story

"Hi friends. My name is Nicky Nieves, and I'm over here at Overtown Optimist Club in Miami, Florida."

"SNKRS just dropped me off a box and I'm so excited to see what's inside. Let's go check it out. Let's see what inside. Let's put this here. With a cute card..."

"...cute box. A pair of new Go FlyEase all black. I like the little hints of color on it. Let's try these on, shall we?"

"It's easy. I can literally stick my foot in and go. I love it. Just because everything is super sleek and compact. There's no laces on it, so it makes it easy to get on and make it easy to get off. Also, it's a sneaker that has adaptive community in mind..."

"...because it just makes it easy for me to be ready to go on the go, to switch your sneaker when it needs to be switched and feel comfortable in it. I don't feel like I'm falling out. I don't feel like it's loose."

"I feel like it's tight and it's snug. And it allows me to perform at my best ability as an adaptive athlete. Sports creates community and family for a lot of individuals that don't have that."

"It wasn't until I started playing sitting volleyball, where I really felt like I found my community. I found other athletes that were just like me who were also adaptive, who also so faced some of the same struggles of not feeling good enough..."

"...who also had my same thought process, had my same battles, and not only in the sports realm, just in life. Okay, so we just finished discussing how I think community is super, super important..."

"...and SNKRS just dropped off an extra pair for me to gift. So I'm going to go gift it over to my really good friend, Ieshia at Overtown Optimist Club."

"Hello. I got here today, a little fairy dropped me off. Yes? Called SNKRS. And they gifted me a pair and they told me I could gift one."

"So I thought about you because I know how important it is for community, inclusivity, and outreach. And what better person than you? I thought it would be really important if you talked about the role of Overtown Optimist Club."

"The work of the Overtown Optimist Club has been going on for almost 30 years. The role of our organization is to increase the access opportunity and inclusion for kids that may not have the socioeconomic status to be able to do so."

"So that means braiding our funding streams to make sure that kids don't have to worry about paying for sports. What I really want the community to achieve is..."

"...just breaking down this stigma of, 'Okay, if you need more access, if you need more resource, you're less than.' How do we make it so that we're all succeeding?"

"A lot of times people look at it as a pie instead of just something that's never ending. So, just because you're giving a slice of the pie to somebody else so they can have the same equal opportunity as you..."

"...doesn't mean that there's less then for you. It just means that you're spreading the wealth. My vision for this community is almost identical to what you said. We want to create an environment..."

"...if someone is lacking, others fill that lack. It should be that there is a call to action for our community because there are folks without food or folks without access."

"When you say the normative inclusion, I really want it to be everybody. I love everything you stand for. I love talking to like-minded individuals. I just hope that the rest of the year goes smoothly and that all of our dreams come true for the community."

"Thanks for watching this episode of SNKRS, The Drop-Off over here at Overtown Optimist Club, Miami, Florida. I'm Nicky Nieves, and I will catch you guys a little later."

The Drop Off

Nicky Nieves & GO FlyEase