some of
Speaker 1: the mixtape stuff, when you watch some of the Nike
Speaker 1: stuff with the with the dribble on beat and alone
Speaker 1: going into all of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, like the commercial for these, you're playing against
Speaker 2: like the gardener, like the random people coming off the sideline,
Speaker 2: like that was an outdoor commercial.
Speaker 1: I called these to Bruce Wayne's man. These was like
Speaker 1: they gave me these on on on the night and
Speaker 1: you know, usually got a practice in. I played the
Speaker 1: spurs and some white and some and some white and
Speaker 1: black ones. Listen, this is this is probably look this
Speaker 1: shoe had. Technically, no, I was not supposed to wear
Speaker 1: this shoe technically, but this shoe was one of the
Speaker 1: lightest and one of the coldest. This I felt like
Speaker 1: I was Batman and this shit. We got to be
Speaker 1: by the spurs and them ships. Man. I got these
Speaker 1: at the crib. This is one of my favorite studio.
Speaker 2: But that was, like you said, commercial wised like it's
Speaker 2: a high performance indoor shoe, but you took it to
Speaker 2: our outdoor park for the commercial, which was a whole
Speaker 2: different vibe for us.
Speaker 1: Man, Joe, I just, man, some of the things that
Speaker 1: brought us to Love Yesteryear are just kind of dying out.
Speaker 1: But you know, a lot of the spirit that goes
Speaker 1: into these shoes come from basketball culture, being outside and
Speaker 1: a lot of this spirit comes from, you know, being
Speaker 1: playing against the no name guy, the homeless guy that
Speaker 1: you you know what I'm saying, or the guy that
Speaker 1: just got a name on the street. Man can't remember
Speaker 1: five most iconic commercials time in your opinion.
Speaker 2: Little Penny comes to mind right away. I just because
Speaker 2: Penny himself was kind of quiet, so for them to
Speaker 2: bring up that alter ego, it was like the perfect balance.
Speaker 1: That's why they created a little Penny. Little Penny. The
Speaker 1: real Penny had more to say, but it's more kind
Speaker 1: of reserved from or quiet, and so they did that
Speaker 1: through you know, and Chris Rock did Little Penny.
Speaker 2: Yep, the Jordan commercial where he's walking just down the
Speaker 2: hallway to the game, but he's talking about.
Speaker 1: Like I've failed over and over in my life and
Speaker 1: that's why I succeed.
Speaker 2: Because the one thing that was funny about that was
Speaker 2: like MJ was the greatest, so you would never think
Speaker 2: of him even failure, you know, or losing games or
Speaker 2: missing shots. But that commercial made it relatable because if
Speaker 2: you're a normal person, you're bricking shots, so you're missing,
Speaker 2: you're losing. Now you could think I could actually get
Speaker 2: to that level if I just stick with it. So
Speaker 2: that was like a great insight from Nike's standpoint. I
Speaker 2: loved like the light and the fun stuff. So like
Speaker 2: the fun Police to me with like the yellow trench coats.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you still got the trench coat,
Speaker 2: but the trench coat, got the trench coat and the whole.
Speaker 2: I got the whole.
Speaker 1: I got the whole spread together up and put yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't. I couldn't. I couldn't, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So what was it like when they told you, like
Speaker 2: we're gonna have you guys like going into a burning
Speaker 2: house and that's how we're gonna sell some shoes.
Speaker 1: First off, I thought it was genius to be able
Speaker 1: to kind of jab at the establishment. Anytime I got
Speaker 1: a chance to jab at stern or I got the
Speaker 1: jab at like you know, the NBA as a corporate
Speaker 1: then I took the opportunity. You know when they I
Speaker 1: think the one one of my favorite, one of my
Speaker 1: favorite parts of that. And they's like, uh, fans in
Speaker 1: the fans and the rich people something in the cheap seats,
Speaker 1: fans into something something no no no no no no
Speaker 1: no no no no, And then you just look up
Speaker 1: and I think trum grasps the joint and it goes off.
