What are these? I can’t really tell. They have an all white sole, which can be the sign of a fake, but it doesn’t look like the case here. The top is a weird eggshell/tan patent and the tag and the heel look fine. I don’t know how these would work out in the street.. they look like a weirder version of the Easters that dropped a while back. Maybe it needs a little bit in the outsole - maybe not. Still, I have never seen this shoe before, so it’s worth writing about.

I feel like they’ll go for either $70 or over 150.  I can’t really get behind his other auctions, but I can get behind his pricing scheme. I love a private seller with low starting prices - you’ll always find some heat.

I saw Boris tonight, it was OK.  

Please, someone buy this. You don’t even need to be into sneakers. Maybe you surfed over here from bidhardcore, and came over here for weightlifting tips**. Maybe you’re my dad and are reading this website. Maybe you found it searching for valentine tips, or cro-mags info, or something. Just buy the old girls, wear em every day and get them filthier than a runaway.

Taiwans baby.. If you know, you know. For the rest of yall, this might be the single best pair of air forces Nike did up since switching to bad leather five years ago - and no coincidence it was released seven (smh) years ago. The Taiwans number at 3000, and I believe there are about a dozen out there in working condition, with Jay Bil rightly owning two pairs. This pair is beyond icy on the top, but with a piss yellow sole. It doesn’t matter because it looks better. Taiwans dropped in 2001 and are all over patent, with the swoosh a light gradient (not a coincidence that the best Year Of Force does the same thing) going from lighter to darker, like most things in life.

While the original run of the Co.Jp’s languished on the shelves for years and by the time they got resurrected, they were worth double retail of whatever was out at the time. If you were smart, you’d have bought the gums at $5, and sold them for $400 only a year later. Unfortunately Taiwan retail lore doesn’t seem to exist. Not rightly, but unsurprisingly so, this is a white air force, which, even after all these years, self-nominated sneakerheads don’t mess with. But most likely, you can’t inflate a ghost. This aint no sneaker you see on the street* or on most of the feet at a gig, or on your weekend trip to Flight Club. This is a man’s shoe, boy. You see one of these in the street, play lotto, because 9 out of 10 times you gonna win.

*Not in this shape, anyways, fuck it, it’s yellowed.
**I’ll sell you that Venom LP, I don’t want that thing.

Vintage Nike Air Zooms? Or so this guy says. It’s hard to say what this shoe is but it’s been one of the biggest ghosts in the game that I’ve come across. The first time I found it was a little over two years ago, I was checking out the crooked tongues board’s what did you wear today post, and this was on there, with no info, no further pics, no tag, no info, nothing. The poster was an OG rare air euro, with slim jeans, an air of mystery and a deep closet. What were these things? I didn’t actually find them, but my man Steve*, a Montrealer who never bought anything I’d sell, and didn’t actually buy much at all, and who got into NFL Football from his girlfriend, but he showed these things to me and put them on the case. Though I was washed up as long as two years ago, I spent a good week looking for info on these things, through my channels. But nothing. No clue, when they dropped, how much they went for, or anything. I gave up, and I think that after about six or eight months, but definitely later that year (2006), I got a handle on the handles and hooked Steve up. By that point it was too late, and Steve had spent the rest of his money buying fantasy football magazines so he could build a team lousy enough to not make the playoffs.

As far as the shoes themselves, they’re pretty special. The tag dates them to 1994, and the shape would suggest the same. The last looks to be identical to the huarache light, once a personal favorite by the entire heatunitreport.com team. Also, check out the speed lacing, which was rare on these types of shoes. It does make sense to have a light lacing system on a non air, light** shoe, but off the top of my head the only shoes I remember with these are the Lava Dome IIIs, not exactly bastions of stealth in design. No matter though. This purple and orange thing is as good an example of Beaverton’s confusing autonomy, and how it’s not long for this world.

These shoes should go for $15 or less, but are more likely than not to go the way of these, which is a shame. This shoe, cleaned up, could really turn some heads, and is a deal for under $40. It shouldn’t slip through the cracks again.

*Named have been changed. I mean, if I got into football from a girl…
**proper

PE crazy, crazy PE… Player Exclusives’ - one offs the sneaker companies make for actual basketball players - are always incredible, from the tan XVIIs they wear at Brown to whatever Ray Allen decides to put on this week. That these sheeds are in my size is even more outrageous. Doesn’t he know I don’t have $1000 immediately (4 days and change) available on something I need? I’ve written about sheeds below, so I’ll only mention how “both teams played hard” is the best way I imagine they describe successful marriages (it is Valentine’s day, the shoes are red). But it’s because it’s V day, and why wouldn’t someone put my dogg’s shoe up, in my size, for money, today?

