Giada I fell in love with art when I was very little. When I started my school journey, I chose to study art. When I moved to Milan, I started working in the fashion industry, as art, fashion and design are my main fields of interest.

Elisa I have loved arts, creativity in general since I was a kid too. I have a Bachelor degree in Interior Design.

Elisa The central part of Italy is very provincial. Meaning that they don’t have much interest in creative stuff, and have very close minds for new things. Also, there’s not so much opportunity to work in our fields.

Giada The majority of the country is set up for tourism, or work linked to the tourism industry. Here in the north it’s the same, but in Milan, specifically, there’s a lot of companies and opportunities in the creative field. So it’s Milan where we have to be.

Giada We met here in some sneaker event. Back then there were few girls on the sneaker scene here in Milan.

Elisa I’ve been in love with all things sneakers since I was five, six years old. Also, I have a lot of male friends from my University that love sneakers, so for me it was very natural to be a part of it. 

Giada For me, it was the connection between streetwear and sneakers that made me join and be part of this community. I worked for a streetwear brand here in Milan and when I went to the events, I met people, I did networking about sneakers and then I started to love the culture behind the shoes.

When growing up in Padua, I didn’t have any friends who were interested in fashion. It’s a very historical and culturally rich city, but at the same time, people are very closed minded, and only wear and buy the same shoes every year: adidas Stan Smith or Nike Air Force 1. So in general, people have closed minds for streetwear as well.

When I was young, I was looking for a special pair of sneakers in a store, but my parents didn’t want me to buy it because they didn’t want to spend a lot of money on sneakers, and that kind of frustrated me. But when I was finally able to buy it myself, I started to collect them, and have my wardrobe, finally (laughs).

Giada Yes! My first was the Nike Air Max 97 ‘Silver Bullet’. I had a friend in my classroom that had it. I remember asking my mom to buy them, but she didn’t want to because they were too expensive. But I finally got them this year!

Elisa It’s funny because I also wanted that Air Max. I have a big family, all my cousins are older than me and almost all of them also had the Nike Air Max 97 Silver and the Gold one. I always wanted one but never had the opportunity to have one. But I also got mine this year! 

I also love the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66, the black with the yellow stripes. I had them, and I wore them all day, every day, until they fell apart.

Giada I think it’s funny that the Air Max 97 ‘Silver’ and the Air Jordan 1 ‘Bred’ are the only shoes we love in common, besides that, we have completely different tastes. I’m really into more like “strange” sneakers, with different structures and silhouettes, that look more like a piece of design than a sneaker to be worn. I like when they are connected to art and when it reminds me of a building structure, if that makes sense (laughs).

Elisa And I’m more into the classics and retro ones. I really connect with the stories, it always brings me a lot of memories – you know what you were doing the first time they caught your attention, the first time I saw them on the streets or on TV. And that’s why these classics resonate with me so much.

Elisa There was no project like In Her Kicks in Italy where two girls talked about sneakers from a women’s perspective, female sneaker designers, or the female sneaker world. This community of girls existed, we were very few, but there wasn’t a place for them to come together. So we decided to create this place.

Giada In Europe there’s a lot of communities for women, for example, in London there’s the Sneaker Sisterhood. And we were missing something like that here in Italy. When we went to events here in Milan, we felt that the brands didn’t care to connect women, to give us space to talk and participate. They only cared about talking about the male community. So we decided to create a place where we can share our thoughts and our sensibility, about our passion for sneakers.

Elisa Doing that we were surprised to find that there are many girls in Italy – not only in Milan – in the whole country that have the same interest in sneakers as we do.

Giada When you are in an event or a meeting with other male “sneakerheads”, they tell you that you’re not enough, or that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Before In Her Kicks, me and Elisa, we fought everyday for our personal spot in this community, so when we started the project, it was easier to introduce the project in the sneaker world, also in the male community. We have a lot of male followers, they join our meetings and stuff.

Elisa The brands in general are interested about marketing gender equality, so we did a lot of talks in the events. But it’s very hard to work with them here in Italy because in other European countries, they are more interested in the vision, the message, in your work, and so on. But here they are only looking for a lot of followers – it’s all about the numbers.

Giana It’s very important because, especially in Italy, when people see that you are being validated by brands, they are quick to support you. But if they see you are not “in the game”, they don’t follow you, so it was very important for the project to work for the big brands.

Elisa As creatives, we want to give brands our vision, just because we want more equality and inclusivity – and not only for marketing. We often feel that they love using the gender equality agenda to sell shoes, but in reality, it is the same old thing.

Giana Obviously, there are so many brands that are very interested in us and what we want to say about the sneaker culture, or they listen to our point of view; but some other brands are not interested in it at all.

Elisa In 2018, I used to work in a Sneaker and Streetwear magazine. We did an editorial for this shoe, for Jordan Brand. I was the photographer and also the interviewer. It was the first year that this shoe was released in smaller sizes – from kids, to women and men – the real retro, with the Nike Air and not the jumping man on the heel. And this shoe allowed me to go to Paris at the street basketball tournament – Quai 54, and there I got to meet Michael Jordan, and photographed him, the entire Jordan roster, and Spike Lee. That was very special and that’s why I love it so much. I’ve always loved the IV silhouette, it’s my favourite Jordan.

Giada This one is the collaboration between Nike and A-Cold-Wall* of Samuel Ross. I love this shoe because it’s the perfect representation of my love for sneakers – for me, this is a piece of design and it reminds me of the MAXXI museum in Rome, which is my favorite museum in Italy. I love art, design, architecture so I love the shoe mostly because of the silhouette and the materials. What’s interesting about this, is that the materials are made to ruin themselves in time. I love this kind of sense of ephemerality.

Usually, most of the sneakers we have today, have a TPU coating on it to protect them – and this one doesn’t have it. Even if you don’t wear it, the shoe is intentionally made so the upper will age and wear out faster than a regular shoe. I love this project because it reminds me of design, architecture and in a sort of way, life itself, because it’s made to ruin itself. I don’t know why this shoe reminds me of a lot of things, but they do. I’m in love with them.