Yes yes people I’d like to introduce myself as one of the new contributors here at TWOTF, Pedro AKA @blcklistd on IG and Twitter and I’ll be giving you some regular comment and opinion on sneakers, sneaker culture and in fact culture and fashion in general. Let me know if you agree or…disagree in the comments or via my Insta or Twitter and let’s talk about what’s happening in the scene. I’ll open with the piece below:

If you keep digging, you might just strike gold

In the world that we live in today, we as people have been brought up to consistently seek and gouge on instant gratification. Whilst none of this is our fault – blame social media, we have not helped ourselves in quenching the appetite for the social hunger that requires constant feeding.

For the new generation of sneakerheads or aficionados of sneaker collectors, it has been evident and often discussed that these new breed of collectors seems to carry an air of entitlement without exerting endeavour. This occurrence is prominent on release days of new sneaker launches whereby one suffers the disappointment of not being able to purchase the hottest sneakers of the minute. Anger and frustration is often aimed conveniently at resellers or stores for not carrying enough stock. Relying on the bank of Mummy and Daddy smacks of privileged and in some cases arrogance.

Another example is where influencers and personalities are seeded exclusive merchandise or sneakers and the items are paraded on social media. Guaranteed that there will be a few negative remarks made at how such a person isn’t worthy or an air of entitlement is voiced.

Such actions only typify the social environment we’re living in today.

Old virtues such as “head down and work hard” or “you have to work four times as hard as the next person to succeed” is only relevant to a few. A few such as Stevey Ryder, known on Instagram as @solelove1.

The reason for his mention is that throughout Air Max Day 2016, Stevey has blessed Niketown London with twenty-five of his personal favourite air maxes on display. His personal collection of sneakers (too numerous to even be counted) has taken the best part of twenty years to accumulate and curate. Passion for the visible air, dedication and hard work as well as sacrifice was all-evidently on the display and also in the making of the short Nike film, Masters of Air. It’s his passion and love for the Swoosh and air over the years that have made him become a point of reference for all things Air Max 1. So much so that he was recently rewarded with an invitation to the home of Nike HQ at Beaverton, Oregon to meet legendary designer Tinker Hatfield, the architect of the iconic Nike Air Max 1.

Whilst we advise you not to base your Nike shoe collection on the hope of an invitation to Nike HQ, the culture of entitlement needs to be quelled; collectors need to remember the process of slowly building your collection organically. Based on personal taste and not hype. Doing it for ‘gram should be secondary to the passion you exhibit. Being on the scene for a minute doesn’t qualify you or give you status. Throw in a little bit of humility in the process and squash the attitude and you might just get the respect and break you secretly crave for.

@blcklistd