PE sneakers’ values are barely defined by eBay prices, inasmuch that anything collectible can avoid eBay. There are always PE’s on ebay, sure, but more often than not, it’s the same guy selling the same pair of size 14 Bibby XIIs. The market itself is pretty hard to crack, as PE’s number in the handful. This one isn’t even Sheed’s number, it’s some guy named 30. George McGinnis? I wouldn’t be surprised. Some are so rare, you will never get them, the five dozen people who have all of them will never trade you. Sorry. After the rare eBay pair, your best bet would be to make friends with B1LLY HOYLE AINT NO CHUMP off niketalk, or someone off the grid. Good luck with that, too.

These crossword vans came out in mid or late 2004, maybe 2005? Along with the rest of the first series of MJ vans, they were the best of their models. This one came out along with graffito vans, and a bunch of monotone sk8 highs. No sk8 lows to my recollection, and the highs were bright green, blue (royal), red, and white. I myself own the greens, which are great. The rest of the line were just as strong, sounder than the collections that followed. They were all simple, yes, but the first line were bright and clear, bold without being loud or garish. These particular slipons were a little more muted than their monochrome brethren - and why wouldn’t they be, they’re slip-ons - but the metallic tinge gave them a nice touch when they dropped.

Iller than a corduroy chukka.

Here is a pair of vintage, OG - for our purposes - Nike Air Force One High’s, in purple and white, from 1992. This shoe is excellent for several reasons. First, it is monochrome. Only purple, purple stitching. There is some white, a swoosh, and the outsole is white. Most air forces with white outsoles can look fake; indeed, most are*. This instance is pretty real though: the quality of leather on this shoe is unbeatable. Nothing on a $700 Italian shoe I don’t mess with, but for a basketball shoe, it’s pretty damn good. These were made in China, yes, but the MIC Nikes are a little better than wherever they’re made now. This concept is nothing new, though. $2 Levi’s from Sears were sounder than any Swedish jean today, just like these dusty leathers spank a Lux out of the park like that.
You have to hand it to this shoe. It’s purple, it’s a high top, but it looks harder and tougher than a Timberland. I, myself am impressed. It should be noted that AF1s are very high, true high tops along with the AF2 and 3 High. I know my man Jay Bil has this exact pair. Reason enough to buy it, to be sure.

I suggest adding this seller to your favorites. He always has some serious heat, and those photos remind me of random stores in Delaware or Connecticut. Kind of a slip through the crack powerseller. One offs of not so much quikstrikes, but random small run shoes from the last few years you might have missed out on. I tend to have at least one of his auctions, active or otherwise, on my list at all times.

*One notable exception to this is the very fine Nike Hong Kong Air Force from, I believe, five years ago. I personally do not own a pair, but it is on my fairly short list of shoes I wish to buy, and maybe look at for twenty minutes when they come in the mail.

me: Here you go.
game over
3:48 PM whentigersfight: fuck man
3:49 PM me: game over
perioid
whentigersfight: for real
3:50 PM me: thats like i dunno man
a box of DS raped asses or whatever
whentigersfight: hahahaha right
3:51 PM me: murder
id shank a dude for those in my size
real talk
3:53 PM whentigersfight: haha
my homeboy whos over now is flipping
those are his siz
e
3:54 PM me: oh man
he has to cop those man
whentigersfight: hahahha
me: take out a home loan
sell a few 45s
3:55 PM whentigersfight: hahahaha yeah right
3:56 PM me: lol
whentigersfight: my boss was talking the other day about buying a house
3:57 PM like
“i think id have to sell like, 10 45s”
so sick
me: lolol
thats so fucking cool
my pops like
wrote a book
whentigersfight: those shoes in hitop would be sick
me: worked 2 jobs
lol
whentigersfight: hahahaha
right
me: oh yea the grails
whentigersfight: yeah for real
me: there are like 5 metallic high jordan 1s
3:58 PM orange, purple, green
whentigersfight: fuck
me: jay bil found a photo online of one that was tagged
3:59 PM like a dude just painted his metallic purple 1 highs
saddest thing ive seen

No big deal? Yeah you might have seen me on the streets, oh, never? Yeah hi my name’s Jeff and I’ll be doing your groceries for you and driving you to work and sitting on your lap and doing your job. After keeping me on staff for ten years you might be lucky enough to see a pair of Jordan 1 lows in white on the street. I don’t care, not even the Beastie Boys could make these shoes suck.