Speaker 1: That was probably one of my favorites, just seeing in
Speaker 1: the room when they was like, oh, yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 1: hear starting Trump like Donald Trump, Like yeah, hmm okay
Speaker 1: as well, by the way, I was good saying it
Speaker 1: was a fun It was a fun time. I got
Speaker 1: to bring uh guys into it. Tim Hardaway, got to
Speaker 1: bring some of my own person Trent. You got Gary
Speaker 1: Payton in it. Uh yeah. It was just a fun
Speaker 1: time to be able to bring all of all of
Speaker 1: our friends into it. My own personal friend Bug was
Speaker 1: in it. It was a good time.
Speaker 2: The other one that stuck out was the n one
Speaker 2: one where you're across from the table from yourself. The
Speaker 2: interrogation interrogation one, and that one I remember at the
Speaker 2: time was like kind of a big deal you were
Speaker 2: talking about like the contract and the playoffs all the
Speaker 2: other stuff.
Speaker 1: I had a I had a very emotional conversation with
Speaker 1: John Thompson that was on tape, and they want to
Speaker 1: tap into these two people that was that was kind
Speaker 1: of inside of me. You know what I'm saying, I'm
Speaker 1: a tourist, but for people who know me, I'll have
Speaker 1: Gemini ways. I don't know if that's a good thing
Speaker 1: or a bad thing, but but yeah, I would. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm a nice person in life as it results to
Speaker 1: life itself. But when we hit the court and it's
Speaker 1: a kiltic be killed, then yeah, you're gonna know what
Speaker 1: side I'm on. So in that whole banter, they came
Speaker 1: up with a campaign to where these two were interacting
Speaker 1: and one was speaking to the other and it was
Speaker 1: and it's kind of my chance to see it through
Speaker 1: both us like, oh, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: I thought it was dope and creative. You want to
Speaker 1: come outside of the box. A lot of stuff I
Speaker 1: was seeing just in Creations was kind of similar and
Speaker 1: I wanted to do something that was different and it
Speaker 1: was edgy enough to go there with me and you know,
Speaker 1: be really edgy when you know what cool to be edgy.
Speaker 1: One of the things where I want to use styles
Speaker 1: p and another commercial because I love to play outside
Speaker 1: and they was like, you play outside and the rain man,
Speaker 1: the rain ain't shit, just warn ain't going life. So
Speaker 1: they you know, we was able to put together and stuff.
Speaker 1: But yeah, anytime you're able to step outside of the
Speaker 1: box almost like those creations and people get it.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of more recent ones too, but
Speaker 2: like the one that stuck out that I didn't like
Speaker 2: it at first, but you were in it, The Brotherhood
Speaker 2: with Adidas.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was about more team Adidas was a
Speaker 1: Jesus's take was that things were becoming too more individual
Speaker 1: and you know, basketball ain't golf, it's not boxing, it's
Speaker 1: not some of the individual sports. Not shipping on none
Speaker 1: of them sports. But stop trying to be individual in
Speaker 1: a team sport and be about the team. And you
Speaker 1: know it's team first, and you know when team is
Speaker 1: put in place, the impossible, it is nothing. And that
Speaker 1: was the idea, and we wanted to almost have a camp,
Speaker 1: you know, because we felt like that was a dying
Speaker 1: breed and that thought and that understanding at least from
Speaker 1: younger kids on younger generations. They were going in a
Speaker 1: different direction and what we were seeing, and Adidas wanted
Speaker 1: to bring them back and really stand on it, making
Speaker 1: a campaign so much that they got all of us
Speaker 1: to participate, and that should be be that because we
Speaker 1: all come from that and that five you had.
Speaker 2: I remember it was Chauncey, gil T mac, you and
Speaker 2: Tim Timmy right now, we.
Speaker 1: Want to smoke too, because Nike was like all right, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: let's let's like let's play. Gave him like fifty million,
Speaker 1: and Adidas against and did that ever like the smoke?
Speaker 1: No Nike. He didn't want no smoke period. Who would
Speaker 1: the Nike side have. I don't even know. We wanted it.
Speaker 1: We wanted all comers, Paul, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: real shit, real ship. And then they came out with
Speaker 1: the Air Force joint. When they was on the joint,
Speaker 1: we wanted that. I don't cold that man. Y'all should
Speaker 1: have brought that over to where we was at.
Speaker 2: Because I'm looking at it, it would have been.
