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.

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.

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.

I would like to apologize for the light neglect washed over this blog. I have just relocated to a different country and my affairs have been in the air for a little bit. I just unpacked my own computer yesterday and after a day on the phone with Time-Warner, we are back in business.  

I  figured I’d start off this new phase with a representative sneaker, the Air Max 97 Gold/Red. Impact wise this is the best shoe Nike has made in fifteen years and taste-wise, it might be the best they’ve ever made. I was never a big fan of 95s, at least on my feet, but the 97 is a subtler, matte, flattened take on that admittedly revolutionary shoe. Yes, the 95 was designed after a skeleton and the 97 was designed after a shoe; yes, Eric Clapton owns a jet painted like a 95 but no one owns any conveyance resembling a 97*. Compton rapper The Game gave a shout-out to the 95s back when he was good (or back when his beats were, anyways), and the only musicians I have seen affiliated with 97s have been that band Red Snapper, of which the less said about them, the better.

But I still maintain the 97 is a better shoe. The 95 has a wide, wide last and is fatter than most air maxes and some air forces. It looks very strange with slim fitting, or at least modestly fitting jeans - If you’re wearing skinny Nudies or what have you, you might be more interested in beatle boots. It is also a tall shoe, with an almost exaggerated midsole and is only nomenclaturally a low-top.

The 97, on the other hand, is short enough that it might be the most low-profile Nike produced outside the odd tennis model. The colorways, while not as exciting as the 95’s, have more staying power**. They didn’t try to do anything too outrageous, color wise, because the design was already so out there. All those little lines, the infinite air all around the bottom, but still not much of it, why would they need a turquoise or teal? White and silver, gold and white, both with some red, do the job and match your jeans, khakis, or even your suit pants (if you’re bold). A caveat on this shoe: it is extremely narrow, with a low toebox. If you have a wide or high foot, don’t order these off eBay, or conversely, take out the insole.

*besides the shoes, duh.
**to be sure, the neon 95 is pretty untouchable from a design and color-wheel standpoint.

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:

One of the illest colorways for about a minute. Doesn’t look especially hot anymore but damn was this fly back in the day. I never copped these but i had a pair of Air Max Storms that I wore the hell out of them. Definitely one of the better packs Nike has made in the last ten years. The quality was pretty fly for all of them, stitched right, not much mesh, dark midsoles, everything. They looked like they could weather a storm. Or even a storm II. Hard to say if they could though. The Huaraches were the least visible of the three and consequently the best ones IMO. They were the mids, not the fab five, but close enough and with a hole in the ankle, like a true Huarache. Huarache Machi!

Colors were a deep sultry brown with the satin in lakers colors. Whatup kobe, I see you. Maybe I even love you. Scoring 25 in the game, only four ahead of the rad man and less than half of AI’s. But who won? Everyone talks about how Kobe is playing on reserve and doesnt care and wants to be traded. I’ll tell you this, if this was the 1940s and I were Ted Williams (RIP), I’d want Kobe over John Glenn riding that plane. He could pick the antlers off a mosquito in motion. If this was Panama or The Boer War I’d want Kobe to be my general (no homo). If he was the captain of a boat I’d take the orders, big no homo.

Everyone hates kobe, but for the life of me i don’t know why. Is it because he knows what hard work is, and he knows why he’s the best? Is it because you sleep in on your day off, and he gets up at 5 am and takes a helicopter to Staples Center to beat traffic? Is it because you’re a pussy and cant wear crazy eights. Or when he sonned the hell out of Raja Bell. Most confident guy. I guess you can read Freedarko or ESPN for more ruminations, but in 2007 the Lakers are more the Clippers and Kobe gets a lifetime pass from me and hopefully all my friends

Anyways… not too into the neon or the overwrought speckling here. Most of the weird Nikes come out lately have been descended from this pack in one way or another. No black or white, lots of unusual colors, dark and deep, all having nothing to do with each other. This started a little before those smurf dunks or whatever the hell they were. The beginning of hypebeast, what was it? Like some dunks wrapped in carpet that looked like the good side of a bulk barn? Awful. If i had these shoes I’d spraypaint them shades of grey like in Roger Rabbit. I sold the hell out of my Storms to some loser in Germany. T Raumschierre I think.

