Identified within the sneaker trade merely as “Woody,” Simon Wood is an OG who loves to inform tales. That’s why his imprint, Sneaker Freaker, has develop into recognized for its anthological books that dive deep into the realms of footwear historical past — additional than anybody has ever gone earlier than.
2018’s The Final Sneaker Guide is a 672-page catalog that’s finest described because the bible of sneakers. The undertaking integrated 15 years of dedication and a lifetime’s value of information that, as Woody tells, “practically broke me bodily, mentally, and emotionally.”
Why would he wish to do it once more? As a result of Woody isn’t performed telling tales. Forward of the discharge of his newest monolithic guide Sneaker Freaker: Soled Out, HYPEBEAST spent a day chatting to Woody concerning the guide, and extra importantly, his love for sneakers. On this installment of Sole Mates, Woody discusses his love for the
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
HYPEBEAST: What obtained you into sneakers?
Simon “Woody” Wooden: My story goes approach again. I wasn’t even 10 years previous, however I keep in mind taking a look at my reflection in a store window and seeing my ft and eager about: are my ft too massive? Being aware of my sneakers and the way they… You understand, somebody known as them the exclamation level in your outfit.
This was many years earlier than sneakers turned a factor. Generally it’s an athlete, being targeted on a basketball participant or a tennis participant; I used to be actually into tennis and I used to be targeted on what they had been sporting from a shoe standpoint.
You couldn’t stroll all the way down to the sports activities retailer and purchase Nike stuff, it wasn’t freely accessible, and also you definitely couldn’t purchase it on the web. I used to suppose athletes had magical sneakers that actual folks might by no means personal.
Was there a pivotal second for you?
I lived in London for simply over 4 years, working in promoting in Soho, so my lunchtimes had been spent both having a cheeky pint in one of many pubs or [going to stores], some had been shopping for sneakers from Japan and the U.S., and I might inform that they’d issues others didn’t.
I keep in mind shopping for unique [Nike] Terra Humaras, Bulgarias on Oxford Road the primary time round, and I’ve actually good reminiscences of that point. I believe it modified my perspective on sneakers a bit, however I used to be additionally touring to Japan. One explicit journey to New York within the early ‘90s, I had no concept the place I used to be, however there was a spot close to Canal Road — it was maybe a really early resell retailer — I walked by means of the entrance door and my head practically fell off. They’d 30 pairs of AF1s on the wall.
I used to be on my solution to the West Indies to observe the cricket — which was certainly one of my lifetime goals — I couldn’t take 20 pairs of sneakers with me. I reckon I spent two hours in there being a nervous wreck deciding on which pair to purchase. That was a correct epiphany, the second I stated “Holy sh*t, this one’s my shoe.”
If you happen to lived within the U.Okay. or different locations, it’s not like at this time the place you stroll down the road and see 10 pairs of one thing, or logging on and shopping for 10 pairs in a day. It was somebody who had curated this factor, it was such a New York factor, that retailer catered to the native demand of that shoe. The love of that shoe has by no means left me.
This leads neatly onto your newest undertaking — you’ve a brand new guide popping out, Soled Out.
Yeah, it’s a beast. 720 pages. The writer needed to cease me as a result of the primary draft was 1,200 pages. We had a lot content material to whittle down, however I believe much more might be performed.
“I needed to make an announcement, that is the f*cking final sneaker guide, suppose you are able to do a greater guide? I’d like to see it.”
Effectively, the opposite guide — The Final Sneaker Guide — was
one other massive undertaking and labor of affection. What made you wish to do it once more?
I believe the title, there’s nothing just like the simplicity of simply saying what it’s. For me, it was an announcement. I’ve seen lots of people do books, “Ah I’ve performed 250 pages.” Man, I’m simply getting warmed up.
I needed to make an announcement, that is the f*cking final sneaker guide, suppose you are able to do a greater guide? I’d like to see it. There are many years of labor in there. However I’ve to say, it practically broke me bodily, mentally, and emotionally, simply modifying it was monumental. I agonized over every thing.
