– Sneaker Headz –

By (Buttns) @tldesignz

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If someone told you that you could take your passion and turn it into a store front, but you’d be up against a finicky market, a slumping economy, and bootleggers with forged product-would you be willing to risk your time and effort? For Darryl, it was never a question of ‘should i’ or ‘how will it work,’ it was more of a ‘this is what I love, regardless of the outcome I need to experience this.’

In 2007, Darryl started and ran a sneaker boutique in North County St.Louis called Sneaker Headz. He’s an extremely hard working individual who lives what he talks about, sneakers. An original sneakerhead being that he’s always had some kind of sneaker related job, and most of the time, multiple sneaker related jobs at once. I actually got a chance to sit down with Darryl to ask him just what a sneakerhead means to him..?

Darryl: I guess my take on it is basically people who have a really strong passion for shoes. It’s never really been about… if you had 1000 pair of sneakers or 10 pair of sneakers because if those 10 pair quality wise is better than the next person’s 1000 then that lets a person like myself know… [whether or not] that someone has a really good understanding of sneakers and they buy sneakers based on what they like.

Do you see yourself as more of a quality buyer or a quantity buyer?

Quality [slash] me just buying what it is that I like, so when the term ‘hypebeast’ came around that came from people buying shoes or just stuff in general. since I got introduced to the word it was solely based around shoes. people who don’t typically buy Jordans or whatever it is, but because everyone else is hyping them up-now they want them.

With that said do you see Nike being as strong of a force as they were in the past, do you see them getting more watered down for the industry, or…?

Some people say the quality is more hit or miss since we’re dealing with the kind of economy climate that we’re in people are starting to not value that [Nike may] want $175 or what not. So far as ‘am I gonna buy this Jordan, and then [wonder if the] quality is up to par.’ Once you start having a [nice] portion of shoes then you get to compare the kind of quality that there is, based on what you like and what you have at home.

Do you predominately collect Nikes or have you moved on?

I really haven’t moved away from Nikes. It’s really all about what you like I mean some people like New Balance some people like Adidas. I don’t think you’re a sneakerhead if only you buy Js or you buy Nikes. It’s the overall if that’s what you like and you buy what you like.

I know you have a pair of ‘Holy Grails’ (a particular shoe that’s yearned for by that person). Do you own what you would consider your Holy Grail as a shoe or is it still out there and you’re looking for it.

Nah, I was finally able to get 3pairs of them on it’s 3rd release of the shoe. The first [time they were released I wasn't able to get them], the second time they came out was in 2000, and then the third time they came out was back in 2009. So it’s almost a decade later before I was even able to get a hold of that shoe which is the Space Jams, the Jordans that MJ was rocking in the movie. Thats how they got dubbed the Space Jams.

Is there a particular website or a magazine that you read to stay up on sneakers nowadays?

I typically stay around SneakerFiles [.com] and NikeTalk [.com] cause I like the updates and the collection of the people that’s on there. I sometimes hit up FlightClub [.com] to see how much a sneaker is going for.

…and the store Sneaker Headz?

Basically that was a three year venture of me wanting to experience one of my ultimate dreams, and i guess for any true sneakerhead if you were to ask them if they’d like to own their own store they probably wouldn’t mind owning their own shoe store. I wanted to experience that for myself… it was a pretty good run so far as to what happened with the economy, dealing with fakes, and everything else. After my run at it I was like, ‘well you know what, I might as well hang it up cause I was able to do it [this long] and walk away from it in the sense that it was a pretty good experience.’ I didn’t have to have a mountain of debt and owe a bunch of people and I was able to close it up on my own terms. It taught me a lot about the game.

…so as far as the website that you’ve been telling me about…?

Yea, basically since Im keeping it moving now. Im slowly but surely carving out how Im going to reintroduce the store and myself back into that lane of me having a store and me having a place for people to buy shoes. I still get shoes for people, so it’s looking like this year honestly I will get a chance to relaunch the website and have it updated. I may just do it strictly consignment and Im on my way to Chicago to cop a pair of Js that’s coming out, as well as get some ideas and go from there.

Anything you like to add before we end this..?

Not really man, again I would say just stay true to what you really like to rock, so that you don’t-to me-look out of place. If Jordans isn’t your thing don’t try to make it your thing just cause this or that person is doing it. That would probably be about it. Obviously thanks for valuing my insight on the game for a second. DO YOU-that’s it, aight?

-that’s whats up.