Sneakerhead job board: Work for Yeezy at the ranch in Cody

Just putting up a quick post since we have some footwear designers who follow the blog. If anyone is interested there’s a job opening over at adidas for a Design Director role with Yeezy in Cody, WY.

DESIGN DIRECTOR FOOTWEAR - YEEZY CODY

The full job description is below and you can apply over at adidas here:

DESIGN DIRECTOR FOOTWEAR - YEEZY CODY

PURPOSE & OVERALL RELEVANCE FOR THE ORGANIZATION:

Create industry leading advanced design solutions that provide seasonal design direction. Lead and establish team and direction of designs provided by the Senior Design Director. Maintain and nurture the design, material and color direction with the Design team, Development, Marketing and the consumer. Influence wider horizontal design teams developing seasonal Brand initiatives across key categories based on direction given by Senior Design Director.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Develop the seasonal Direction of the Design according to market trends as well as overall Design Direction and ensure consistency though products and ranges

Be at a global forefront of design trends and innovation as well as their application

Steer and drive the conceptualization process

Manage a team towards objectives and implement process changes

Steer and coach team members and their creative processes and drive development of direct reports.

Inspire and motivate teams to pursue cutting edge ideas that are innovative and original in the market, by researching functional criteria for product and product concepts and outlining area of innovation

Work closely with category and Future design to drive seamless collaboration.

Ensure the correct execution of Corporate Identity guidelines and against legal restrictions within the category.

Verbally present strategies with clarity and expertise.

Disseminate Design Strategy into design team and x-functional teams

Create professional level presentations of ideas; from loose sketch to detailed renderings to Digital Presentation

Ensure efficient processes and communication between external and internal teams

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

Profound knowledge of fashion product and fashion design/industrial product or industrial design

Innovative and collaborative leader and coach

Excellent communication skills

Strong influencing skills

High level of initiative & maturity

Ability to inspire, think creatively and strategically as well as to act tactically

Problem solving attitude & can-do personality

Knowledge and use of Macintosh computer design software/systems (Photoshop, Illustrator)

Fluent in English (spoken and written)

REQUISITE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE / MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor degree (B.A.) from four-year college or university in a relevant Design subject or equivalent combination of education and experience

Minimum of 8 years practical experience in a relevant area

Minimum of 3 years of management including team leadership

AT ADIDAS WE HAVE A WINNING CULTURE. BUT TO WIN, PHYSICAL POWER IS NOT ENOUGH. JUST LIKE ATHLETES OUR EMPLOYEES NEED MENTAL STRENGTH IN THEIR GAME. WE FOSTER THE ATHLETE‘S MINDSET THROUGH A SET OF BEHAVIORS THAT WE WANT TO ENABLE AND DEVELOP IN OUR PEOPLE AND THAT ARE AT THE CORE OF OUR UNIQUE COMPANY CULTURE – THE 3CS: CONFIDENCE, COLLABORATION AND CREATIVITY.

CONFIDENCE allows athletes to make quick decisions on the field, to reach higher. For us at adidas confidence means acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers. But we are willing to take risks, we try new things. And if we fail, then this is part of our learning – it helps us improve.

COLLABORATION. Every elite athlete relies on partners: coaches, teammates, and nutritionists. We, too, know that we are stronger together. Winning as one team takes open and candid dialogue, inclusiveness and trust in each other’s abilities and talents.

Being the best sports company in the world takes CREATIVITY. No great athlete succeeds by copying their predecessors’ training plans and strategies. We have to be open to new ideas, explore, gain an edge and stand out. Only then can we succeed.

ADIDAS CELEBRATES DIVERSITY, SUPPORTS INCLUSIVENESS AND ENCOURAGES INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSION IN OUR WORKPLACE. WE DO NOT TOLERATE THE HARASSMENT OR DISCRIMINATION TOWARD ANY OF OUR APPLICANTS OR EMPLOYEES. WE ARE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.

Vintage sneaker repair and restoration - Sears The Winner retro runners

It’s been awhile since I posted a vintage sneaker repair here on the blog but today we’ve got a good one. This was a restoration project to see if I could revive these old 4 stripe yellow and black 1977 Sears The Winner retro running shoes. These sneakers were in maybe the worst condition of any vintage pair I have ever seen or owned. The soles were worn through the rubber and down to the foam, they had paint on them and were dirty as hell. It took a couple of hours of cleaning before I shipped them to our Instagram buddy and skilled cobbler craftsman @vintage_trainer_repairs68 over in the UK who fixed the worn, warped and brittle soles.

Before I post the photos of how gnarly these sneakers were here’s what they looked like after the midsole and repair. They came out great.

This is what they looked like prior to the repair. They were all jacked up with brittle, bent and warped soles. FUBAR…

The midsole had been worn all the way through the rubber. Damn.

Due to the level of grime on these shoes I went hard at them with detergent using an old toothbrush to clean the nylon and suede. I don’t usually recommend doing this with vintage sneakers but this case needed the next level of cleaning so I threw them in the washer machine. (Don’t try that at home if you care about your old school sneakers. Instead I recommend taking them to Jason Markk for cleaning.)

Here are some photos of the cleaning process. I removed the laces and let them soak in a mixture of water and detergent then I threw them into the washer machine with the sneakers. The washer machine removed a lot of the soot and brought out the color when they sun dried...

