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Hype Less

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In My Feelings: Sneaker Spotting

hardie_girl August 4, 2018

In honour of the release of Drake’s In My Feelings video and the fact that I have some free time this Caribana long weekend, here is a recap of the sneakers I spotted (and could easily name). Let me know what I missed and got wrong because I’m sure I missed some things – unfortunately the director didn’t focus on the shoes for some reason and they often weren’t in focus or moved off screen too quickly to really see.

I have no opinion on what it means that virtually every shoe (except two pairs of Vans Old Schools) is Nike or Jordan…

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  • Feature

Sneaker customs with The Shoe Surgeon

hardie_girl July 28, 2018

I have always admired The Shoe Surgeon‘s work… from afar. His customs are amazing, some of the few full remakes or soleswaps to remain true to the original shape of the sneaker. I never thought I would get the chance to participate in one of his classes or own a custom from him. Thanks to Footaction Toronto and Adidas Canada, a few people were given just that chance.

I used every piece of advance intelligence I could before the event. I searched all the recent customs done by The Shoe Surgeon, I ran into his team on the street and begged them to tell me what shoe we were doing (the Stan Smith) and I spent way too much time looking at recent collabs and customs to get ideas. I felt like I didn’t want to waste this opportunity and go in unprepared. I also felt like I would be terrible at making something wearable!

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The Footaction store in the Eaton Centre was transformed into a workshop. Each station had a pair of original Adidas Stan Smiths. We had access to new tongues in a variety of colours and materials, eyelets, markers (paint was thought to be a little messy), stencils laces and other accessories as well as the tools to make big chances to our sneakers and a Shoe Surgeon team member to teach us what to do.

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With so much available it would be really easy to get overwhelmed and maybe do too much. My goals were to create something I would actually wear and to take advantage of the tools and materials that I don’t have at home. In the end I:

  • removed the tongue and had two new tongues put in (we weren’t allowed to use the industrial sewing machine. Probably for the best). I used black leather for the back tongue and white for the front and left them quite long, inspired by the long tongue on the Adidas Samba
  • removed all the eyelets and put in new black ones
  • coloured the green back patch black
  • used white waxed laces (this was a difficult choice, I almost went with black)
  • added gold lace locks
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It was harder than I thought to make the custom. I had to pull helpers in to help with some of the labour since we only had 2 hours! I’m not sure that all my work was the best quality (some of the eyelets are a little suspect) but I could’t be happier with the end result. I love my new customs and they aren’t just a display piece. The Shoe Surgeon team was all wearing their (much nicer) customs and I think the best way to repay them for the advice and experience is to wear mine too.

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Some of the customs available!

The Shoe Surgeon debut apparel collection and some completely mind-blowing hybrids and fully re-crafted customs (Jordans and Yeezys) are available at Footaction Toronto throughout this weekend (July28/29 2018).

Thank you to Footaction Toronto, Adidas Canada and The Shoe Surgeon for a once in a lifetime experience. 

  • Tips

How to take great sneaker pics Part I

hardie_girl July 22, 2018

Some hopefully helpful ideas

Read More "How to take great sneaker pics Part I"

  • Uncategorized

Thoughts on long line-ups

hardie_girl June 12, 2018

I was inspired to write this post after the recent Travis Scott x Jordan 4 “Cactus Jack” drop at the Toronto Jordan store. Originally, I was going to write about all the things that went wrong but now that I have a little sleep and I’m wearing the shoes I’ve got a slightly different perspective.

I don’t camp for sneakers. I know that I’ve got a low tolerance for disorganization, lack of sleep and people not following rules and that those are all things that are omnipresent in sneaker line ups. I also really value my time – I work a lot of hours at a reasonably stressful job and really like having my Saturdays to do what I want. Finally, I wear a size 7 mens and go up to an 8 if I need to. That means there are only a few sneakers available in my size even for big drops. Counter to popular opinion the two sizes left at the end aren’t 8 and 13! There are usually very few size 8s and while they don’t go first, they do go fast.

