TWOTF: Ok you’re a huge Huarache collector, Huaraches now and Huaraches back then – how do you rate the quality of materials and the designs of older models when compared with those being released today? 

It seems like quality has always been an issue (with Huaraches anyway). It probably seems like more of an issue now because of social media, but 1999 Scream Greens have brown glue stains (I’ve had a lot pass through my hands and a lot are the same), my 1999 Colombia blue / white pair have glue stains on the midsoles, a lot of 2001 Varsity red white pairs I have had have hardened glue stains on the mesh, so I think it will always be an issue, especially now with such high volumes of production.

I’m not sure what material Nike use on the uppers these days, but the majority of older Huaraches I have are synthetic leather so they’ve always cut corners. The ones with the best materials are the 1992 LE and the 2007 Mowabb pack, pretty much all the others are synthetic leather, which after 20+ years cracks and flakes unfortunately – but at least the midsoles don’t crumble unlike many other models.

Recent colours have been pretty random in my opinion, some are nice, but a few have been a bit much for me. I’d like to see a greater use of premium materials with a better colour palette than last years stuff and a return to a less bulky toe box would be great, but I doubt that will happen.

Yea, I think there have been way too many Huaraches released in the last 12 months (I did buy a lot of them), but it’s not just Huaraches, so many other trainers are hitting the market each week and they are flying off the shelves so I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. The hype behind a lot of releases is insane, every other week theres a new Jordan or new Asics, or some collab but whilst people are camping out to buy them then it makes sense for the companies to keep putting them out.

Whilst I was doing the research for the poster I decided to put together a list of the Huarache releases for 2013 and there were 23 (that I remember), if it was 2 per month it might not have seemed so bad but the majority were pumped out in the last 3 months and now, from the product codes and photos I have seen, in 2014 we are going to see maybe another 20-30 pairs. If they were better quality or different materials it would be great, but the quality of the recent suede releases with different suede on each trainer and damaged logos leaves a lot to be desired.

I haven’t been active on the ‘scene’ that long – I kept myself to myself until last January, but Instagram and Facebook have made finding the stuff I am looking for so much easier, especially with awesome guys like SneakerHunter247, JKDPTG, JustforKicksUK and all the other great sellers out there. I have definitely made some good friends and I enjoy the hunt and also to be able to help a few people out along the way if I can.

The guys at Crepe City are doing a great job for the UK trainer scene right now, they put on great events and run a pretty tight community, there was nothing like this when I was growing up and I didn’t know about anything like it whilst I was in my 20’s either. I really enjoy the Crepe City events, even if I am on the other side of the world I still enjoy seeing the build up to the day and photos from the events.

There seems to be a lot more people buying to flip on eBay, so many releases are up for 2-3x retail before most have even sold out in stores and now it is so easy to set up your own webstore, it seems like it’s the in thing to do right now, I mean some of them are really good and stock the stuff that is actually hard to find, but the ones that buy up all the current releases and put £50 or more on top are worse than the ebay sellers.