IllanDude, I’ve been crazy about sneakers since I was a kid. Not just sneakers, it started out with soccer cleats, and then it moved on to sneakers. I think it was because when you are in school and you have your uniform on, the only thing that sets you apart from the rest is your sneakers. So I always wanted to have like the dopest sneakers, even the really hyped ones sometimes.

IlanExactly! People judge you by your sneakers (laughs). It sucks when you put it like that, but if a person stands in front of you, she’s gonna size you up starting from your sneakers and then she goes up.

ilanI woke up early to buy these sneakers. In theory it was the first line for a release here in Brazil, and there were a lot of people, me and another guy (laughs). Back then sneaker culture in Brazil was only beginning, everything we have today, we didn’t have back then, like the Air Max day that’s happening right now with all these releases. Back then the Infrared was out, and only who was in the sneaker game knew about it, and went after it.

ilanIt’s really cool how sneakers helps you to make friends, I met Marcelo at this line and we’ve been friends ever since, and Ricardo from SneakersBR, who back then was just starting his website, when there was nothing about sneaker culture. So we became a group of friends, and that group started to grow alongside the sneaker culture. With people being more and more into sneakers , it became what it is today. Something natural that took its proportion way beyond what we could have imagined.