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The ‘line’ that inspired this post

But I’ve never lined up for sneakers, not really, and I wanted to give it a shot. I also figured I had a pretty strong shot at getting a pair if I lined up and we had to be up at 3am anyway for the nike.ca drop. So, off to the Jordan store we went, arriving at about 4:30 am. A few caveats on the upcoming constructive advice:

  • I know I could have been there earlier if I wanted to be sure to get my size.
  • I know that some things are just the way they are because they have always been that way.
  • I know that many people are happy to trade their time and sleep to get sneakers at retail.

But I do think that going forward there are only a few kinds of line-ups that are really worth my time (personally).

 

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Signs of a line-up I am willing to join:

A narrow line

This seems intuitive but a line is not the same as a crowd and definitely shouldn’t be a mob. A line should be 2-3 people wide maximum. The recent lineup situation was almost 10 people wide and more of a mob than a line. That means its impossible to tell who got there first, and to let the person at the front go into the store next – because there is no one person at the front. Security had to resort to pulling people at random out of the tightly packed crowd in front of him and yelling to prevent more crowd surges. I’m sure that no one had fun doing it this way.

 

Barricades/stanchions

Again, this seems obvious, but a line needs to have a defined edge to be a line. If there is no barrier then anyone can join at any point (especially if the line is wide). This is probably how I managed to start at about number 250 in line and end up being about number 500 into the store. (yes, I am also a sucker and not aggressive in pushing or line-jumping and yes, that is on me). TBH, I can’t honestly blame people too much for not going to the end if there is no barricade. I mean, why would you?

Good security

I’m not looking for some unrealistic version of perfect security and perfect compliance, but a general observation of the line by someone with a professional interest in maintaining it tends to make things run more smoothly for everyone. In my recent experience, the only security looking at the line was at the very front. This resulted in very tight, crowded conditions in the middle of the line – at some points it was a challenge to stand facing fully forward or hold your phone in front of you due to the crowd pressure on all sides.

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So close to the front! (there is another, smaller line ahead)

 

Signs of a line-up I am happy to join:

Wristbands/numbers:

When staff come down the line and give out either numbers or wristbands it gives a sense of security that you are not lining up for nothing. Best case is when the numbers are linked to specific sizes – you know early whether you can get what you are looking for and don’t need to waste your time.

Enforced barriers/stanchions:

I didn’t go to this one, but apparently the JTH drop at the Jordan store was handled pretty much smoothly. The security was actively enforcing the barriers of the narrow line and wouldn’t let people even approach from the side, even just to say hi to a friend. This was similar at the recent TDE x Nike event at Livestock in Toronto.

Ideal line-up experience:

After the Jordan store line, we decided to be gluttons for punishment and head over to Capsule Yorkville for the live raffle. There was a line of about 150 people or so and we all got raffle tickets (so there was no cutting in line because it made no difference). Raffle tickets were chosen one by one (each winner selecting the next ticket to eliminate accusations of cheating) and the number was written on a big whiteboard. The atmosphere was positive even amongst those who didn’t win (despite their disappointment). Obviously this only works with a moderate stock amount but it is the best drop I have personally experienced.

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A terrible, blurry pic of the store taken by sleep-deprived me. I’m clearly not cut out for this.

Final thoughts:

My line-up experience was not great, but to be fair, I didn’t expect it to be great for me and in the end I did get the shoes so I can’t really complain. I know my personal preferences are not everyone’s and what I really took away from the weekend is the fact that I am not cut out for lining up. If someone had come up to me on Friday night and given me a choice: pay them $150 and then get to have a nice dinner with my fiancé, watch a movie, sleep in, go out for brunch, run some errands, grab a beer on patio and then have dinner with friends OR I can save the $150 but I have to stand for 6 hours in a crowd on Yonge st. at 4am – I would take option 1 every time.

