UNTOLD SNEAKER STORIES FROM ASIANS - Life of a Sneakerhead | Fung Bros

We were looking like, you know, 14, 15 year old kids. We're kind of small, so he jacks the kicks from us, but he has his baby in the other arm. What's going on everybody? Welcome to another episode of Life of a Sneakerhead. It has been quite some time since we did one of these episodes, and it wouldn't be right if we didn't come back with the comeback man himself, Nelson Chan. From the Macau Black Bears. Hooper Live! Hey, Hooper Live, man. It's a good time to be back. It's been a minute. All right, so Nel's back in town for a little bit, so you know we had to check out some of the sneakers that are dropping right now, but Andrew, there is a larger purpose. Recently, me and David were featured on an episode of Full Size Run. That is one of the top sneaker talk shows on the internet, on the Soul Collector YouTube channel. It's under Complex. It was a really big honor for us. On the show, we talked about a lot of things, everything from Seattle to Kobe, to the impact that sneakers have had on Asian Americans and Asians in Asia. However, there was a few things we wanted to clarify, solidify, add on to, plus Nel's back. We got to talk about some of the sneakers in there. So today, we are going to be talking about what we did not get to say on Full Size Run, but we're also going to be covering some of the general releases that are out right now. All right, we're here at Nice Kicks in downtown LA, and this is Life of a Sneakerhead. The things we didn't get to say on Full Size Run. Let's go. Oh, and by the way, guys, I know we haven't done a sneaker video in a while, so please hit that like button, click subscribe, and check out our Instagrams. All right, Andrew, the very first question that we got asked on Full Size Run was about Kobe Bryant's impact, RIP, on the Asian American community. And to be honest, I wish I could have gave a better answer for that. I do stand by everything I said. I said that Kobe was the biggest in the Asian American community or Asian community. Kobe's always been big in like Asian American culture too, right? Like he's always been like a central figure. Like what's the... He's the biggest. He's the biggest in Asia. Also, obviously, Asian American culture, those two things being kind of interconnected. And just so you know, Nelson has been a big Kobe fan since day one. It's crazy, man. Just going back on how Kobe impacted like the game and the world, it's like he wasn't like the most athletic person, but he relied on most of his skill and moves. Whether you're tall or, you know, short, you can try to do Kobe's moves, right? Kobe was the first superstar that Asia and really the globe had seen from day one. And to me, the thing that's most striking about Kobe, aside from just his game, is that he's just kind of a global guy. Like he speaks multiple languages. Every time he would come to Asia or particularly China, he would always try to speak some Chinese. And I'll see you soon. That's why everybody connected with him, not only because of how he played and his mentality towards the game, but just his mentality towards culture. It's so tragic, but I hope that everybody can just take something away from it and have it impact the way they want to live their life positively. All right, so that was just to address the first question that we were asked on Full Size Run. Shout out to Welty. Shout out to Brendan Dunn. Shout out to Trinidad James, man. They're all really cool dudes. But that was just something that we wanted to elaborate on. Now, you're playing pro in Asia right now. One of the questions they asked us were sort of about the Asia exclusives or the Asia-inspired sneakers. Like the Chinese New Year shoes. Like you're wearing one right now. Do you always think it's done in a tasteful way or do you feel like the brands are trying to kind of leech off of like a fan base? Sneakers in Asia, they rock with the Asia exclusives hella. You're saying the Asia exclusives sell out more over there than obviously over here. Oh, 100%. Like these FIBA shoes would sell better in China. I've seen these all over the streets. What do you think about all the Chinese New Year edition shoes? Because they always come out with some, whether it's Year of the Animal or Chinese New Year theme. I mean, I appreciate what they're doing. But sometimes it's more about like the backstory of the sneaker rather than just like the design of the shoe. Are you saying sort of like we got to go all the way back to the Year of the Rabbit Air Force One? Oh, the white rabbit candy version. This is actually a Chinese New Year edition. This is a good execution. It reminds me a lot of the Klot 13. The Klot 13 did a terracotta Xi'an warrior pattern. I believe this is taking, I want to say, a money pattern. The old, the Chinese coin. If you guys watched the episode of Full Size Run, I was talking about it goes as deep as the Shanghai 97s. That one's almost like poetic. Yeah, with the whole layers and everything. Walking across the bridge and then there's blue funnel clouds. Where do you guys rank it versus like, let's say, for example, a Klot Air Force One. That's probably the first time they just took the Chinese silk pattern and just threw it on the shoe, but it actually did well. What do you think allowed this series of Klot Chinese silk Air Force