The primary guide is a large best-seller and an unimaginable useful resource for anybody into sneakers. I’ve had suggestions from mothers, saying “I can’t get my six-year-old son to learn a guide, however he gained’t put this down.” Nobody loves historical past at highschool, however should you speak about streetwear or one thing like that, I believe anybody can get gassed on it, why the issues are the best way they’re.
I didn’t wish to repeat myself, I might have performed a second guide, the Final Sneaker Guide 2.0, however I needed to do one thing completely different. I discovered this unique folder of CDs and BluRay discs, you may think about how previous that was, and it was known as 1,000 Sneaker Adverts, from 2009.
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
At that time I had 300 or 400 advertisements, and I might have put the guide out at that time. However I stored evolving, shopping for extra advertisements, shopping for and buying and selling, constructing the stockpile. Making this guide was like a puzzle. I needed to reassemble every thing as a result of the guide is informed chronologically, by model and class, so all of the basketball advertisements could be collectively. It was a psychological problem.
Proper on the finish once we needed to reduce it all the way down to 720 pages, that was one other brutal second. “I like this one, however that has to go.”
Zoning in on the Air Pressure 1, why is that this your shoe within the Sole Mates
highlight?
The simplicity of it. I’ve at all times beloved chunky and hulking Air sneakers, so to me the AF1 is not any contest. Examine it to a Dunk, they’re primarily the identical shoe from a paneling standpoint, there are such a lot of similarities. I believe the form of the AF1 — and you recognize I’m not precisely Robinson Crusoe in relation to the AF1 — there’s a purpose why counterfeiters and so forth rip off the AF1, it’s a traditional perennial shoe.
It’s kind of a basketball shoe, but it surely might be worn tremendous informal. It doesn’t appear to be you’re sporting an ‘80s basketball shoe. I’ve by no means been a high-top particular person, and there are folks with monumental collections; I’ve obtained a number of a whole bunch of pairs, sufficient to see me by means of most a part of the yr, and I might purchase any coloration that comes out.
I do discover that stuff that Nike has performed to it over the previous yr is, as a traditionalist, a bit bit arduous to observe it flip into the factor it’s, however I do know they wish to join it to a youthful viewers. For a very long time that was shoe that was by no means touched, it was by no means marketed, simply preserve releasing good colours and it stored on [selling].
I’m a traditionalist, I simply paid my very own cash to do Nike ByYou, and the leather-based is gorgeous. The shoe is simply good — ivory-colored midsole, one of the best pair of sneakers I’ve had for ages. It’s a shoe that doesn’t require outlandish coloration schemes, the simplicity of it’s nice. If you happen to get it proper it’ll keep recent.
I learn someplace earlier than that should you needed to half with some sneakers, you wouldn’t have the ability to half with the Air Pressure 1 “Linen.”
It’s so removed from masculine, beige with pink. It’s not an aggressive asphalt, basketball, colorway, which is all black or one thing. That is delicate.
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
I’ve the originals and so they’re beginning to present some put on and tear. It’s potential that they got here from Japan that they’re crumbling on the within [as do many Nike’s from that era of Japanese production], and we reduce a pair open and it was mainly simply mud.
I used to be actually happy when Ronnie [Fieg] remade them. It’s a type of a shoe you could put on on a summer time’s day or someplace fancy, but it surely’s removed from white-on-white, it has much more taste than that. It’s the right mixture of making an attempt to face out however not trying such as you’re the oldest dude within the nightclub, which at my age you don’t wish to be.
We’ve got had lots of people function the Air Pressure 1 in Sole Mates, and their tales are at all times completely different. Why do you suppose this shoe resonates with so many individuals?
It’s completely the flexibility of it. I do have lots of bizarre and obscure stuff, unique ACG and Mowabbs, they’re so arduous to put on. Until you put on a white T-shirt, good luck — we name them a white T-shirt shoe, it’s troublesome. It’s a shoe for sure instances and conditions.
I do get obsessive about sure colours — the Stardusts, Realtree camo and orange, I like the garishness of them and I do just like the wild ones — however issues with sh*t caught onto them and upside-down logos, that’s perhaps not a lot me.