Speaker 1: Paul Kobe and maybe now I don't even know. They
Speaker 1: had like a million guys over there, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. We had five who want to jump out
Speaker 1: here and get some of this smoke. I couldn't get
Speaker 1: a call back, but thank you for this, Nick Man,
Speaker 1: last one for you. Oh what do you remember about this?
Speaker 1: What you got? What you got over there? The original
Speaker 1: listen and the real ship. I hated this what I
Speaker 1: hate to say, the shout, the kicks and the photographer
Speaker 1: new to this. I didn't. I hate. I hated pointing
Speaker 1: at myself. He's like, yo, can I get one of these?
Speaker 1: And I was like what And you took it? Look
Speaker 1: look look, God said it all like, and I gave
Speaker 1: him one and then I was off this like I'm
Speaker 1: not like he was like not the most natural post. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I wasn't into like anything that had to do with myself.
Speaker 1: So but I remember this cover. I have this cover.
Speaker 1: I have a damn that every cover I've been on
Speaker 1: I had to thank Slam and Kicks for this. Man.
Speaker 1: This is part of history right here. Man. This was
Speaker 1: like the first magazine that you can go through and
Speaker 1: find different kicks and different features. And this is when
Speaker 1: you know companies used to do ad campaigns and spreads
Speaker 1: like this. This is kind of a dying breathe right here.
Speaker 2: So this was the first ever sneaker magazine. I was
Speaker 2: thirteen when this came out. Same word, and this is
Speaker 2: why I write about shoes. Holy and I've been wearing
Speaker 2: a rubber band every day.
Speaker 1: You know what the rubber band come from, right, I
Speaker 1: got to give it to you, right, let's hear it.
Speaker 1: The rubber band comes from Dawn Stanley. Don Stanley, thank
Speaker 1: you very much for encouraging me. The rubber band is
Speaker 1: a sense of discipline. Yep, missed something, I didn't get
Speaker 1: a rebound, Gotta run again. Pop. So that was that
Speaker 1: was kind of my little right here, you feel me.
Speaker 2: I never snapped it, but like you were always wearing one,
Speaker 2: and then when I saw it on this that was
Speaker 2: like the reminder that always tied me back to that
Speaker 2: magazine doing Stanley.
Speaker 1: So yeah, don't got to give it up. Where's supposed
Speaker 1: to be respect. That's awesome, Thank you, man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: This is great man flight club. Thank y'all, man, seriously,
Speaker 1: thank y'all for letting us come in here, man, one
Speaker 1: of my favorite places to get shoes at. Man, straight up,
Speaker 1: Flight Club ain't got it. It don't exist, payge, certify,
Speaker 1: we out. You know what I man, keep on, keep
Speaker 1: straight up. No, y'all got some heat in here. Just
Speaker 1: a couple just say look, I ain't got all day.
Speaker 1: Just a couple there. Hey, listen, you come to Flight Club,
Speaker 1: be careful, know what you want when you come in here.
Speaker 1: If not, these niggas gonna sell you two hundred pairs
Speaker 1: of shoes, You're gonna spend a million, like in seconds
Speaker 1: on right hand. I'm telling you, man, you come the
Speaker 1: Flight Club. Man, come in here knowing what you want. Leo,
Speaker 1: I come in here for these deeds and these let
Speaker 1: me get okay, let me show you all here and
Speaker 1: put these on here. And I walk out here like
Speaker 1: fifteen pairs of shoes. Man, That's what I told church,
Speaker 1: A church, just what I want right here, nothing else Church.
Speaker 1: But then I come in here, it's like six pairs
Speaker 1: of shoes I'm looking for. I ain't got time today,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna go ahead and take a picture of
Speaker 1: my eyes and sit it and shit it back to
Speaker 1: you guys. Okay, I'm gonna sit these back. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Good looks these. So you talked about
Speaker 1: these the other day and then we got these two.
Speaker 1: But you talk about these the other day. So that's
Speaker 1: why I talked about these. Oh I was, I remember,
Speaker 1: I don't like I need a glout on. I don't
Speaker 1: want to ask you to test these with my hands.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, these are the rich grays right here, point
Speaker 1: shout the rich grain ooh, they got these and fifteen?
Speaker 1: What is this? This is what's the name of this?