Ones to blow up? With the sneaker community and the sneaker game being so globally like bigger now and more diverse where like a lot of you would see like fobs, they would really like buy those sneakers to rock or just resell. One thing that I talked about on the show that I don't think made the final edit is I was talking about how much I like the tangent foams. Yeah. Now, one thing I found interesting about the tangent foams is that pretty much they're using the foam posit as a blank canvas and then they're slapping on like a really cool like Chinese painting. But usually covering a shoe and painting, I guess we'd never seen that before. I'll tell you guys the story behind the tangent foams. Tangent is a city near Beijing. Basically, they said that that was the birthplace of basketball in China. What are some of you guys' favorite Chinese themed ones? I know that for us, I got the all the Air Force Ones that are themed after cities. I have the Taipei's. I got the Hong Kong's. I got the Shanghai's. Going back from my love for Kobe, I like the year of the Dragon Sevens when those came out. Those were crazy. They came in a crazy box. You know, I'm a year of the snake and there's not that many good snake shoes, but the Air Max One, a year of the snakes were cool because at its base, a snakeskin design, but then it meant that it was for a year of the snakes. So I liked how the meaning could go both ways. Another shoe line that they love in China that they don't maybe necessarily love in American market is D. Rose. How do you explain the Chinese undying love for D. Rose? D. Rose still has, I believe, a top five selling sneaker signature line in China. Whereas in the US, he might be like number 10 or... I feel like people don't even talk about the D. Rose's releasing. I mean, the love for D. Rose, I think it's just because how electrifying he was at a young age and for him to be like a small guard and a player to dominate the league. I think a lot of Asians can relate to that. And maybe also because he kind of looks a little Asian. He does look... Hey, D. Rose looks Cambodian. I think it's more because when he flies in the air, he looks like a Kung Fu master. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. What do you think is the future of Asian themed shoes? Because obviously there's an argument like, are they just making it to make more money? Is it really paying homage? I said it was both. I said obviously the shoe companies do see an opportunity to make money, but I really think that they are paying homage to this sector of people that are often culturally ignored in the West that make up just a gigantic portion of the demographics. I mean, I don't want to put it on the same level as Black History Month, but it is in the same way. Like, is Nike making Black History Month sneakers? Is that a money grab? You know, it's a big part of culture and it makes other Asians care more about the culture. I think it's only going to get bigger because, you know, basketball is probably the number one sport in China. And then Chinese people love basketball. They like playing it, watching it, and they like wearing, you know, supporting their, you know, Chinese culture within the sneakers. I agree with all you guys. I definitely think it's a great way to stay intact with the culture. I know my Korean friends were rocking all those Sol 97s hard. You know, the men Pacquiao shoes with Nike. I know Filipinos are rocking those hard. I guess for me, one thing I'm looking forward to in the future, and I believe it will happen, I'm looking for the other Asian cultures to get some representation in sneakers. All right, ideas. One Asian shoe idea. I don't think they have this yet. The red envelopes. That's huge, you know, in Chinese culture. Are you saying nobody put that on a shoe yet? Even though... I'm sure the colorways have, you know, there's a lot of red and gold colorway shoes, but an actual, like, red envelope or, you know, like a red pocket. For Hong Kong, they need to release a VLT Air Max 1. Oh, yeah. You know what I was thinking about? Especially for Adidas, because, you know, they do that, have a relationship with Jeremy Scott. What if they, instead of the bear head, it was a nian? It was the lion from the lion dance. The lion dance. Oh, yeah, yeah. The nian. That would be pretty crazy. You guys talked a lot about, you know, sneakers being part of, like, the Asian American experience. If there is or isn't, like, stereotypes or negative stereotypes, like, based around, like, that kind of, like, hype beast culture. Right, right. Let's get specific, because this is our channel. We didn't get as specific on Full Size Run about the negative stereotypes about Asians in the sneaker game. One, they say we're all just resellers in it, not for the culture, but just for the money. Some, you know, some people say that. Yeah, not. Have you guys ever resold sneakers? People think that, you know, we don't help create any of the culture. We're just buying, we're consuming. We have our parents pay for all of it or something like that. Oh, yeah. And then everything we wear or do is, like, fake, because obviously they do make fake and real shoes in China. I would say that another thing is that, like, rich Chinese people make hype beast styles corny. Okay. Like, we've ruined Supreme. We've ruined Jordans. We've ruined