Confession:

I’m a New Yorker who’s never owned a pair of Air Force 1s as a youth.

Sad, but true story… Growing up I was always into playing sports, so my sneakers we more functional than fashionable. I didn’t care about how they matched my outfit. I cared more about the athlete who wore them. Everything from the Air Darwin (circa 1994) to the OG Nike Air Diamond Turf (circa 1993). I was fully emersed in that world of wonder that is sports and sneakers.

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Nike Air Darwin Shoe came out in 1994 and was the first “nice” shoe my mom ever got me. Been waiting for this retro for 25 years. 🙂 Thank you @nikebasketball @nike for the retro in the OG color way. Shoutout to the plug @athletesfootdmv #airdarwin #1994 #size12 #streetwear #streetwearfashion #hypebeast #hypebeaststyle #basketball #basketballshoes #nikebasketballshoes #nikebasketball #dennisrodman #dennisrodmanshoes

A post shared by H (@idothis4thegram) on May 26, 2019 at 8:36am PDT

As I’ve grown up and basically become a sneakerhead at the midpoint of my life, I’ve started to appreciate the history of shoes and with that came an appreciation for the Air Force 1. Let’s not get it twisted. I still love my space age shoes and funky colorways, so I still don’t own a pair of white on white AF1s or black on black “I’m fittin’ to rob you” AF1s.

I started with the white and the black Air Force 1 Type N.354. My white ones are still dead stock, but I’ve been wearing the black ones since the tail end of the summer and love them! I just copped a pair of the Air Force 1 Gore-tex High Phantom White and they are beautiful. I can’t wait to wear them if it snows outside. :)

The AF1 is slowly becoming one of my favorite shoes to rock casually and this brings us to this new CLOT collab which is a definite cop for me.

So, about a month ago I got up to pee at like 2am and they did a shock drop of these at the Juice Store online. I wasn’t sure what I was seeing and it literally took me about 10 minutes to pull the trigger after doing some light research. Needless to say, but I missed out big time. Resale on these hit upwards of between $600-$800 and have been consistently high with that limited release. Now it’s releasing to the mass market and it’s a must have in my collection.