All-Star Sneakend Pt1: The Show

PART 1 of 6

I woke up friday morning with a splitting headache and giant sense of dread. You see, the night before we'd had the worst snow storm in the recorded history of Dallas (12.5") and several of the special guests for All-Star Sneakend at the House of Blues had their plane tickets cancelled as DFW airport shut completely down. I'd already seen first hand what the snow did to thursday night's turnout at the Nike + Sport Sole event [link] and I was afraid that (A) the special guests wouldn't make it, and (B) the audience wouldn't turn out.

Our flyers had billed four guests: DJ Clark Kent, DJ Greg Street, MAYOR, and Erin Patton. In addition, we were also expecting some unbilled guests: All Day, Feets Malone, Franalations, Kadoma, Phase 2, and Sole Supreme, along with several local area sneakerheads. Of course there was also all the local vendors--would they fight throgh the snow covered streets? When a show has that magnitude of guests displaying kicks and interacting with the audience, the $20 cover charge is well worth it--but what if the guests didn't show? Who'd wanna drive through a foot of snow and pay a cover charge to see nothing? Arrg! Now do you see why I woke up with a headache?

As it turned out, we had 3-of-4 billed guests and 5-of-6 unbilled guests arrive. Only DJ Clark Kent and All Day--both from NYC--weren't able to make it. Unfortunately, MAYOR was also coming in from NYC and while his plane wasn't cancelled, it was delayed, forcing him to take a cab straight from the airport to the House of Blues. He arrived about an hour late but DAMN what an entrance! Seriously, the entire crowd was bunched up around his table watching him pull sneakers outta his luggage and SLAM them on the table! BAM! Levis Bespoke set. BAM! Python set. BAM! Strawberry Quik Bespoke. BAM! Cut Up Clot. BAM! Sample Entourage. BAM! Digicamo. BAM! BAM! BAM! The crowd went wild! No shit, it was one of the most awesome things I've ever witnessed in sneakerdom!

Show attendees got to see some of the rarest, most exclusive sneakers in the world--things they've likely never laid their eyes on in person before. All of the guests were super approachable and seemed to have a great time. The vendor area was really cool, the DJ was spinning great hip hop, the raffle gave out huge prizes, and the on-stage Q&A session with the show guests was jam packed.

All in all, I'd say the event was very successful, even with all the snow.

Continue to Part 2 >>