other brands. And then also, like, the big Chinese resellers, oh, they, like, kind of control the market for certain sneakers because they buy so many of them. I do say that Asians are really big sneakerheads throughout the games over the years, whether, you know, it's Asian Americans or, like, people from Asia dating back to, like, Jordans. I know, like, some, like, Asians who are, like, heavy Jordan sneakerheads. You know, they got every Jordan. Because we do have this range. Everything from the crazy rich reseller that maybe is in it more for the money than the culture, but that's not even all of them. A lot of them are still, you know, actual true sneakerheads. And then you have everything to the Asian sneaker designer who's really neat. I would say that easily, from a performance standpoint, Asians are the most into the performance kicks. Like, analyzing every little articulated zoom, scroll. You mean Asians might get the nerdiest about it? On Nike Talk, I would say a majority of the original mods were either Chinese or Filipino. And we're not just talking about Chinese. I mean, there's Thai designers. I think there's Filipino designers. Like, Japanese designers. Like, there's all types of Asian designers in the sneaker game. And it is true that we don't have the Virgils and the Jerry Lorenzos and the Sean Weatherspoons. I mean, those celebrity designers. Not yet, not yet. We do have Hiroshi Fujiwara and, like, you know, Murakami and, like, Jeff Staple. But they're more for, like, if-you-know-you-know crowd. In between our full-size run takeaways, we just got to talk about some sneakers just as some regular sneakerheads. Now, did you guys expect this? For them to start bringing back old LeBrons? You would think that they would retro it after he retires. But LeBron, I mean, he's getting up there in age. And this is what, he's in year 17? Yeah, that's a lot of sneakers, man. So, like, I think a lot of people have been asking for some of the older sneakers because, you know, they're such a classic. What are some of your favorites that you wish they would bring back? I'm looking at LeBron 8, 9, and 10 maybe getting brought back. All right, this is an underrated one. But I really liked the LeBron 2s. I like those, too. The LeBron 2s with the strap. With the strap. With the double stacks in there. With the staff on. I actually really like the LeBron 3s. Right here. I like this in the all-white and pearl colorway. The white and pearl? The white and gold? Sorry, yeah, the white and gold. Those are my freshman year kicks. He's gonna make it to the league. But for him to fill his dad's shoes, I don't think he can do it. Yo, you wouldn't be crazy if he got so good he just continued the LeBron line. Because he's literally... He is LeBron. He is only 15 years old and he has LeBron, James' gene, and training, and tools at his disposal. He's gonna be one standard deviation either better or worse than Tim Hardaway Jr. But I don't know which one. I think if he's on the cusp, the X-factor is that he's LeBron, James' son. And he will be... So the team will just try to build around him. Yeah. Of course, he's gonna have to do his own thing and prove himself. All right, so you never know who you're gonna run into in the sneaker world. We're at Nice Kicks in downtown LA. We just bumped into Troy, who is the New Balance rep for LA, right? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Can you talk to us a little bit about the runner culture? Because if you guys know New Balance runners and then New Balance collabs with whether we're talking about Kith, Bodega. So right here, from just looking at these, the first ones that my mind goes to, this is a drop from 2017-18. And this is a 990, but this is a shoe that they released for St. Paddy's Day. What'd you think? Because I felt like kind of dad shoes and running shoes got back in style in the past few years. I think that helped New Balance a lot. Oh man, huge. There's a shoe they just brought out two months ago. They dropped originally in 96. It was such a dad shoe, they put it in the vault by 98 because nobody was rocking with the shoe. They just reintroduced it and it sold out. The OG colorway sold out within like two or three days. You know what I always liked about the New Balance shoes though? They got the anon on them. You don't pronounce it. David, what's a story that we didn't really get to share on Full Size Run? Maybe we forgot about it. We ran out of time. The first Jordans I got were the Jordan 10s. White, black, and gray. You got them for Christmas. I got them for Christmas. And I remember when you unwrapped them. That's crazy that you remember. I don't remember. I think that was the first Jordan we ever had in the house. I remember I played Kent Parks in them. And you know the Kent Parks courts, indoor courts, are super slippery. There's dust everywhere. I could not get traction with these. So David, moving on from the first Jordan to selling Jordans. Wait, so you had a super jig going on. That was a finesse. I mean, I'm just saying, I want to know the hustle. We used to flip kicks at the mall. There were the white and black, you know, Concord and Lemons, B grades. And somebody tried to rob us with his baby in his arm. We were looking like, you know, 14, 15 year old kids. We're kind of small. So he jacks the kicks from us, but he has his baby in