Kick out of the box // 1968, standing in my B-boy stance

Ik zal maar meteen met de deur in huis vallen… Hallo allemaal, Ik ben Gwen en ik ben verslaafd. Ah dat lucht op! Naast een sneaker addict ben ik ook nog eens een sneaker journalist! Via mijn blog www.kickoutofthebox.com vertel ik mijn eigen sneakerverhalen en sneakerliefde en die van velen andere sneakerheads van over de hele wereld. Sneakerjagers is ook een groot voorstander van het delen van sneakerliefde, dus vanaf nu kunnen jullie de komende weken weer elke vrijdag genieten van één van mijn blogposts op sneakerjagers.nl.

Wij Nederlanders zijn een heel werelds volk, dus dat de posts in het Engels zijn is vast geen probleem! Mocht het toch niet helemaal lukken is er een dikke vriend die je vast wel wil helpen… dan ga je gewoon voor quality time met mr. van Dalen.

Deze week neem ik jullie mee terug in de tijd. Tussen al het hype geweld van tegenwoordig kan een beetje cultural history op z’n tijd geen kwaad. Ik vertel jullie een sneakerstory over 1 van mijn lievelingsparen. Zo underrated, maar oh zo belangrijk voor de cultuur.

So imagine… me sitting in a traffic jam trying to get to Amsterdam, because I just HAVE TO pick up this one pair in person. On November 18th last year after work I thought I’d quickly drive to Sunika Amsterdam to go and get that special non-hyped pair of kicks I really desperately needed. The moment I got to the highway I saw that I was headed for a traffic jam. I could’ve turned around, but I was too excited to go get my precious Puma Suede B-boy. These kicks have been around since ’68. B-boys from all over the world danced in them. And now with those gold accents on that red suede… Oh boy! I’m always talking about that old school feel and I tend to romanticize “those good old days” and now finally I’d seen this pair that screams old school Hip Hop and B-boying. The one pair that represents where it all started! When I saw these, I nearly lost it. You can imagine that I just didn’t have it in me to turn around and I thought “How long can this traffic jam really be, I mean okay so I’ll have a little bit of a delay”. At first it was all fun and games, listening to some old school b-boy beats and checking out cars… 30 minutes later I started to feel a wee bit annoyed… 45 minutes later I suddenly realized that Sunika would’t be open forever and I might just miss the chance to get my kicks today. That was when irritation turned into full blown anger. I literally jelled at other motorists who happened to get in my way. I even had a little bit of a fight (in sign language) with one guy who thought it was funny to cut in on me, I kid you not. But then I remembered what I was picking up… I was picking up a pair of kicks which represent the start of Hip Hop…. Peace, Unity, Love and having Fun. I decided to let him go and turned my focus back to getting to Sunika.

2,5 hours later I finally arrived at Sunika Amsterdam and I can honestly tell you that I’ve never felt this much love for a pair of kicks. I obviously already knew that I wanted them, but when I saw them on feet I completely fell in love. They are exactly what I envision when I think of the late 60’s, early 70’s. Turntablists spinning those records, MC’s spitting those rhymes, B-boys dancing the night away and all of that still pure and untouched by the mainstream… Let’s all take a moment to think about the origin of it all and use that knowledge the next time we charge each other ridiculous resell prices. And even more important… let’s educate the next generations about this beautiful and meaningful heritage and stop the sneakerculture from turning into a hyped, fully commercial, empty ruin.