Introduction
Tomas: Introduction of yourself. As an artist – as a sneakerhead.
Me: My name is Metsakutsu and I am a graphic designer on daytime and a hiphop musician, or a rapper if you wanna call it that, at night. Started with graffiti back in the days of ’97 and been unstoppable ever since. My music has transformed a lot during my career. At the moment I’d call it moderne, a bit popish bassful rapmusic. A lot of people wanna call me a sneakerhead, but I always say that I don’t consider myself as one. As a designer I just really enjoy the beauty, the details and the colorways of beautifully made shoes. Also i’m not very original in my choices – I like the Michael Jordan era sneakers and I keep it retro anywhere I can. At the moment at least.
Foto: Laska
Tomas: All time favourite sneaker. Maybe you have some cool story behind to share? Would be perfect if you would have some story from childhood.
Me: It’s really hard for me to pick an all time favorite shoe, but if I had to, probably Air Max 90 has a bigger piece of my heart than other models. As a silhouette it can’t get much more perfect. Also I like Air Jordan 4-s.
“A lot of people wanna call me a sneakerhead, but I always say that I don’t consider myself as one. I just really enjoy the beauty, the details and the colorways of beautifully made shoes.”
As a story from childhood, I remember we had a skateshop in Tallinn (Ski & Surfhouse), where me and my friends hung out a lot. We really liked the skaters shoes at the time, but they were all very expensive for a 10 year old kid. And I always liked the most expensive ones for some reason. So there was one pair that I really-really had to have. I didn’t have the courage to say to my parents that I wanted sneakers for 2000 krones. So I told my parents half of the price (witch was still pretty expensive) and the other half I collected from my everyday pocketmoney. It was a long road, but I got my sneaks.
Sneakers are coming more than ever
Foto: Laska
Tomas: Sneakers and Baltics. Estonian case – do you feel that sneaker culture is coming? Comments are welcome!
Me: Yes, I feel that sneakers are coming more than ever in Estonia. Has been like this for about 2 years now really making their way in to the mainstream. Kids come to me after the shows, in FB, hell – on the street, asking where I get my kicks.
Tomas: What is your opinion where is the sneakerculture moving?
Me: Wearing good sneakers is spreading into the masses. Every day there are more and more people who really care what they are wearing. Sneaks are cool amongst cool people, and liked amongst not so cool people. Sneakers are more and more making their way into everyday life as a workday shoe, but remarkably at the same time they are making their way into high fashion, collaborations between Nike and high-end fashion brands etc. I think that guys like me or my friends, from sneaker influenced subculture like hiphop, it’s not the best news of the day, but at the same time it makes us do more, strive more, work more for the really-really best kicks out there. Also it kind of unites us against the “mainstream”.
Air Max 90
Tomas: Describe your sneaker closet. Where from the inspiration comes for choosing new sneakers? What are the no-goes for you in sneakers( example: colours/retro tennis sihouettes/crazy looking shoes)?
Me: My sneaker closet is quite small actually and not very diversed. As I said, I don’t count myself as a real sneakerhead. I have a friend who buys himself like 4-5 pairs a month (props to Rahul!). I have a lot of Air Max 90-s and AM 1-s, Air Force and some Jordans. At the moment i’m really into the whole retro re-relising thing. But I’m really having trouble buying them on a right time, so I let the aftermarket help me out a bit sometimes. When it comes to my kicks, at the moment I like to keep it clean and simple and classic. I don’t like the whole colorful futuristic crazy approach. Choosing new ones I always consider what to wear them with. I dont’t buy the hype kicks. If I don’t like the looks of it and I don’t have clothes to match it up with – I won’t buy it. I don’t care if it’s a Diamond collab or Kanye. My next big buy is probably going to be the Air Jordan 4 Oreo set to be released on Spring 2015. Can’t wait!
“It’s really hard for me to pick an all time favorite shoe, but if I had to, probably Air Max 90 has a bigger piece of my heart.”
Tomas: What do you thing about girls wearing sneakers?
Me: I love it! Can’t get more sexier than that I always say. But as I see from my ladyfriends and also my music listeners (really big portion of them are girls, if not the main portion) sneakers for girls are a bit of a problem in Estonia. Actually i’ve been trying to figure out the solution for quite some time now. Hopefully i’ll find it here, from the confrence (wink-wink)
Tomas: What would be your advise for all the ladies in the audience related with Nike Sportswear style?
Me: My advice to you – bring the cool sneakers in! I know it’s hard to sell the exclusive ones at first, but I really-really think there is a demand out there somewhere. There is no place in the whole country of Estonia, for me to get Air Jordans for the girls in my musicvideo. Not even a small boutique. I really wanna help solve this problem so if you want kicks to reach the girls, I can help with my voice. If we have girls wearing Air Jordan 3-s or Air Max in the rapvideos, then we have girls wearing anykind of sneakers on the streets.
