story

Ayanna
@oooo_yaya
RSVP Gallery Store and Operations Manager
Chicago, IL

"I pretty much got into sneakers once I started playing basketball, which was probably about eighth or ninth grade. And I started off with a pair of LeBron's, it was the first pair of real basketball shoes I had."

"So from there it kind of, my passion for it, sneakers, just took off.
So these are the Aleali May women's Air Jordan 1 High 'Califia'. This shoe is really important to me just because of..."

"...RSVP Gallery's history with Aleali May and just how far she's come in the sneaker culture and fashion in general. And I really wanted to have a pair of her shoes for myself."

"And it's an Air Jordan High, which I love, the high top is my all time favorite. I love a high top shoe. So, my Off-White™ Prestos, these were actually white I was nervous when I first got them..."

"...like a lot of people who got this shoe, how am I going to keep this shoe ...white. And so I tried to wash them after one wear with bleach. And if you know how the shoe looked in the beginning, it had blue on the foam..."

"...and the bleach completely took the blue off the foam and so I was so nervous that I messed up the shoe. I decided to dip dye it, but before I dip dyed it I got a chance to meet Joshua Vides, and so he signed my shoe for me."

"And so after that I pretty much said, I'll just dip dye it let's see what happens. And then it came out like this and I had these cool funky shoe strings. I just got a whole nother shoe out of it, which was great."

"So these are my Martine Rose Nike Monarchs, I personally love this shoe. These are like number two in my collection. I wear these a lot."

"I really like the color way just because I can literally throw this on with any outfit. So these are my Nike Dunk Low 'Veneer', I just love the material and the colorway, the brown, the purple, the green, the tan shoe strings..."

"...colorblocking is just really dope to me and putting the material with the different colors. The styling possibiliites are really endless, just like with any Nike Dunk Low you can really do a lot with it."

"So these are my RSVP Air Force Ones, and they have personal significance to me. On the tongue we have the Chicago flag on the inside..."

"...just because born and raised in Chicago, it's just home for me. I just think everything about this shoe is just very..."

"...personal, very authentic and I'm just very fortunate to be able to own a pair. And as you can see, I wear my pair a lot. Thanks for watching I'm Ayanna, and this is What I Got."

What You Got

81 - Ayanna F.