Sneakerheads

Story by Chase Beyer Photos by Kassandra Eller Design by Katie Jo Stewart

You wake up in a dream, boxes stacked as high as you can see all around you. Some might start to panic, but to others this is exactly where they want to be. The boxes are all filled with shoes. This is the dream of a sneakerhead.

Sneakerheads are crazy about shoes, and have an undying passion for them. Dictionary.com defines sneakerhead as, “a person who collects and trades sneakers as a hobby, and who typically is knowledgeable about the history of sneakers.”

Sneakerheads know the ins and outs of a shoe, their value and how to collect their favorite pairs. That is what makes up a sneakerhead.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the sneaker reselling market flourished. According to the New York Post, a study from a research firm, Piper Sandler, estimated the sneaker resell market at $10 billion in 2021. That was a $4 billion increase from 2019. The sneakerhead subculture is intertwined through the basketball community and the hip-hop music culture. After “The Last Dance” released in April 2020, the interest for Air Jordan’s increased. This caused an uproar in the sneaker reselling market. “The Last Dance” is a popular ESPN/Netflix documentary covering the chronicles of the Chicago Bulls dynasty during the 1990s. The documentary focuses on the career of NBA Legend Michael Jordan, with a focus on his last season with the Bulls. Sneakerheads can do many different things: admire, collect, invest, resell, custom design and much more. Some sneakerheads will look at a shoe and see a canvas, some will see a great pair for the mantle, some will see potential for increase of value and some will see something that would go great with everything they own.

Juarez ‘Julez’ Rosoborough, freshman and prospective commercial piloting major, is a sneakerhead. He has been custom designing and selling shoes since April 2019.

Rosoborough picked up inspiration for becoming a sneakerhead from his older brother.

“He just loved sneakers. He started off in high school. He ended up having a collection. More or less worth up to like $15,000 to $20,000,” he says.

Rosoborough started getting into the shoe game in middle school.

“What I got into is just light customizations. Which was not really super crazy,” he says. “I didn’t even consider it custom work, because it’d be like drawing on my shoe with a Sharpie. Which is completely different to what I do now.”

Rosoborough started off using a sharpie and turned it into an actual side-hustle. “It’s more of a professional-like business that I actually run on the side to kind of help pay for college,” he says.

Another type of sneakerhead is someone who collects and invests in shoes. Ethan Strickland, sophmore business administration major, has been collecting shoes since his freshman year of high school.

“About six and a half, seven years. It started when I got my first pair of Timberland boots. So it’s kind of like the little seed that grew into something more,” Strickland says. Strickland worked with his father and grandfather to earn enough money for his Timberlands, and as soon as he had enough money, he went straight to the mall to get them. “I didn’t really know how to style them, so I was searching YouTube videos on how to lace them and how to style them. It kept growing and I see other sneaker YouTubers,” he says. “They showed off Yeezys and Air Jordans. And I was like, ‘Oh, those are pretty nice.’ Just kind of a snowball effect from there.”

Strickland has a collection of about 25 pairs of sneakers that total up to around $7,000.

“I put the most expensive ones out on a display in the apartment just because it’s pieces I’m proud of,” he says. “Then the smaller items, like the ones I don’t usually wear too much, in a box stashed away.”

ETHAN STRICKLAND

Some sneakerheads will look at a shoe and see a canvas, some will see a great pair for the mantle, some will see potential for increase of value and some will see something that would go great with everything they own. “ “

Strickland says his favorite pair of shoes in his collection are his Yeezy 350 Bred v2’s, the one pair of sneakers he had wanted back in the beginning of his sneakerhead journey. Yeezy is a popular sneaker collaboration between Adidas and rapper and designer Kanye West.

Yahcub Sylla, sophmore business and marketing major, has a love for sneakers and also fashion. “I was really into different types of musical artists,” he says. “The clothes they wear and how creative [it is]. I was really into the creative part where they take just one basic shoe and then add it to a whole different fit and the fit would just be crazy. Like out of the ordinary.”

Sylla loves the relationship he forms with the shoes, showing it’s much more than just shoes.

“That’s the thing, when you buy something like a really expensive shoe. It’s kind of like you want to care for it more like a car,” he says.

Sylla loves mixing up different outfits with different shoes.

“I’ll go thrifting and I’ll just be like, ‘Oh snap, this will look super good.’ Because then I’ll just go all black, a top and jeans and then go straight red shoes,” he says. “That’s the thing like no one really expects that. You know what I mean? They’ll think if you’re wearing black you’ll just wear all black, or white. But you could do it all black top [with] all black jeans, red shoes. They’ll still contrast and kind of pop out.”

Uriah ‘Ry’ McIntosh, senior computer science major, has been collecting shoes since he was a freshman in high school.

“I’ve always been fascinated with shoes, due to family, ever since I was young. Shoes have always been a necessity,” he says. “Shoes have always been something that’s been a part of my life.”

McIntosh’s mother is the reason he started getting into shoes, thus leading to him being a sneakerhead.

“I grew up in a single parent home, so it was always me, my mother, and my brothers,” he says. “There was a time where we were actually the same size shoe. I used to wear my mom’s kicks because my mom was wearing ‘boy shoes.’”

McIntosh’s sneakerhead journey has come a long way since he started. He even has a unique approach to what shoes mean, at a deeper level.

“Your shoes, at least to me, represent you. I definitely make ‘shoe contact’ before eye contact when I meet somebody,” he says. “It’s kind of like somebody wearing a tuxedo when you meet them for the first time.”

McIntosh also resells shoes. Different from Rosoborough, McIntosh has been committed to the shoe-flipping part of reselling. He keeps a close watch on shoes that will have a good reselling price after their release.

“I would bring home roughly 20 to 30 pairs of shoes, and I would buy the shoe for roughly $220,” he says.

McIntosh says selling shoes is quite easy, but obtaining them, on the other hand, is difficult. He focuses on shoes that are “quick movers.”

“I’m pretty well-known on the west side for selling shoes,” he says. “I’ll have a bunch of people that will message me for shoes saying ‘Hey! I need this [shoe], in this size.’”

McIntosh’s favorite memory around sneakers was his reselling of the Air Jordan 11 Gym Red.

“I pulled in roughly 33 pairs. I bought each pair around $220, at the time it was a high commodity,” he says. “Depending on the size, I sold anywhere between $300 to $350.”

McIntosh’s collection is still growing, but he has up to 50 pairs of shoes. He keeps them stored safely in a storage unit.

“The storage unit is just the pairs I’ve accumulated over time and they just sit in the unit and essentially gain value. It’s almost like an investment,” he explains.

There are many different forms of sneakerheads. Sneakerheads are investors, collectors, artists, designers and passionate historians. Last of all, sneakerheads share one thing in common, their passion for shoes.

YAHCUB SYLLA

URIAH ‘RY’ MCINTOSH