Speaker 1: Photon dust? A photon dust? Listen, man, So I was
Speaker 1: telling a friend, thank you, Yeah, we're gonna put these up.
Speaker 1: Hold on, that's this story has to do with these.
Speaker 1: These are what I asked for. He's right here. Those
Speaker 1: I mean, you just mentioned those, but those are just
Speaker 1: your life which once the is a cements? Is that cements? Well?
Speaker 1: My favorite four is the cements. These are great. Two Listen.
Speaker 1: I could go through my closet and show you ninety
Speaker 1: seven when I bought the cements. Oh one when I
Speaker 1: bought the cements. Four. I have like maybe seven pairs
Speaker 1: of of times where I bought the same shoe. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Jordan I don't know what what if I'm like elated
Speaker 1: or what. Yeah, something something's going on with me that
Speaker 1: I'm buying the same shoe ever. Really yeah, I got
Speaker 1: like six of these, but probably like twenty five. Okay,
Speaker 1: so nothing's wrong with me. You have the same problem.
Speaker 1: I got a problem. Yeah, no, no, no, listen, one
Speaker 1: of these days, I don't know what day it's going
Speaker 1: to be, but you and I got to go through
Speaker 1: my shoe closet. I got a shoe closest in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: It's probably about yeah, about yeah, my shoe claws about
Speaker 1: I don't even know. I don't even know. I've seen
Speaker 1: mellow Ship. I've seen mellow Ship. I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: because mellow got shipped the Jordan game, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So, yeah, I got a bunch of yesteryear
Speaker 1: stuff that was. You know what I'm saying that my
Speaker 1: homeboy and my younger boys be like, oh man, relax,
Speaker 1: but let me know. Yeah, I would love to get
Speaker 1: your perspective on that, because I know you're the dawn
Speaker 1: of shoes, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll have a lot of memories around each one
Speaker 2: and questions I can ask you got some of the
Speaker 2: old game war and stuff too.
Speaker 1: I do. I do. It's non collectible stuff, so I
Speaker 1: don't get any idea non your breaks. I see your
Speaker 1: wheels up and bopping ship. I remember eighty five, brother,
Speaker 1: remember that I was around in eighty five. But thank you, man.
Speaker 1: I can talk shoes all day, man, I can talk
Speaker 1: kicks and this ship all day. Man. I like actually
Speaker 1: being a shoe free agent. I was gonna ask you
Speaker 1: that too, man. Who are the shoe free agents out
Speaker 1: here that we that we I know Kyrie just left
Speaker 1: night right now in the league right now, is coming
Speaker 1: up in these past. Jayalen Brown Jaylen Brown Shoes Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown would be a good one for any brand. He
Speaker 1: might actually look to launch his own signature shoe really,
Speaker 1: kind of like what Big Baller brand did. Okay, t
Speaker 1: Mac has his own team. Mac is not with Adidas anymore.
Speaker 1: He started his own tam Max working on his own
Speaker 1: thing too. Yep. All the stick of deals like they
Speaker 1: used to be, meaning like guys can get six to
Speaker 1: seven year, seven year, seven figures, eight figures.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there's probably six seven players making ten plus
Speaker 2: Oh really?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Wow?
Speaker 2: You know between Lebron and Steph KD. James, you know,
Speaker 2: even Gianni's Dame, you know, Dame two, Like they're they're
Speaker 2: all ten plus.
Speaker 1: What about this new generation where Zion LaMelo? Really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Did you still got to go to China? The China
Speaker 1: Tours do that? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I went with Klay Thompson one year. We went to
Speaker 2: eight cities in nine days. Answer with answer? Does it
Speaker 2: they rampant? And it being a million people?
Speaker 1: I thinks think Yeah, the smallest city went to was
Speaker 1: like six mill It was crazy. Yeah, that was my
Speaker 1: first time getting to see China and all this, all
Speaker 1: all this great cities. I didn't know some of these
Speaker 1: cities had cities that was bigger than New York. You know.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying begging in La But man,
Speaker 1: thank you man, thank you flight Club for letting us
Speaker 1: come through again. Man, I could talk all day. Let's
Speaker 1: do this again, bro, y'all. Let me know y'all want
Speaker 1: me to come back and do this again? All right?
Speaker 1: M hm