Here’s a before and after photo..

Before and after vintage sneaker repair @ The Deffest

If you have any pairs of vintage kicks that you want to get repaired I highly recommend checking in with @vintage_trainer_repairs68 over on Instagram. Tell him The Deffest sent you. 😎

John Lennon Revolution sneakers and the adidas SL72

We've covered a decent amount of bootleg sneakers on this blog but I am wondering if there are any adidas aficionados that knows the story behind these John Lennon 'Revolution' sneakers? They look like re-branded Adidas SL 72's. This "collab" came out around 2010ish (I think) and is a little weird because John Lennon wore a lot of Stan Smith sneakers and I haven't found one photo of him in SL 72s. These were for sale over at Amazon but are sold out. Bummer.

John-Lennon-adidas-SL72.jpg

The Sports Shoe: A History from Field to Fashion by Thomas Turner

This post is a quick shout out and plug for friend of the blog and fellow sneaker historian @thomas_a_turner. I recently picked up his book The Sports Shoe: A History from Field to Fashion off of Amazon and it is excellent. The book contains a ton of highly detailed information, some great vintage ads and covers all eras of sport shoes and sneakers throughout the decades. The book starts out in the late 1800’s Victorian era and travels through time as athletic footwear evolved for sports and fashion, including skate sneakers, hip hop and NBA Basketball. I highly recommend checking it out if anyone is interested.

Ultra Rare Nike Air Jordan Auction fetches $615,000 at Christie's

From BBC News

“A pair of trainers worn by basketball legend Michael Jordan fetched $615,000 (£460,000) at an online auction on Thursday. The Nike Air Jordan 1 High sneakers, described as the "rarest of the rare", were used by the Chicago Bulls star in an exhibition game in 1985. “

Well done Christie’s.

Ultra Rare Christies Nike Air Jordan Auction fetches $615,000 @ The Deffest

Four Stripe Legends: Neil Young

I saw a conversation on twitter discussing what model of sneakers Neil Young is wearing on the back cover of the "Rust Never Sleeps" album art. It's hard to tell what brand this is because of the photography and surplus of 4 stripe sneaker brands from around that time. Some of the 4 stripe sneaker brands included Kinney NBA, Sears The Winner, Kmart Trax, Lacrosse, Jet brand, Bob Wolf and many, many more.

Supreme

We usually stick with sneakers but we’re going off script with this one... check out this awesome little old lady on the news rocking her supreme hat and face mask. 👵 😷 👊 Glad to see streetwear embraced by the elders.

Shout out to Shelly for passing this photo along and asefacevintage for ID’ing the woman in the photo as Lili Hayes!

Supreme hat Los Angeles  @ The Deffest

UPDATE:

Our original post on Instagram got re-grammed a bunch of times which then spurred this awesome artwork by the folks bringing you #Brightmares over @alexpardee. Check it out!

Artwork image credit to AlexPardee.com

Artwork image credit to AlexPardee.com

New Balance MS327LAA retro runners

A couple of days ago we posted a 1982 ad for NB. Today I wanted to share a post that our buddy @trainer.spotting spotted out in the wild and passed along recently. Thanks man.

New Balance sneaker designer @charlottealee found design inspiration based on some of the NB models in the vintage 355 and SuperComp ads we've posted here on the blog to come up with a whole new hybrid model of New Balance runner called the MS327LAA. Check em out 👇

Sotheby's & Stadium Goods auction 100 of the World's Rarest Sneakers

UPDATE 7/23/2019: These vintage Nike waffle sneakers sold for $437,500 today.

If anyone has $80,000 - $160,000 laying around Stadium Goods just posted the 100 'Worlds Most Rarest' sneakers up for auction at Sotheby's. Part of this auction is the 1972 Olympic trials handmade Nike waffle racing flat moon shoes.

April Fools

APRIL FOOLS. (We got’cha)

Thanks to everyone who dropped by to check out Jordanified.com. 🔥👟👀 For those that missed it yesterday the April fools day prank concept was simple.... to turn every pair of available of Nike sneakers into "Jordans" for the 35th anniversary of Michael Jordan’s signing. The site is meant to be a satire on the never ending Jordan / Kobe / LeBron G.O.A.T. debate and we had a lot of fun making it.

To make it work we painstakingly re-colored every shoe in the Air Jordan 1 retro colorways using the NIKEiD tool, including LeBron, Kobe, Kyrie, Paul George and Kevin Durant's shoes, numbering them all 23 and renaming them as "Air." If you want to see our handy work the link above will take you there and as a side note if any of you want to buy the Jordanified "AIR" sneakers they are for sale at Nike's website. Shout out to Nike for the NikeID tool - this is a really awesome resource. No sneakers were harmed during the making of this prank and there can only be one G.O.A.T. 🐐

UPDATE: Jordanified.com no longer exists but you can still see the collection here on Pinterest.

APRIL FOOLS - Nike "Air Cortez" prank at Jordanified.com

Jordanified.com.... the G.O.A.T. debate is over

It looks like this Jordan / Kobe / Lebron “Greatest Of All Time” debate just got settled once and for all. If you have any friends that are Air Jordan fans you may want to have them check out the killer Nike sneaker collection over at Jordanified.com. These Air Cortez are kinda 🔥🔥🔥

Jordanified.com: There can only be one GOAT
Nike Air Cortez at Jordanified.com