The unlikely connection between sneakers and NPR.

The story of a generational talent undone by a brand that never understood sneaker culture.

YouTube video by Stylistic Murder

I don’t remember how long ago I got this but does anyone remember when Jason Markk was doing collaborations with all the boutiques? I always thought this was a cool idea. Most sneaker stores struggle to find ways to make enough selling shoes that aren’t full price or hyped. Adding a useful item to a purchase like this makes it a better experience in my opinion.

After the Jamgamsic was mentioned in the Discord earlier this week, I went looking for another of my favorite Nike names, the Air Flight Vroomlicious. I found it on this clearance page from an old Eastbay catalog that we originally scanned for the Eastbay Blog (RIP), way back in 2009 or 2010. Still to this day, it’s surprising to see so many shoes on such deep discount, but what really stands out is both the Air Jordan 13 and Air Jordan 14 on sale at the same time. We forget how the idea of shoes selling out never really happened until Nike realized they could make it a marketing strategy. Which pairs would you pick up today if this was a currently available catalog?

After the Jamgamsic was mentioned in the Discord earlier this week, I went looking for another of my favorite Nike names, the Air Flight Vroomlicious. I found it on this clearance page from an old Eastbay catalog that we originally scanned for the Eastbay Blog (RIP), way back in 2009 or 2010. Still to this day, it’s surprising to see so many shoes on such deep discount, but what really stands out is both the Air Jordan 13 and Air Jordan 14 on sale at the same time. We forget how the idea of shoes selling out never really happened until Nike realized they could make it a marketing strategy. Which pairs would you pick up today if this was a currently available catalog?

If you were to ask any number of sneakerheads who makes the best collaborations, you would likely hear the name Concepts in a good number of the answers. It's hard to believe it now, but Concepts wasn't even its own shop when they first collaborated with New Balance on this Made In The USA 576 colab. Concepts began as a literal concept store inside The Tannery in Boston's Harvard Square back in 1996. And while the real history typically told about Concepts and its ties to The Tannery (and all the rumors, …

Red Bull might be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of action sports nowadays. Still, long before energy drinks became synonymous with extreme sports and death-defying stunts, Reebok was already pushing the boundaries of what athletic marketing could be. In the early 1990s, while most sneaker brands were content with basketball courts and running tracks, Reebok took its cameras to the sky in a way that I think was way ahead of its time. "Life Is Short. Play Hard." This simple yet powerful slogan became Reebok's battle cry in the early 1990s, capturing an attitude that would define extreme sports marketing for decades to come.

I went down a rabbit hole this week looking at this photo shoot from 1997. Shot for Sports Illustrated by the legendary Walter Iooss Jr., it’s the kind of thing we just won’t see again. Of course, there will always be photoshoots for athletes, but to have an entire shoot for a rookie (in a general release sneaker like the adidas Top Ten 2000 at that!), who happened to have a fractured wrist, is just wild at this point.

Podcast Episode · Sneaker History Podcast - Sneakers, Sneaker Culture and the Business of Footwear · 04/21/2025 · 47m