The Sneakers that may change Education
I’ve been hustling for as long as I can remember. My most elaborate and impressive hustle was created in high school to solve two major problems. First, I was broke. Second, my mother would not let me get a job. That all changed with $20 of Christmas money.
I bought $20 of king-sized candy bars and started selling them out of my locker. I never spent my money. I just bought and sold more candy making sure I kept good margins. When my mom got a new computer with a CD burner, I used part of my proceeds from candy sales to buy and burn mixtapes from Limewire and Bearshare (if you know, you know). Lil Wayne and each Drought mixtape made me a killing! I was cool with my candy and mixtape business. I didn’t get too big, didn’t make too much noise and if you got caught, you didn’t get it from me. Until I overheard the sale of some Js.
For the uninitiated, Js are Air Jordan basketball sneakers. When I was growing up these were so popular people literally died over getting a pair. One day when I was walking to the city bus stop I heard two upperclassmen negotiating over a pair of Js that just dropped. They settled on a sales price of $275.
TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS!!!
Those sneakers were $110 full price and weren’t even rare. But there were none left at the mall.
Needless to say, I went all in. I became a sneaker flipper before StockX or SNKRS. Then I became a sneakerhead because I finally had the money to own sneakers I liked.
The Sole Became the Story
I was 19 the first time I heard the name Tinker Hatfield. Who’s that you ask? Some might call him an old surfer dude. Some call him a genius. Some call him an artist. Some call him the man who single-handedly saved Nike when their biggest athlete, Michael Jordan, was ready to walk away. When I learned about this I took a deep dive into the most important voice and face at Nike.
On my deep dive, I learned about the Centre Pompidou. It is a very controversial building in Paris that distinctly features interior systems like A/C, piping, scaffolding, and elevators on the outside of the building.
Most look at this and see a strange-looking building that also feels a bit out of place. Tinker Hatfield looked at this building and saw inspiration. He dreamt about a shoe that would show the inner workings of the sneaker for people to view. Then the AirMax 1 was born. What struck me about this is that this was the first time I realized that sneakers are not just meant to protect your feet from the elements or meant to simply look stylish. They hold stories inside of their composition.
So How is a Sneaker Going to Change the Future of Learning?
My love for sneakers has never left me. Today I still love them. I don’t flip anymore, I buy to wear and to tell. I look for brands most people have never heard of like SIA Collective or Fini Shoes or Perry Co. Generally, I wear smaller brands with cool stories behind them so that when someone asks me where I got these DOPE sneakers on my feet, I get to share part of my passion with them.
If you follow my content for any amount of time you will know that I am extremely passionate about education. I pledged one day to combine these two passions.
Well…now I have.
One of the really cool, smaller brands I really love is called Ninety Nine Products. Jeff Henderson, the Founder of Ninety Nine Products is a real innovator in the sneaker world with more than 20 years of experience at brands like Nike, Yeezy, Everlane, and Cole Haan. He founded this brand on the idea that people want simple products that work, their signature sneaker is just that, simple and functional. What is cooler than that is that this brand takes time to celebrate, “people who help people,” like teachers and medical professionals in the form of sneaker giveaways.
So one day on a whim I tweeted at Ninety Nine Products and Greats Brand (a Brooklyn-based sneaker brand) asking if we could just talk about what is possible when educators and sneaker designers get into the same room. Why? Because I felt like it, I guess. I mean these are two of my passions. Why not see if we can make something work?
After a few Zoom calls, some team meetings, and a few proposals, I’m happy to announce that someone is going to design a sneaker that is going to inspire people to think about what is possible in the future of learning and that can be the spark that changes learning forever.
Here’s What’s Going Down
The Reinvention Lab (where I work) and Ninety Nine Products are teaming up to run a sneaker design learning experience and competition for organizations in our Reinvention Lab Network. They’ll be learning from industry experts and creating custom colorways of the signature Point sneaker.
Participating organizations will use a sneaker as a canvas to create and communicate messages we are all so passionate about.
The colors they choose and any images they use will tell a powerful story. A story about the future of learning and what might be possible.
They will design an image that will tell a powerful story. A story about the future of learning and what might be possible.
They will use these sneakers as a vessel of art and storytelling.
Just like the Air Jordan 3 or the AirMax 1 or the Yeezy 350 changed the sneaker game, the creation that comes from this project could change learning forever.
I’m ecstatic that we, the Reinvention Lab, get to be along for the ride.