Whatup jay bil, the only person who can pull these off, unless you click that link

*shoutout to aj, for letting me do ted williams RIP suicide missions in kenmore my 2nd day with sweet ink, on a beautiful august night in 2003. one

the pastels in this are

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

The stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company;

I gazed — and gazed — but little thought

What wealth to me the show had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Am I clear?
Are these real?
The original Prestos, in 1999, or 2000, or so, were something else and a bag of chips. They came out in 16 stupidly named colorways (trouble at home, the hungry fisherman, chips and dip, stephen murphy) and had a serious, serious ad campaign. I dont know if anyone reading this is old enough to remember it (whatup usercd) but these ads were everywhere, men in sleeveless water wicking hooded sweatshirts jumping up and down white marble buildings, for girls, or away from beasts, under the hot sun. The ads were pretty mondrian (not mondrian, someone help me out here.. very basic color scheme, but not monochrome.. triochrome? trizome?), all clay and blue and white. Men with 3-extension buzzcuts and one day growth wore no watches or socks and there was not much in the streets, people or carts or sidewalks. As for the shoes themselves they were complicated, sleek and antisensical. Why such a vulnerable toebox, like a soft belly, and both hard plastic lacetowers? Why they… got weird sizing? Unisex? I was all about to start a presto bank in boston but then i left to go get a degree…

Jude keeps telling me that there’s a Presto with a Greek god’s face on the front, and I’ve never seen it, or heard anyone mention it outside of Jude and other Philly heads but it’s a grail of mine. Not the shoe, the picture.

As for this one, I think it’s a retro of the original black presto that came out turn of the millenium. My friend Nick says that the original black Presto is a perfect shoe, and it is. It’s a perfect shoe. This one is close.

According to lore, Penny Hardaway had the single greatest workout in NBA assessment history. Workouts usually involve running and jumping drills, endurance testing, jump shooting, basics, and some one-on-one hoops. This workout, however, was so great that it cemented this fellow’s position as first number one goddamn overall pick. No one knows what he did, but he did it that afternoon, stomping into every NBA General Manager’s head, creating a would be dynasty with young/roided Shaq (who has still not cashed any of his NBA paychecks… real talk), and jumping into a hell of an ad campaign that still leaves me misty.

No one’s quite sure exactly what happened during that workout, if the conversation was that resplendid, if he dunked from the three point line, or made 2 granny shots in a row playing 21 with Jerry Krause, turned down a date from Mitch Kupchak’s slutty kid, pulled a rabbit out of his Raptors bag, etc etc etc. This is not a normal state of affairs. We live in a pretty transparent age - Canadian legislative procedures notwithstanding (one love to party discipline and closed cabinet sessions) where legends don’t exist. I would reminisce, starry eyed, about Uppercut in my cold water flat until, one afternoon, surfing, I came across photos of their reunion show, carpenter jeans, empty room and all. Maybe there’s too much transparency. Maybe the world just never will be ready for Uppercut. I feel as if both these things are true.

But, getting back to the point, if the workout is legend, then he is legend. An NBA player, real name Anfernee first of all, had some early seasons that would be described as unholy were he not so quicksilver and sleek with that old ball. He was all pro for a minute. His sneaker ads, with a purgatorial, pre A-list Chris Rock rivalled any of the Jordan ads.. and as for the shoes..no one expected the first penny to do as well as it did. but along with Sprite, Scream II and the Lost Boys, they killed it. Everyone was balling in Penny’s. That’s just what it was.

But this was all window dressing compared to the Foamposite, the Penny One. It shut down the game. Legend (legend) has it that the Nike guys came in to his office/pool house with a hundred models, each a different peak of Nike footwear technology. “oh this thing? it weighs half a pound, cools your feet while you dunk and is designed after the dinner wing of the Taj Mahal. We call it the Air Uttar;” “Hey now Deon, this is a low top, but there is a quail feather sock liner that rises up to mid calf which the RAND corporation has proven prevents rolled ankles by 500% - it will roll Allan Houston’s ankles.” But out of either boredom or sheer insouisance he did not like any of these, taking the last “oh these? I forgot to throw them out on the way here” shoes from the lot. The shoes that looked like the jail cell in Demolition Man. I’d say that I’m not good enough a writer to describe this shoe (the only one I trust to capture this heat unit would be late James Joyce) but in reality I just havent been in enough wind tunnels or kept up with the Sloane-Kettering Memorial Institute’s research initiatives as much as I should.

The ones without the swoosh are better than the regular foamposites, and the lightning ones, which I believe got reissued, or are going to, are equal fire. These shoes look VERY weird on my feet, but it might have just been my Levi’s.

Just look at, and click on, the pics. This shoe - they destroyed the mould* - is a triumph of whimsy and fire. This shoe is legend because it was picked on a lark, was the last one in the pile, and has spanked every non-bron pro hoops shoe that came out since (one love to J Kidd) it came out. Penny, meanwhile, is kind of a punch line now. No one remembers how unreal he was. He could have ran the league if not for injuries. Playing through the early part of this decade, he has nonetheless fallen on lean times, none leaner than his return to the Heat, with Shaq, as #7.

click here:

*i should mention that somehow, the mould was either dug up or pieced back together from the million tiny pieces it used to be in and the shoe was retroed a few times last year. at the exact same price point that the originals go for. legend.