Andre
Frazier: For the Love of Sneakers
By: Danielle Townley
Picture this, a
little kid sitting in the living room and watching his brother walk inside the
house day after day. Now focus on what the brother is wearing. What about his
outfit are you drawn too? Maybe his shirt or his pants or maybe even his hair.
For the young Andre Frazier, the focus was on the shoes his brother wore.
Wearing a different pair of sneakers every single time that he walked inside
the house allowed Andre to discover his love for sneakers which evidently gave
him the opportunity to express his passion for shoes in the sneaker community.
For
young Andre Frazier, buying the most extravagant shoe out on the market was not
always the case. While growing up his father was struggling between jobs which
only allowed him to get the shoes that he needed for school and that he could
wear every day to make ends meet.
“My dad was
struggling in between jobs so I could go get shoes but not the ones my brother
had” he explained.
While his brother
was a few years older than him, he had the jobs that gave him the money to be
able to buy the shoes that he wanted. Whether it be an everyday shoe or even a
nicer pair that he wore every once in a while.
“He had a different pair of shoes every time I
saw him” Andre exclaimed with big eyes and jaw dropped.
Looking forward
into his life, we can see that Andre had one other influence for his love of
the sneaker community, Joe Haden, corner back for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Haden who is also
a sneaker enthusiast, signed an endorsement deal with Jordan back in early 2015
(Richard). Seeing the new Jordan athlete through the internet, Andre came
across a YouTube video of Haden displaying his shoe closet.
“It made me so
jealous” he said. “The closet was at least 3 times the size of my room which
made me want to find a way to get super rich, super quick.” He said laughingly.
That’s exactly
what Andre did. Once he got to the age of being able to get a job, he did. As
of now Andre works at Premiere Volvo washing cars for $12 an hour.
“It’s super easy”
he said laughingly. “When it’s cold, I sit there and get paid to stay warm.”
This job allows
Andre to get the shoes that he wants without having to worry about who or how
he’s going to buy them(Sajonas). When it comes to the community that Andre
belongs to, we can see that there’s a bad rep to some people that are a part of
this.
“When I first got
into it I would see videos on Twitter or Instagram of people giving others shoes
because they were made fun or didn’t have the money to get the cool shoes.” He
explained. “You would also see the videos of people stealing the shoes because
they wanted them.”
Andre was never
the type to go out and steal the shoes because he worked for the stuff he
wanted and had the patients to wait for the shoes he wanted.
With this being said, the only worry that
Andre really has is finding shoes that fit him.
“I get most of my
shoes online because not every store carries a size 14 shoe.” he said with a
smirk.
When buying his
shoes, he looks on well-known store’s websites but if all else fails he goes to
what is called “Fight Club” which is an online shoe store that always has his
shoe size.
“If all else fails
I buy my shoes off of Fight Club but they always tax the crap out of you” he
says frustrated.
Since it is so
hard to find shoes that fit him, he makes sure to take care of them. Therefore,
when it comes to taking care of his shoes Andre has a process that he goes
through and specific items that he uses to clean them.
“I probably have 3
different sneaker cleaners and different brushes to clean them with” he
explains.
Andre explains all
of the different items that he has to clean the shoes with. Some of these items
are toothbrushes that are designated to shoe cleaning and different sprays that
you can use to get stains out of the shoes I have.
“If I sit there
and clean one pair of shoes than I’ll probably clean them all” he said smiling.
Cleaning all the
shoes that Andre has can take up to an hour or two.
Looking at his
collection, Andre has about thirty pairs of shoes that he rotates through. Brands
such as Jordan’s or Nike’s are the main shoes that he buys and wears. Most of
these shoes are more comfortable shoes that he bought but then there are some
that he has bought that do not necessarily go with any of the clothes that he
has.
“I just bought a
pair of shoes last month that are pink for $400 and I don’t have any pink
clothes so I have to go find something” he said jokingly. “It was stupid but I
had never seen anybody with them and I wanted to be different”.
Having shoes that
stood out and were at the top of the list started to become a priority when
Andre went through his sophomore and junior year of high school.
“That’s when it
started to matter because if you wore a bad shoe than people would start
clownin you” he said seriously.
Throughout high
school, Andre had a lot of friends but what was surprising is he did not make
any of these friends through the shoe community.
“My best friend
and I have been friends for around 15 years now who is starting out but doesn’t
look the best but he’ll get there soon!”
As Andre looks
into the future of his shoe community, he does not necessarily want a job in
the shoe industry but “if one comes up, I’ll probably take it”.
Andre is
definitely a family person and when asked about if his kids will be in the shoe
community automatically he answered confidently.
“I’m not going to
try and make my kids get into this community” he said. “If I have a kid, then
they’ll definitely love shoes if they see daddy has nice shoes.”
With his shoe
collection growing, so is his love for quality but comfortable sneakers. Andre
has come a long way since the numerous times he watched his brother walk in
with new shoes; now every time his brother sees him, he has the new pair of
shoes on.
Bibliography
Richard, Brandon. “Jordan Brand Just Signed One
of the NFL's Biggest Sneakerheads.” Sole
Collector, Sole Collector, 20 Oct. 2016,
solecollector.com/news/2015/07/jordan-brand-
signs-joe-haden.
Sajonas, Felson. “This Is How the Sneaker
Community Continues to Inspire Others.” HYPEBEAST,
28 Sept.
2016, hypebeast.com/2016/9/inspiring-sneaker-stories.
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