Features

Where did you get the idea for Sneaker Freaker Magazine in the beginning?

I don’t know exactly when it popped into my noggin, all I know is that I thought I could just get a load of free shoes. I’ve said this many times but there was no business plan, no grand scheme, no idea that I could see into the future or imagine that I’d still be doing it five years later on a global scale. I’ve been involved with a lot of projects and jobs over the years and the mag was a good idea at the right time. You never know how true that is until you’ve already done it. I think a lot of people probably wished they had done it, but they missed the boat and she’s well and truly set sail now.

At first Sneaker Freaker was a free mag. When did you decide to attach the price tag?

Issue #1 was a giveaway (only 3000 copies) and it’s pretty shit when you look back at it, but it was done in a week and it’s now worth about $150 on the Bay! I’m the idiot who gave all mine away... By Issue #2 I realised pretty quick that I needed to sell it to make any money. There are a lot of free mags out there, however I figured paying a few bucks wouldn’t be a problem. Most of our magazines are now sent overseas anyway... we have stockists in thirty something countries. Today we just sent a huge order to Russia for the first time so it looks like it’s popping off over there.

What difficulties have you faced being an international magazine based in Australia?

Oh yeah - there’s a few. We may as well be on the moon sometimes. Our sense of humour doesn’t really translate at all. I often wonder what some people think of the jokes and piss-taking. The major hurdle is contact – it’s impossible for me to see everything with my own eyes, but I travel a hell of a lot. It’s funny, I’ve been in meetings where people can’t believe we are based in Australia. They’re probably stuck thinking Australia is all about Crocodile Dundee and dangerous animals, but you only need to look at Hollywood to see how many Australians are ripping it up over there. Being based here is just one of the things that define us. It has both negatives and positives. We don’t do page numbers or have people on the cover or use conventional distribution or any of the normal things you are supposed to do in this game.

When did the love affair with kicks begin for you?

I think I had it pretty bad as a kid, but my options were pretty limited. I’ll tell you one thing, when the KT26 came out it made me throb like a two bob watch – what a shoe! Of course this is in comparison to a lo-fi Dunlop Volley but you have to realise what it was like in the ‘olden’ days. I had some really nice Puma mids and waffles and LDV... but I wasn’t wearing Jordans and shit til much, much later. The current generation has so much money and seemingly unlimited access to that much flossy stuff it’s nuts. I hate to sound like some old fogey but kids today got no idea!

Do you still have the same level of enthusiasm for sneakers or has working around them every day diminished the passion somewhat?

It has diminished a little I guess, but I still get excited by new shoes. It’s the same as anyone who turns a hobby into a career, I mean if you race cars for a living, popping down the shops in your sister’s Corolla isn’t gonna get you moist. But saying that, the thrill of landing a big one still gives me a stiffy (metaphorically) and I must admit I’ve been on a roll lately, FEDEX must have us on speed dial. The last two tech pack Safaris are absolute killer, as are the Estevan Oriol x Adidas (you should see the box and the book it came with) and of course, we are waiting for our Puma shoes to arrive so I can wear them. Overall, the market has never seen this many shoes, sometimes it gets a bit much even for me. We did all the photography last week for issue 12 and had over 1000 shoes in the office and I gotta say that most of them have something about them that is quite good. If the brands aren’t on their game constantly, they’re in the shitter quick smart these days. I am able to, I think professionally detach myself more than I used to and see something for what it is – well designed and nicely thought out, even if I’d never go for it myself.

With a lifestyle that sees you regularly travelling overseas for sneaker related events and access to all the hottest exclusives, what has been your career highlight so far?

In some ways just surviving has been the biggest lifestyle achievement. But as far as more general highlights, being interviewed by the New York Times was flattering, especially when they found out I wasn’t based in Manhattan. Attending the Nike Air Force Anniversary party was off the hook, gold class all the way, mint Escalades, fancy hotels, the whole deal plus Nas, KRS One, Kanye... a pretty good party. A fucking unbelievable party – over 1700 shoes on sale and a lot of old friends in the room. And I got to drink Bruce Kilgore under the table, that was quite a night I tell you! But releasing the Puma shoe all around the world will be the best so far, it has been a long time coming and we’re pretty close now. It feels like Christmas when I was a kid, that’s how hyped I am.

What are your plans for expanding the Sneaker Freaker brand?

We just keep on keeping on and building new things. I’d like to get our web traffic to something crazy like 5,000,000 pages a month. We’re well on the way, but we constantly need to rethink our methods to keep it moving north. We are looking at a few initiatives that will surprise people. In April we’re also releasing the first ever edition of Sneaker Freaker in Spanish which is something that I never thought would happen. I think it’s probably a first for an Aussie magazine to be translated - if I’m wrong someone better tell me before I look like a complete tit.

You’ve got fairly solid relationships with most of the high-ups at the major sneaker brands, what lead to you working with Puma specifically?

To be honest, we’ve said no to a lot of possible colabs, and the reason we said yes to Puma is that we are very close to the guys in the local office who have supported us since the earliest days. We actually started talking nearly two years ago about doing a shoe and at that point they had a lot of Clydes in the market and our idea was to do the complete opposite. So when the product guys in Boston hit us with the Blaze, we were all over it. There’s the chunky, jacked up stance, the weird lacing design and the fact that it hasn’t been in the market before made it the perfect vehicle. Personally, I love this shoe with all my heart which is the most important thing. I could never work with a company I didn’t respect, although I do think the second colourway is even better! Wait til you see it and you can make up your own mind. There’s also 40 pairs made out of genuine shark skin and they are nuts. These will be given to friends and family only.

How did you go about designing the Jirozame and what made you decide to work with the Disc Blaze template over other iconic Puma templates?

A lot of people are curious as to how you design a shoe. It’s actually pretty much as you’d expect. We trace the shoe’s outline in Illustrator and then mark it up for colour and choose materials. That’s sent off to a factory somewhere in the far east and then one day a man in a van knocks on your door with a first strike-off. After a lot of anxiety about juggling colour combos and fabrics and stress trying to create something totally original, it ended up pretty close to the original design.

You worked with a nineties sneaker template for the Jirozame, is that your favourite sneaker era?

I guess so. I’m not really fussed by decades as such, but I can say we have made a conscious decision to get behind new models and fresh projects that are not the same-o shoes over and over again. In saying that, I think anyone into sneakers would agree that the period from 1985 to 95 produced the best shoes... Name me more than a few from outside that era and you’d be a wise man, but in actual fact, the Blaze of Glory never actually went into production until recently. The shoe shares the same sole unit as the Disc Blaze, but it doesn’t have the clunky disc system sitting up top. I like the fact that it’s retro but it’s also a vision of the future.

Are there more Sneaker Freaker collaborations on the horizon?

Yeah there’s a few. Who knows when they will come out, but we are working on something that will fry brains. When we discussed time frames for this particular project, the agreed date was early 2010. Who works that far ahead and gets it right? I’m not sure but that’s the deal with this one and it’s not negotiable. We are hoping to have a new shoe later this year.

For 2008 what are your tips on the sneaker releases to look out for?

I hate to be a suck, but we do keep mum about a lot of shoes that are still secret... but I would say that colabs are still where it’s at. Watch out for Alife, they’re on a roll in 2008. I think the Bok are back! Nike will always be strong, Supra seem pretty hot and of course, Puma keep things moving in unexpected directions, which is one of the things I really like about them. It’s a petty weird business to be in some days, but you wouldn’t be dead for quids. Who wouldn’t like a job flying around the world talking about shoes for a living?

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