What had been those that appear to be somebody shat in a bag? Brown with USPS stuff? Such an unimaginable factor… I purchased them as a result of they’re simply stunning, how anybody let that undergo I don’t know. Generally it’s good for one thing that has no proper to exist to sneak by means of the company cracks. That could be a actually horrific factor and I like that.
However is unique finest?
Generally. I don’t thoughts a shoe being made extra snug. I’m not such a purist that’s tied onto issues in order that issues can’t be made higher, I believe the Air Max 1 isn’t delicate anymore, it’s rock arduous and that might be improved. They’ll by no means have the ability to make that shoe like they did initially as a result of the foamy polyurethane or no matter it’s can by no means be replicated, most likely as a result of it’s so poisonous and dangerous. I don’t suppose it’s sturdy, there are many causes to do away with it.
A number of folks get hung up on shapes. I’m actually allergic to the puffy toe — New Steadiness 1500s had been well-known for it for a yr or two. Getting that 1500 toe to sit down down, for no matter f*cking purpose, was actually troublesome to do. New Steadiness spent an extended period of time fixing that.
Simon Wooden/Sneaker Freaker
[Reflecting on quality, price, and the industry] shoe costs haven’t gone up in such a very long time, individuals are going to be shocked by Nike sneakers going up by about 20%.
You and the Air Pressure 1 appear to share an analogous method: adapt to the environment, however keep true to your self.
I like that concept!
I used to be watching this Belgian man on YouTube [explaining] music concept and how you can make techno, and eager about the Italian phrase, ostinato. In music, should you make music repeat sufficient, ostinato refers back to the interval of listening to one thing that then turns into familar. I believe that there’s lots of sneakers that fall into this class, lots of sneakers are fairly stunning after they first come out, the Air Max 1 for instance — it was tremendous futuristic, now you recognize it as one of the vital recognizable shapes and anybody can acknowledge it from two blocks away, that’s what makes a traditional shoe. I believe the AF1 is a bit bit like that.
The simplicity and the heft defines it.
Would you say that staying true and trustworthy is necessary to you, and your place inside the trade?
We attempt to do the proper factor. There’s been lots of run-ins with manufacturers… once you’ve been alongside this lengthy, when somebody says “this has by no means been performed earlier than,” I’m like, “effectively you probably did it 5 years in the past.” Somebody needs to be the conscience of the trade, and I believe we’re the closest factor to that.
Youngsters are coming into the trade and are shaping it. Even after 20 years, I nonetheless want manufacturers did this higher… I care deeply about features of the trade.
What do you suppose wants to vary within the footwear trade?
I used to be at adidas’ Portland workplace in February final yr, and it was simply as COVID-19 began to construct momentum. I used to be pondering, perhaps if this virus really will get going, it would create a state of affairs the place the trade displays on how a lot crap is made.
“It’s fairly superb to me that there are college programs in flipping sneakers, to me it’s a legalized model of what crack was like within the U.S. within the ‘80s.”
I really feel like all of the manufacturers have been including ranges or splintering off, there’s a lot product now, and my carbon footprint is much from good, however I hate listening to that a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of pairs of sneakers are burnt and buried each few years. This goes for trend as effectively. Doing extra with much less.
It’s fairly superb to me that there are college programs in flipping sneakers, to me it’s a legalized model of what crack was like within the U.S. within the ‘80s. The place there’s straightforward cash to be made and power of that nature, it attracts sharky folks and the incorrect consideration. Some are making a residing, however there are folks getting ripped off.
I hate to think about some child spending $1000 on a shoe they saved up for and it seems to be a crummy pretend, that stuff actually drives me nuts. These are challenges that, effectively, it’s not like anybody’s in cost. I’m reluctant to make use of the phrase “sneaker tradition,” however nobody is pulling the strings anymore.
I believe for essentially the most half, the creativity and dedication for making dope sh*t remains to be there. I adore it. That’s why I obtained so excited concerning the Nike ByYou sneakers after they turned up, they exceeded my expectations. If that occurs sometimes, that’s a win. However typically, once you preserve taking an L, that demoralizes you. I don’t need the scene to get greater and greater, however on the similar time, I don’t need it to return to the way it was in 2002 when just some folks in a metropolis [ran it].