If I saw a pair of these on the street (say, on the US east coast) my stomach would be in my throat, and if someone reached over to me, with this box, and motioned for me to take it, my knees would buckle. And I’ve been wearing Wallies every day since July. But this is what this site is all about, reporting true motha fockin heat units. I would wear these in Ed Koch’s NY and fully expect my throat to be slit - EAR TO EAR - and on the table, I’d lay facing my inevitable and all too sullied eternal slumber, I would grin, looking down at my feet in white Jordans and black socks, dark purple blood on my shoes and a bunch of teeth on the ground, but both of them on, I can’t see my toes or feel my face. You could have corkscrew curls and look cool in these. Jordan 1s look cooler on your feet than ANY other shoe, rare or otherwise.

Honestly man.. I don’t know what I can say about this shoe besides:

1. Good luck finding it on this continent.
2. Good luck finding it not shelled by zhieep, total POS ruining jay bil’s good time. wah jaybil.
3. Good luck finding it period.
4. I don’t even understand. Take a look at the scheller’s (hi sheller) other stuff. Hi, i’m a bernie kosar shirt, you might remember me from your UPS’ guy’s college dorm (starting bid $20). Oh dont mind me, just an all over print wolverines shirt with a wolverine on it. No big deal. (Not to mention the other stuff he has, lightning jersey, stussy rasta letterman jacket - xxl, some old ass champion tees… I love America)

These days everyone’s a sneakerhead but the oldest heat you see is from March. Oh wow, this year’s Jordan Vs? So you’re telling me you have $120? Cool. Sweet. Rare airs, where you been? Everytime you think the last deadstock (this isn’t ds, but its close) pairs only belong to Marc Jacobs’ life coach and 3 dudes in Japan, you see a pair up on ebay, just hanging out waiting to be plucked in the American heartland. It’s already been a great week for
vintage jordan ones, not the least of which i will be buried in. Like, damn. And whether your budget can cop any of these, it’s nice to (hopefully) know that these are going to real people somewhere (although I’ve been convinced that half of ebay are celebrity buyers for like, Stephen Dorff).

Wear in good health, always:

A long long time ago, before I participated in a little thing called the morning commute, before the rat race, wool pants, my iron, lunch in bags, and bags under my eyes was a little thing I like to call the early mid 00’s. Back then things were a little tiny bit different. People that weren’t hot girls thought Pharell was cool, no one knew how to dress or listen to music, and no one was on the internet. These shoes were also pretty big.. the SB Paris was a Dunk released concurrently in one city, with others in other metropoli (Tokyo’s - legitimately chill, NY the wackest yet, London, Karachi, etc). Each had a theme, this one’s theme was oils by Chagall, or scarves. Each Paris Dunk’s toebox was different and if placed end to (on) end they would form a sort of Voltron super Guernica e8, sonning everyone who dared walk into your loft.

Somehow though, everything about this shoe has materialised itself into the current era. People think they wear sneakers. They don’t; they wear Dunks. Half the skinny, skinny people who were wearing Dunks two years ago are now rocking $200 prospector Henleys diaper jeans and Gene Wilder dancing boots. They do this while listening to David Bowie, Joy D, etc. I guess this is why they have rattails and why I am not confused.

But I will bet you two slices of Chacho’s pie that the fall 2010 issue of Arena + Homme magazine will have a longer article about custom Dunks than it did this season or next season or two seasons ago etc. The Paris Dunk is the perfect epitome of this. It is limited, it is expensive, it is haute pretension, but it is still corny as hell. Anyone who rocks these and passes me by I promise you I will turn my head to make you feel better and believe me, I’ll mean it. But only Travis Barker would wear these with a suit or out for coffee. I might have said earlier that everyone’s a head.. but if you look around for even a minute you’ll see this isn’t the case. Whatever though its all gravey .. I wore C-Corns to the gym and they smell like a dog washing a dog. Its all good.. this shoe is not as cool as the Tokyo Dunk, but a lot flyer. Still a good buy.

click the link and peep the heatness: