Daniel Medeiros

Air Jordan 1 Retro ‘Royal’

10—02—2017 Photos by: Kickstory

Interview # 55

Daniel is a sneakerhead from Curitiba and in his own words “the game is my life nowadays” As walked through the center of Curitiba he told us how he got in the sneaker game, what was his first sneakers and the hustles he’s been through to be a part of this world. Besides that, he laced up his Air Jordan 1s for the first time just for our photoshoot!

“My name is Daniel, I’m 25 years old and I’ve been in the sneaker game around 10 years. I would watch basketball game over at my friend’s house, who had cable, and we would just sit there watching those guys play in those awesome sneakers. Later than I got to know some people that lived abroad and I got some contacts in the USA and that’s how I got in the game. So, then I started to work so I could buy my own sneakers because my mom couldn’t get them for me, actually, she used to give me some Qix or Plasmas, I had a bunch of Qix.

I was a complete maniac for sneakers, but today I was able to hold back a little bit because I realized it’s a disease (laughs). And it’s real hard because you can’t control yourself, you just become an over-consumer. One of these days I posted like 3 photos of sneakers and everybody was like “common dude more sneakers? You just can’t stop” and I’m like “I don’t stop, I just take breaks”. The good side to all this is the friendships, we meet a lot of awesome people. But that’s it, the game is my life nowadays”

Tell us how you started liking sneakers.

~~daniel~~My first sneakers from abroad were a pair of Adidas Superstars that I got from a dude that came from outside of the country – it was made out of some type of fabric and the stripes were gold. A year after I got my first Force, we would watch those guys wearing them on music videos and I wanted one too, but you couldn’t find them here because very few people liked sneakers at the time. That was when I met my friend and he knew how to buy sneakers on eBay and that’s how we started bringing sneakers here from abroad. Dude, it was cheap, we would pay R$250 on a pair of Jordans

Later on, I met some people from São Paulo we been in some groups for 4 years now. We researched and studied more about sneakers and their stories, and every day that goes by we learn more stuff, the game changes.

What’s your relationship with sneakers in general?

~~daniel~~I often relate sneaker with when I was a kid because back then you wanted a toy but couldn’t have it. Nowadays you can have whatever you want, and when I get what I wanted it’s really gratifying – you have to hustle to get them. Just like this Air Yeezy that I negotiated for years before the dude decided that he didn’t want them anymore and that he would sell them to me because he knew I wanted them so much. But when I try to explain to someone who doesn’t get the game, they think I’m crazy (laughs), I spend money on it because I like them and it’s good for me. When I’m sad what do I do? I got to the internet and start researching about sneaker, then I start to get better. Want to make me happy? Give me sneakers. Everybody that knows me knows that I’m crazy about sneakers, I’ve done some crazy stuff for it.

Like what?

~~daniel~~Like going to São Paulo, sleeping on the street, passing near Cracolândia. I know that there are people who’ve been through worse things than me, but I’ve done some stuff that even my mom got mad at me (laughs). I reserved a ticket to São Paulo with 2 months in advance, I was going also to meet a girl but I ended up not seeing her because I went after a sneaker and she got really mad at me. But my passion for sneaker is like that, it’s inexplicable.

What did you go through to get these sneakers?

~~daniel~~I knew this guy in Curitiba that had this sneaker from 2010, and since he was a size US9.5 he would send me some pairs and he sent me this one, but I wasn’t able to get them because they were too big for me. I told him I would even buy them just so I could have one, but I wanted one so I could use them.

One day rumors came up that they were going to release the OGs again this year and that it would finally drop in Curitiba! I wanted 6 people that would stay on the line and sleep in front of the store with me so I could get the sneakers, I asked an ex of mine but she didn’t want to. I got my backpack, beach chair, and I got there Friday at 11 am, people couldn’t believe what I was doing but I was the first in the line, I told everyone I was going to be the first. It was the first there was a line for a sneaker here in Curitiba that people slept on the street! We did it just like in São Paulo, because there if you don’t go after it, you’ll get nothing, it’s a big city and shit goes down. In the end, the Royal wasn’t that that hard to get because they had a lot of pairs in stock, but I do not care about that, for me the important thing is that I got the sneakers that I wanted so much.