story

The amount of doubt that people have had towards me and the amount of sacrifices I've made to be here. I think the shoe is just my validation. The hard work pays off. Here you go.

The reason why the store is called Better, we really want to encourage people to be the best versions of themselves, and that's a huge part of it too. When you have that mantra in your life, this right here is the mantra that every day is going to be better. 

A lot of the discovery of the shoe is like early 2000's basketball stuff or mid 90's running, and we picked up off of a lot of those cues, the 3M moment on the 97...

...or then looking at an Air Max 2001 and being like, yo, this is what triggered this multi bubble moment. When I saw that shoe, I was like, yo, this feels like we're in the future. 

There's something about the silhouette, the bubbles, the effects you can add to it, what you can do to laces. What we're trying to achieve with this is, do something that's going to be cool in five, 10 years from now.

The whole revenge theme in this shoe is crazy. I have kind of put up with so much nonsense over the past three years instead of being miserable about this. We use that as a keynote for the design. 

We channeled these aggressive and angry emotions into color and the patterns. It's good to have real authentic people around you that can keep you in line and in check, and we all share the same mindset.

I definitely hope this is more than anything a win for our city. Most people have this fictional belief that you have to leave the city to make it. You don't actually...

...I hope this encourages the next generation, or if you are persistent on what you're trying to achieve, it's going to happen. There's no ceilings because hard work pays off. That's a fact that I live by that every day.

Behind the Design

Better Gift Shop DN8