the other arm. And then finally his friends were trying to, you know, calm him down, convince him. But he just got in one of those moments. Jordans, they would get people emotional back then. Let me tell you this story about shocks. This is not the R4 shocks, but the BB4s. So we have a high school in Seattle called Rainier Beach. And it's a huge basketball high school. Nate Robinson's from there. Doug Christie's from there. Jamal Crawford is from there. And so what happens is during the time when the BB4s were popular, they had their own royal blue and white team color. So then I'm at Foot Locker at South Center Mall. And then I'm trying on some shoes and I look over and I just see these white and royal BB4s. I'm just shocked because I'm like, oh my gosh, who am I standing next to? It was one of the bench players, but I still thought it was tight. Well, that's why his BB4s was crispy. Yeah. I'd say being a Kobe fan, my first basketball sneaker was a pair of Kobes. It was the Adidas KB1s. The ones that look like a brick. I saw that one pair, the all black pair, and it was on sale. It had that red sale ticket on it. I was like, yo, mom, can I buy these? And I wore them to like, there was holes all the way up into the insoles. And if you know that shoe, it's got a really thick outsole. It's like this thick, right? So it's like, man. Aren't you guys here at the Nice Kicks in downtown LA? Upstairs is Adidas. Let's go. Do you think it took them too long to start doing playful stuff with the Boost? Yeah, I do think so. Obviously, I like this collab. It's with the International Space Station. I'm just a fan of color Boost, man. Cause you know, I like to be flashy. I was always a fan of the color Boost. So you would rock this shoe? I'd rock this shoe. What's your guys' opinion on 4D, man? I will say there's something oddly satisfying about squeezing this midsole. The moment I've been holding the shoe, I've been squeezing it the whole time. I think as they're able to push the price of this technology down, I think it's got a shot. Because at the end of the day, people like the look. I think they're going to flop moving forward. Cause I think I never understood the hype of the, you know, the 4Ds. Yo, if they could figure out a way to do different strands. So this is like, the upper is white and this is a red and blue mixture. The DNA's like a weave. Don't be too crazy for them, man. All right, you guys, we are looking at some All-Star Weekend exclusive kicks. Andrew, you're looking at the Don C. KD-12. I remember just seeing these online. We were just talking about them. Personally, I love the laces. I think that's my favorite feature. And I love this tongue. Best cushioning setup of the year, KD-12. I have it in me. Got my own personal Macau Black Bears edition. I dunked with the torn hamstring in them for my commercial, so they gotta be good somehow. I got the LeBron All-Star Monster Edition, LeBron 17. One thing that really stood out to me immediately about this was how many different shades of purple there are. Not only that, I think this Air Max bubble in the back being coated in iridescent paint. I don't know, what's your opinion? I like how they can weave so many different colors and patterns into these little panels here. I don't know about the execution. A lot of the paneling on the LeBron 17s, I haven't been a big fan of. No, that's probably one of the most hyped Jordan ones in a little while. I got the UNC to Chicago ones. These are a women's shoe, actually, but they have it in a bigger size so men's can cop. I think it looks cool, man. It has tribute from when Jordan was in college at UNC all the way up until when he played for Chicago. Would you get it in the extended sizes? I would, man. I think for sneakerheads, get one for your sneaker bay. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching that episode of Life of a Sneakerhead. Huge shout out to Nelson Chan from the Macau Black Bears, hoopin' life. Shout out to Nice Kicks in downtown LA. Andrew, it was so dope to go down memory lane and just expand on a few thoughts that our guest spot on Full Size Run was able to spark. Definitely, I mean, I think for us, you know, sneakers, at this point in time, across the globe, it's a universal language. So is food and that's kind of why we cover a lot of food on our channel because on our episode of Full Size Run, we did acknowledge that we are not fully a sneaker channel, although we do love sneakers. Sneakers are a necessity to us, man. We gotta wear them. Sneakers can bridge the, you know, cultures together, ethnicities, whatever that is. R.I.P. Kobe. It just reminded me of what Ice Cube said when Kobe passed away. He said, you know, Kobe was the glue to, like, a fragmented LA. You guys, thank you so much. Huge shout out to Nice Kicks. Nelson Chan, Macau Black Bears. Follow him on social media. If you guys have not watched our episode of Full Size Run, definitely check it out down below. Check out Nelson's channel. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching. Link to our social down below. And until next time, we out. Socks or no socks? You gotta. You have to wear socks. It reminds me of, like, all clear Air Force 1s back in the day. Oh, the Invisible Woman. Yeah, like, you see it steam up, because, like, when you see pictures of people wearing them with no socks, it's crazy.