I started out with Vans, I really liked wearing them when I was at school and it was very hard to find them here in Curitiba; my first one was an all-white Era, I wore them so much I really tore them up, I have till today with a whole right on the toe. So I always had a relationship with sneakers, I not sure if it was about the comfort or just for the looks, but in high school, everybody made fun of me because I only wore sneakers, it was a rich kid school so there was the whole thing about sneakers being a boy thing. Now all of them are wearing sneakers because everybody is wearing them (laughs). It’s good they are at a high moment because we get access to buy it, when in Brazil would you be able to buy a Nike x Supreme online?

On the long-awaited release day, we went early in the morning to the Air Max house at Paulista Avenue, and I was initially the fourth person in the line to get the password, but we knew there was a possibility that the line wasn’t going to be there. Hours went by and in the afternoon there were around 70 people waiting in line – being that there were only 38 pairs in São Paulo. We waited there the whole day under the rain, but the cool part was that I met a lot of cool people, so on that side, it was really worth it.

When it was 17:05 they announced that the place to get the password was at the House Of Bubbles in Pinheiros. I didn’t know how far that was so we took an Uber. When we got there, a lot of people were already in the line, and I mean, a lot of people. That was kinda weird because all the people that were in line with us at the Air Max house arrived basically at the same time or just a few minutes later, but besides all those people that were with us, there were some people already in line that came out of nowhere.

That was when I broke down and started to cry. All I could think was “I’m not going to be able to get it” and I was super nervous, under pouring rain, during all that running around I lost my friends umbrella, but anyway. People were moved that I had come all the way from Curitiba and they insisted that I at least tried, so I got the number 96 or something, and it was 100 passwords for 38 pairs. I don’t even know why they make all these passwords it doesn’t make any sense. We went to Guadalupe and everybody tried to work something out with the people in line so they could maybe at least get a pair for me, that had come all this way, but in the end, it didn’t work out.

I asked a contact of mine if he could get me the sneaker, but for the price, I was willing to pay, he could only get me a size 12US and I’m a size 7.5US. I didn’t know what to do, and at this point, it was already midnight, so I texted a friend from Rio de Janeiro asking if he could switch a size 12US for an 8US and he said yes. So that was it, I waited till 10 in the morning, got the sneaker with my contact, then I had to send the sneaker to Rio and pay for the shipping of the pair that was coming from Rio to São Paulo, I paid both shippings with insurance, it was quite a bit of money that I spent. It was all worth it because I have them on right here and that’s what matters. I really wanted this sneaker, I went to São Paulo just to get it, there was no way I was going to leave without it.

And it sucks because this password thing was supposed to work, having everyone running to someplace no one knows where it is, but whoever has inside information will always get there first and get it, there is nothing that can be done, having contacts is everything.