Remember the days as a kid when you first started noticing sneakers? Was it seeing other kids at school showing up in some Jās or a pair of Air Force 1ās? Or maybe it was scanning the shelves at Foot Locker to see what was hot. Either way, the discovery that used to happen before the scroll was a beautiful thing.Ā
So imagine if your job was unboxing sneakers all day every day. The team in our Melbourne Authentication Centre inspects some of the rarest and most sought after kicks in the game – so we wanted to find out what they think is hot and not.Ā
Let’s get into it with Mason, who hails from Melbourneās North and works in our Quality Control team.
Q: Letās start with a work question. Whatās the most memorable pair of sneakers youāve seen while working at StockX?Ā
Since working at Stock X I’ve seen an evolution in regards to my own personal taste and what I gravitate towards. I find myself looking for older pairs that I had never seen before, or pairs that I forgot about entirely. Honestly, the most memorable would have been an Air Force 1 3M Snake from 2001. Something about the quality and character of older Air Forces resonates with me. Itās known within the team here to flag older shoes with me so I can geek out a little!
Q: Has there been a pair that maybe you saw online and werenāt feeling, but when they came through the Authentication Centre they changed your mind? I was like that with the New Balance Refined Futures pack – every time I see a pair now I get annoyed at myself for not picking those up.
Absolutely, there are two pairs that won me over in person. I had originally despised the Patta Jordan 7. I thought that shoe was a gigantic miss and I could not believe Patta would drop the ball like that. That was until I saw them in person and it completely makes sense to me now and i love them.
Similar reaction to the Supreme Nike Humara collaboration. I thought the shoe was so ugly and there was not a single quality about it that I could appreciate when I saw pictures online…and then I got the chance to hold it in my hands. The shoe is so ugly it works.
Q: Now onto your sneakers. Letās get straight to the big question – Ultramarine 180ās – why do you love these?Ā
I’m a big fan of original Air Max colourways and the Air Max 180 is a staple in my summer rotation. I love the way they work with shorts and the inside build of the shoe makes it extremely comfortable. I’m on my second pair now in this colourway. This shoe is so clean, which is ironic as it gets dirty quicker than any shoe i’ve ever owned. It takes a lot for me not to wear them on every warm day, because I want to keep them as clean as possible! It makes me happy knowing I have these to fall back onto in case of an emergency.
Q: Howād you get āem?Ā
StockX! The Air Max 180’s shelf life at a retail store is short lived here in Australia, so StockX saved me on this one. And globally speaking, this shoe is a sleeper, so I managed to get a steal.
Q: Do you have a strategy for buying on StockX?
I’m normally attracted to models that are less popular so I can usually place the highest bid and let it sit, and hope that a seller will come down to meet me. A lot of the things I like are not necessarily pairs people are reselling to make a lot of money on, it’s stuff people just have maybe 1 pair of sitting in their closet. One man’s trash is another’s treasure!
Otherwise if it’s a shoe I absolutely need, I’ll buy now and pay the premium just because I need to own it one way or another.
Q: How (and where) do you normally wear the 180’s?
This is my summer go-to. I struggle to wear darker shoes, and especially for warm days, I prefer to look down and see a white sneaker.
I’ll wear these strategically in places I know they will NOT get dirty. I refuse to wear them in high foot traffic areas or in places were people are up to no good. So brisk walks, running errands, or just reminding the homies that I’ve still got it like that even on a light day, is where they get the most use!
Q: Beyond those, whatās a pair you have sitting in a box that just donāt get as much wear as they should? We all have them. For me itās a pair of Jordan 5ās.Ā Ā Ā
I really do try my best to wear all my shoes as much as I can. It can be difficult at times, and some shoes get put into a seasonal rotation. At the moment, the ones I’m leaving in the box, for no reason other than me wearing them TOO much, are the Blondey Superstars. I fell in love with that shoe and much like falling in love, it’s always when you least expect it. I found myself wearing them so much that people started to look at me sideways, as if it was the only pair of shoes I owned. So I put them on a temporary time out for now. I think about them every day and distance is making the heart grow fonder. So I’ll be leaving them to the side until people forget I have them, then I’ll remind my colleagues what they’ve been missing out on.
Q: Finally, itās early 2022 – give me one sneaker prediction for the year
Watch out for the Air Max 1 to make a come back. Whether it is new colourways or classics becoming more sought after globally, this model is well loved in Australia! I’ve actually been waiting for the explosion of the silhouette internationally. It is so comfortable and a shoe that I feel most sneakerheads should have in their closet. Clean up your pair or start buying your pairs now, and let your homies know you were in before they were popular.
