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You’re GQ, you’re gonna do all of the cool stuff.
I don’t know why I’m doing that.
You’re gonna have footage where it does that and stuff,
and I’m here…
I’m sorry. [beep]
Hi, GQ, I’m Will Poulter, this is My Life in Sneakers.
[mellow music]
My passion for sneakers,
I guess it started in a kind of multifaceted way.
I have an older brother called Ed
who has always been cooler than me,
and I was always just kind of chasing
what my brother was wearing and doing,
and he was always really into his Nike sneakers, you know,
more than anything else.
And then I think it was also influenced
by the music I was listening to.
So a lot of UK and US hip hop, white Air Force 1s
that I guess I associated with US hiphop.
Air Max 95s and 97s that I more kind of
associated with UK hiphop.
One of my favorite shows growing up as a kid
was Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,
and I don’t think a character has ever had
a better array of sneakers than Will in The Fresh Prince.
The sneaker culture around me was very much like informed
by playing football in the street,
and then when it came to like wearing sort of a formal shoe,
to me that was just like an all white Air Force 1.
The first Nike that I would’ve bought for the purpose
of like not playing football
and like wearing, and like protecting, and taking care of
was probably an Air Max 1.
I wanna say it was like orange and red with white.
It was quite out there, Like more out there
than maybe I am these days with some of my shoes.
You know, I have a Jordan 1 called Jordan 1 Chicagos,
I bought them in Chicago with my friend Julian Sergi.
They’re a shoe that I associate with all the times
that we’ve spent eating food together
and going sneaker shopping.
And every time I wear them I think of him.
I tried for the longest time to find a Jordan 6 Infrared,
and I wanted to get it
because I went to see Watch the Throne live
and Jay-Z was wearing a Jordan 6 Infrared
and I thought it was the coolest shoe I’ve ever seen.
It’s probably one of my favorite shoes of all time.
This is before like reselling days,
before it was all available online as easily as it is now,
you had to kind of go physically crate digging for it.
I don’t really have a connect for sneakers,
like Nike have always been incredibly good to me.
I’m my own plug, so if you’re watching this
and you are a sneaker connect, gimme a shout.
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This is probably the most sentimental shoe that I have,
a Nike Air Force 1 Detroit film and El Cappy.
El Cappy is an amazing artist in Detroit
and I did a film called Detroit
and they designed this shoe for me and my castmates
and it’s just so special.
It’s something I’d never wear,
I keep this one in a perspex box,
kind of see it more as a piece of art.
There’s like a mural, if you like, of the Detroit Rebellion
on the outside of the shoe
and then Detroit kind of across the toe.
I just love it so much.
I’m really proud to be a part of the movie,
and this is a really lovely bit of memorabilia
that I have from that experience.
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These are the Nike Air Max 1 OG Anniversary Edition.
These shoes right here are going in the classics category.
These are a little bit worn, these have had some wear.
Oh there’s a scuff right there, it’s doing my head in.
I wore these to Tinie Tempah’s What We Wear show
in London, I believe it was their first showing.
And Nike actually gave me these shoes
to celebrate Air Max Day.
I find Air Max 1s just like really wearable,
can kind of dress ’em up, dress ’em down.
I’ll often wear these with a jean, like a blue jean.
But then really any kind of like blue trouser or pant,
depending on what side of the Atlantic you’re on.
I’ve started saying pants
and my London mates get onto me for that.
I mean, don’t wear your underwear in these, necessarily.
Well, or do, I don’t know, do whatever you wanna do.
I don’t do that personally, but yeah,
a jean or a blue trouser is how I tend to wear these.
I love these shoes.
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This is the Nike SB Dunk High Momofuku shoe.
I’m putting this in the special collaboration category.
Momofuku is my favorite restaurant chain in the world,
it’s headed up by the amazing David Chang.
I didn’t even know they created this shoe
and my brother bought it for me one Christmas.
It’s not in my size, so it is purely a display shoe.
It’s really nice to have like kind of two of my passions
which are food and shoes combined.
And they’re made outta cake so you can eat them.
No, you can’t eat them.
Never been worn, so they’re lickable.
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Talented designer category.
These have some real sentimental value to me.
I wore these red Louis Vuitton sneakers
to the Kim Jones Louis Vuitton Supreme show in Paris.
So it’s really cool to see, you know, a collaboration
between a a giant in streetwear
and a giant fashion house like Louis Vuitton.
These are the Nike Air Max 360 High designed by Kim Jones.
And you’ll notice that Kim Jones is in the kind
of traditional Nike font there.
It’s the first time they ever allowed that to happen.
I just think Kim’s such a talented designer
and he’s done some really special things with Nike.
And it’s got, yeah, a little Nike smiley face,
which is kinda cool too.
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These are the NikeCraft Tom Sachs shoes.
This probably goes into the best gift category.
These were given to me by my agent Andrew.
It was around the time of my 30th birthday,
but I think it was like a end of year
kind of Christmas present type thing.
Incredibly thoughtful of him, he’s a sneakerhead as well.
These have actually never been worn,
only got ’em a couple of months ago.
I don’t even know if I will wear them.
When you’ve got gum sole and then also this bit of black,
it is tempting to wear them.
If they were like a paler tone or like white at the bottom.
They’re not getting worn, I’m too scared.
But that is encouraging.
There’s a little bit of guard there,
do you know what I mean?
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I think these shoes go in the legendary category.
I don’t know what they’re worth.
[Interviewer] They’re around $2,600.
Are they really?
[Interviewer] Will you sell them though?
No, I’m not selling them, for love nor money.
They’re from The Ten Collection designed by Virgil Abloh
between Off-White and Nike, the classic Air Force 1
but deconstructed in the way that, you know,
is so kind of iconic with Virgil.
They are in a case, safe and sound.
I did wear them once or maybe twice.
I don’t anymore and won’t, I don’t think.
I think the Air Force 1 is probably my favorite silhouette
for a Nike shoe, everything about its structure
and its layout is kind of perfect,
and it’s just like the ultimate sneaker really.
I love these shoes so much.
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If there’s one shoe that I really do want
it’s the Jordan 4 Sail that Virgil Abloh designed,
and he actually made a number of pairs available at auction
to raise money for The Black Curriculum,
which is an amazing organization.
An organization that Virgil was an ambassador of.
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[Interviewer] I want you to grab your top five
that you have here now.
Okay.
Try these here, this one, Virg.
Cool.
I’ll do the Kims.
[Interviewer] Now you need to take away two.
What?
Two have gotta go.
[Will groans]
That’s going just for now.
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[shoe image buzzes]
Oh, I feel awful.
This is not fun.
[shoe image buzzes]
I think these are my top three right here.
[Interviewer] Now take one out.
Oh my god.
[playful music continues]
Now I’ve got like a pair, two right feet.
[Interviewer] All right, and now final one out.
[shoe image buzzes]
This one right here, my number one.
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What is next for me on my shoe journey?
Add to my collection of 1s a little bit,
’cause I love Jordan 1s.
My collection’s pretty big
but I tried to kind of consolidate it a little bit recently
and I built a [laughs]
this is the nerdiest thing I’ve ever done,
custom made a shelving unit for my shoes.
I thought I’d ordered it pre-built
and then just a bunch of like wooden tiles showed up
and then I had to kind of build it.
Now it’s kind of maybe my favorite piece
of like furniture in my house
because it houses my favorite things, which are my shoes.
GQ, thank you so much.
Thank you for watching this,
thank you for letting me do this, it was so cool.
Take care.
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