This was a really helpful experience for me because I used to doubt myself every time I skipped an early line up or campout but now I have a clear sense of my personal priorities. I’m glad that line-ups exist for those who don’t have the extra money to spend to get the sneakers they love. I also don’t want to do it again.

 

 

  • manifesto

What is “hype less”?

hardie_girl May 31, 2018

I started this blog about a year ago, mostly because I found that my Instagram captions were getting too long to be readable. I figured that I would give it a try, see whether I actually had anything to say, see if I could actually maintain a blog for more than a month. When I was a kid, I was always full of enthusiasm to start a new diary and would commit fully to new entries for days but always failed before a week was over. The fact that I have kept this up (even sporadically) is a big personal accomplishment. I have been writing entirely for myself. I have no sense of audience and I really don’t care if anyone reads this (although its nice when people do).

A couple of months ago I began to think about something that I think is threading through most of these blog posts (and IG posts and IG stories). Its not sneakers. Well, I mean, obviously it’s sneakers but it’s something else too. My favourite sneaker pick ups so far in 2018 have not been for me. It’s been the sneakers I pick up for other people. My favourite sneaker experiences haven’t been finally getting ahold of a grail, it’s been meeting and connecting and sharing experiences with other sneaker heads.

That brings me to hypeless. The blog content isn’t going to change substantially but I think that the ethos of the name better reflects what I have going on here. It also allows me to bring in other guest writers sometimes.

Community over everything

Community over hype

We all eat together

Hype less.

 

Thank you to @spoonr for the logo design!

  • What I am excited about

Get Hyped: June 2018

hardie_girl May 31, 2018

June 2018 is probably going to kill me. This year is just crazy and this month is a perfect example. Too many good sneakers and not enough time and money to get them all!

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Nike Be True Zoom Fly

Be True Zoom Fly – I wasn’t in love with this at first. Then I saw the pink triangle on the heel and I think my heart almost stopped. Lots of brands use rainbow colours and motifs to support the LGBT community during pride but I’m not sure many big brands have used the pink triangle. That symbol has always been more emotional and political and significant to me. The rainbow is fun. The triangle is a symbol of persecution and death and resilience. I might need a bit of time to process how I feel about it being on a sneaker.

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Nike Be True Air Max 270

Be True Air Max 270 – This was the sneaker in the collection that I was initially attracted too. I love the 270 and the use of lavender here is inspired. It’s also a meaningful choice that demonstrates a connection to the community that slapping a rainbow on something just doesn’t.

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Travis Scott Jordan 4

Travis Scott x Jordan 4 – I love this colourway and I love the Jordan 4. This is a must cop for me (if I get lucky at retail)

 

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Off-White Jordan UNC

Off-White x Jordan 1 UNC – So far my history with this sneaker has been bad thanks to the SNKRS order cancellation but I have high hopes I will take the W in the end.

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Off-White x Nike Presto – This is my #1 sneaker target this month. I like this the most of any of the Off-White collabs since the original 10. I want it so much! Preparing for a solid month of tracking down info and entering raffles and getting suckered into Twitter rumours. Including the rumour that this won’t release till July.

  • What I am excited about

What I am excited about: May 2018

hardie_girl May 1, 2018

Everything I want this month

Read More "What I am excited about: May 2018"

  • Tips

How to find online sneaker raffles

hardie_girl April 24, 2018

Or; how I entered 50 raffles and ended up winning the one I didn’t know was a raffle

Read More "How to find online sneaker raffles"

  • Haul

3.26 – Air Max Month 2018

hardie_girl March 28, 2018

Why I plan my life around a sneaker holiday

Read More "3.26 – Air Max Month 2018"

  • Feature

A crazy weekend – Part 2

hardie_girl March 23, 2018

On to Sole Exchange!

Read More "A crazy weekend – Part 2"

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